In the midst of GOP attacks, Nancy Pelosi crossed the Mass. To brag about the chances of democrats

LAWRENCE – She is perhaps the most serious challenge to her leadership position to date. For Republicans, she is a political cudgel to handle. Among the first two Democratic candidates for the Massachusetts Congress, she will not find any public support pledge.

So arrived Nancy Pelosi, leader of the American minority, who swept Tuesday Massachusetts to praise the chances of the Democratic party on November 6, his own chances to stay in the leadership of the House and, locally, the choice of Democrats for the only open party of the state. Congress headquarters.

The stops were part of the Pelosi tour for a series of house races across the country. Democrats are trying to gain control of the majority in the House, with Pelosi citing 83 "red-to-blue" races, more than half of which include women candidates in the first mid-term elections. course since the victory of President Trump in 2016.

"It's not about him," Pelosi said of Trump. "It's about each candidate and how they connect with the voters."

In many blue localities of Massachusetts, the California Democrat was waiting for him to a large extent. After being the star of a fundraiser in Concord for Lori Trahan, Third District Democratic candidate Pelosi attended a forum at Lawrence General Hospital, where she was praised for enacting the Care Act. affordable.

There, she checked her priorities if the Democrats were to win a majority in the House – health care, campaign funding, and infrastructure.

Later, she went to the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, where she boasted about the party's many candidates, describing them as "little drops of water" in a potential Democratic wave. This, while showing little interest for Republicans who have repeatedly tried to turn it into a political albatross for Democrats in competitive districts.

"You can not let the other party choose the leaders of your party," Pelosi told the crowd in Cambridge. "If they want to remove those big ads and then put the candidates on the spot, I'm just saying to the candidates, 'Do what you have to do. Just win, baby. But I refuse to allow Republicans to choose who our leaders are. "

Many Democrats have followed this line carefully. Ayanna Pressley, the Boston city councilor who removed the US representative Michael E. Capuano during his primary democrats last month, said before his victory that it was "premature to say who should lead him to Congress." (Pressley does not face a Republican opponent.)

Trahan, too, did not live up to her commitments, even though Pelosi went to the Third District to participate in the morning event held on her behalf. Pelosi told reporters in Lawrence that Trahan would be "a wonderful and effective member from the start," and highlighted his efforts to support other candidates across the country.

Trahan – who faces general elections at Rick Green, a Republican and pepperell businessman – stressed that she would not make any decision on her leadership choice until the November 6 vote.

The image of Pelosi in the district of 37 communes is mixed: less than 50% of voters in the Democratic primary probably have a favorable opinion of it, according to an August poll Boston Globe / UMass Lowell; 25% have an unfavorable opinion.

Trahan, however, described Republicans' efforts to portray Pelosi as a denial for Democrats as "totally unfair". Trahan, Green and independent candidate Mike Mullen are fighting to replace US Representative Niki Tsongas, who is retiring.

"It's hard work to be the leader of the minority party. It's hard work to be the leader of the majority party, "said Trahan. "But she does it gracefully, she does it with courage, she does it with determination and I think she's just a Republican target to mobilize their vote."

Indeed, Pelosi quickly became a topic of discussion for Green, a so-called opponent of the shrine city, who made the fight against the opioid epidemic one of the main goals of his campaign. Speaking in the nearby town of Littleton, he accused Pelosi of coming to Massachusetts to "spread his San Francisco system of sanctuary-state fonts and injection sites." supervised "(Pelosi did not discuss these topics at his public events.)

He also criticized his efforts to raise funds for Trahan simply to strengthen his support within the Democratic caucus.

"It's part of the circus of DC to buy votes for leadership," Green said.

The House was not the only subject on Tuesday. Pelosi avoided questions about US Senator Elizabeth Warren and the fervor surrounding a DNA test released Monday, showing evidence of Native American heritage in her family six to ten generations ago.

The proposal of the potential presidential candidate was aimed at calming the debate about her origins, which dates back to her first term in the Senate in 2012. But she also did little to silence her critics, including Trump, who had once challenged Warren to endure a DNA test two never meet in a presidential debate.

"I do not know much about it," said Pelosi, calling this story "to unfold this morning here in Massachusetts."

"I think it's probably bigger [here] than other places, "she said.

Matt Stout can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @mattpstout.