Cummings to Dems: Self-Destructive Backlash

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), An influential House Democrat, pleaded Monday with colleagues and incoming House of Democracy to Demonstrate a "Small Group" of Democrats said to "try to generate opposition" to Nancy Pelosi's bid for the speakership .

"For two years, they asserted that with Nancy Pelosi as our leader, Democrats could never win the House." They claimed that these relentless Republican attacks made Pelosi appear too divisive, party, "Cummings wrote in a" Dear Colleague "letter to the incoming class of Democrats. "But then last Tuesday happened, and the American people obliterated the theory that Nancy Pelosi could not lead House Democrats to victory."

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Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who has been represented in Baltimore district since the 1996 elections, offered a preview of how Pelosi's allies will be interested in this issue as she's overstayed her welcome as Democratic leader – she's led the party in the House for 16 years – and has become a divisive figure that has jeopardized Democratic gains in swing House districts.

A slew of Democratic victors in last week 's elections vowed to oppose Pelosi in a House floor vote, imperiling her bid for a second stint as speaker. But no alternative candidate has yet been established, and Pelosi's leadership is in the process of becoming more important.

Cummings suggests that lawmakers who have vowed to oppose Pelosi should feel free to vote their conscience during a closed-door vote of the Democratic caucus, where a majority of votes will carry the day. Cummings said, all Democrats should unite behind the winner – and if it 's Pelosi, give a resounding vote to support President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans.

"After we have made our selection, we should not be pressured into voting on our party's nominee on the House floor in January-when the candidate would be between the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate," Cummings wrote.

Cummings, who is expected to become the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has had some of the highest congruences in the history of the Trump administration next year. Pelosi is expected to argue against the tactics of a band of Pelosi.

Cummings noted that Democrats' most potent issue in the 2018 campaign was health care, an issue said Pelosi is more closely identified with. "There would not be an Affordable Care Act without her," he argued.

But most of all, Cummings argued that picking Pelosi would prevent a brutal and divisive campaign that could shatter Democratic unity before the new Congress even gets underway.

"Our new members of the United States are trying to make a difference to a dysfunctional Washington-not to be drawn into an effort to throw the House into chaos," he added. "Our new members promised to get results on the issues of their constituents care about-not to delay these efforts while they are dragged into a self-destructive leadership battle."