House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to expand the Democratic leadership team, marking her latest bid to win favor from her restive caucus as she seeks the Speaker’s gavel next year.
In a letter to Democrats delivered Tuesday, Pelosi proposed the creation of a new position — a chairman of the Democrats’ messaging arm — as she fights to put down a rebellion from insurgent lawmakers hoping to block her ascension to the Speaker’s chair.
The move is the latest in an evolving expansion of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), which just two year ago was headed by a single lawmaker appointed by Pelosi without the input of other members.
{mosads}Created in 2015, the office was upsized following the 2016 elections, when retiring DPCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who was installed by Pelosi, was replaced by three co-chairs — Reps. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and David Cicilline (R.I.) — who were elected by the full Democratic Caucus.
Pelosi’s new proposal in the leadership structure would add a fourth position at the DPCC amid the clamor from newer members for more power within a caucus that’s been controlled by the same three leaders for more than a decade.
“This enhancement to the DPCC will position House Democrats to best take advantage of the new size and diversity of our Caucus, bringing greater resources and staffing to this vital Committee,” Pelosi wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter.
Pelosi suggested the Democrats, newly empowered to the House majority, found a winning messaging formula this year in fighting for lower health-care costs, boosting middle-class wages and checking corruption in the age of President Trump. A new chair of the DPCC, she argued, would build on that record heading into the crucial 2020 presidential cycle.
“We must communicate that we are ready to govern and that focus will prepare us to once again own the ground for the next election,” she wrote.
The letter arrived as Pelosi is facing a determined rebellion to block her ascension to the Speaker’s chair, where she sat from 2007 to 2011. The anti-Pelosi insurgents delivered a letter on Monday arguing that voters are baying for change, beginning with a leadership overhaul, and the party needs fresh faces at the top of the leadership ranks.
Pelosi got a big boost on Tuesday when Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who was considering a challenge to the longtime leader, endorsed her after being offered a gavel on a subcommittee designed to empower voters in national elections.
At least six Democrats are already vying for a spot at the DPCC table, including Reps. Matt Cartwright (Pa.), Debbie Dingell (Mich.), Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.), John Garamendi (Calif.) and Ted Lieu (Calif.) and Rep.-elect Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.).
The three current DPCC chairs are all running for higher positions. Cicilline is facing Rep. Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), the current chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), in the race for assistant leader. Bustos wants to replace Luján at the DCCC, and is running against Reps. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), Denny Heck (Wash.) and Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.). And Jeffries is vying against Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to become caucus chairman, a seat vacated by outgoing Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who was defeated in a primary earlier in the year.