Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Jonathan Martin at a Politico Summit on Tuesday that her goal is to “make sure we win and that we win big in November.” Pelosi said that while Democrats need just 3 seats to take the majority, she hopes to win 10 times that amount. <\/p>\n
JONATHAN MARTIN, POLITICO: What does winning big look like? Does that mean winning double-digit seats in the House this fall? REP. NANCY PELOSI: Yeah, yeah. It means that. It means trying to do what we did in 2018. Let me just put this in perspective of our founders. When our founders did the concert, you know, we’re celebrating, we’re celebrating the Declaration of Independence, our call to democracy. But at the same time, they began writing the blueprint for democracy, the Constitution of the United States, which we observe on September 17th. Now, what’s important about that is if you read the Federalist Papers, you read the writings of our founders, the House of Representatives was very important to them for this reason. First of all, the Senate wasn’t even elected until 1917. So, but they were given a six-year term, whether they were appointed by state legislatures, whatever it was. But the House, the House was important to them because they had to do the two senators, you have 40 million people, two senators. Wyoming, 1 million people, two senators. That’s the Constitution, we take an oath to protect and defend it. But the House was where they had the full representation. People like Don Madison and Thomas Jefferson, they said the House has a spiritual relationship to the people. And this is the important thing that applies today. They saw the House, two-year term. Members, people say to me all the time, why two years? Oh my goodness, you’re running all the time. That’s what our founders, the genius that they had. They wanted to have the, of course, separation of power, but they wanted the House to be a referendum on the president immediately. He gets elected for four years later, within two years there is an election to be a referendum on ourselves, but also on the president. And that’s what we have right now, a referendum on whatever’s happening in the White House right now, and that’s why we have to win big. PELOSI: To put a number on that, a good year looks like winning back to the majority, a great year looks like winning double-digit seats, is that fair to say? PELOSI: Well, in ’18, you know, when we were the referendum on what happened in ’16, sadly, when he defeated one of the best prepared person ever to run for president, Hillary Clinton. When he did that, we had to act upon that, and in ’18, after the ’16 election, ’18, we won 40 seats, 31 of them in Trump districts. MARTIN: Right, so today? PELOSI: 31 of them. So we need three to have the majority, for Hakeem Jeffries to be the speaker, and he will. I’ve run each seat ten times that, like 30, but I’ll take more. MARTIN: Okay. PELOSI: I’ll take more, I’ll take more. Number 30 is my goal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n