Several months following an internal pressure campaign that encouraged President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, former House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is strategizing for another potential change within the Democratic Party.
The congresswoman representing California’s 11th district—who resigned from her position as Leader of the House Democratic Caucus last year after serving for two decades—is setting her sights on the highest-ranking party member on the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), as reported by the New York Times.
Pelosi is part of a cadre of Democrats discreetly motivating 61-year-old Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) to challenge Nadler, 77, for his role. Raskin is contemplating this possibility, though he has not finalized his decision, and is considering the fact that he and Nadler share a friendship, congressional sources told the Times.
Pelosi’s initiative is representative of a significant reevaluation among congressional Democrats, who are worried that their oldest members may not be best equipped to confront President-elect Donald Trump’s ardent MAGA supporters in Congress.
Even though Nadler appears to be in good health, the memory of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who passed away at the age of 90 last year after stepping back from her top Judiciary role in the Senate and long after displaying symptoms of cognitive decline, still haunts many Democrats.
Trump’s MAGA supporters in Congress are anticipated to assist in enforcing the president-elect’s contentious stance on law and order. The leading Republican on the House Judiciary Committee is Jim Jordan (R-OH), a founding member of the populist and MAGA-aligned Freedom Caucus.
The New York Times mentioned that Raskin, a spontaneous debater unlike the strategically-focused Nadler, is perceived by disillusioned Democrats as being in a better position to lead the crucial committee’s opposition.
Nadler isn’t the sole Democratic ranking member under scrutiny. The Times also reported that Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), 76, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. David Scott (D-GA), 79, the head of the Agriculture Committee, are encountering challenges from younger members of the House.
As detailed in Jonathan Alter’s book American Reckoning, Pelosi “wasn’t pleased that the only significant traces on the knife were hers” after playing a crucial role in Biden’s ousting. She initially pressured him privately, and when that failed, she publicly conveyed a subtle message implying that time was “running out” for Biden to decide about his candidacy.
Following his exit from the race, Pelosi criticized his team. “I’ve never been particularly impressed with his political operation,” she remarked in an interview with The New Yorker. “They won the White House. Kudos. But my worry was: this isn’t happening unless we act decisively.”
Her office has not responded promptly to a request for feedback.
