Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who remains a thunderous force in the Democratic Party nearly two years after stepping down from her official leadership role, is best known for her behind-the-scenes advice and occasional lobbying.
But she had some public advice for her party and on Monday morning, as Democrats kicked off their national convention in Chicago, with a Bay Area native, Vice President Kamala Harris, leading the ticket.
“What works in Michigan works in San Francisco,” said Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987, but “what works in San Francisco might not work in Michigan. We’re going to win, baby.”
Pelosi made the comments to reporters after speaking at the California delegation’s breakfast meeting in a hotel ballroom over bagels, melon and eggs. The goal, she said, is to find consensus with a liberal framework — a key tool Pelosi has used to translate her party’s agenda into a series of legislative achievements, including the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
This is especially relevant now as Republicans try to define Harris as a leftist from San Francisco. Since becoming her party’s standard-bearer last month, Harris has disavowed her previous support for Medicare for All, a ban on fracking and other liberal positions she held when she ran in the Democratic presidential primary four years ago. She has also employed tougher rhetoric on the southwest border as she defends herself against former President Trump’s attacks on record migrant numbers that have occurred during the Biden administration.
But he has embraced other progressive goals, including a new economic agenda that emphasizes a larger child tax credit, financial support for first-time homebuyers and measures against price gouging, though he has not detailed how much those ideas would cost or how they would be executed.
Pelosi knows a thing or two about navigating right-wing criticism while promoting a partisan agenda. She has been the face of San Francisco liberalism for decades, appearing in Republican campaign ads from Cleveland to Tampa, in Internet memes and in fundraising drives.
“The fact is that our state … is very diverse,” Pelosi said, criticizing California’s reputation as a blue paradise. “It’s not monolithic. You know, on the coast, it’s one thing. If you’re inland, it’s another. So we’ve learned to respect differences of opinion.”
Harris “knows that governance has to be from the center in our country, and when she lays out her priorities, they have to be in a unified way,” Pelosi said. “That’s what campaigning has to be like. We can’t be like them, just saying, ‘We’re this and they’re that.’ No, it’s about bringing people together.”
