If “we are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we’re not going to win,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) warned on the caucus call, according to three people listening.
The Democrats’ warning comes as lawmakers try to assign blame over their election night losses, with progressives’ ambitions beginning to emerge as a top target which could hinder left-leaning policies from advancing in the House.
Pelosi also had her own message to House Democrats, telling them to focus on an “agenda of lowering health care, better paychecks, building infrastructure.” While she didn’t explicitly say it, those ideas are more likely to be appealing to moderate Georgia voters who will decide the fate of the Senate in January.
The next two months leading up to the Jan. 5 run-off will be “fraught with meaning” Pelosi added.
“This has been a life or death fight for the very fate of our democracy. We did not win every battle but we did win the war,” Pelosi said on the call. “We held the House. Joe Biden is on a clear path to be the next president of the United States.”
In the hotly contested Georgia races, GOP Sen. David Perdue is expected to face off against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff and GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler will take on Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress will likely spend those two months battling over a massive coronavirus stimulus package — which has already divided both parties for months — as well as the presidential transition and a potentially seismic Supreme Court decision on the fate of Obamacare.
The comments from Pelosi and Clyburn echo many private conversations that have taken place among members and top aides in the last 48 hours, with moderate Democrats and even some left-leaning members arguing that GOP attacks on “socialism” and “law and order” cost their party support in Trump country.
The call grew emotional at times as some members who lost their races spoke up, including Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.) who started crying while urging Democrats to remain unified and not “tweet” attacks at each other. Others were clearly not appeased by Pelosi touting the wins for Democrats on Tuesday night — including Biden’s potential victory — saying that didn’t make up for the disappointment of missing a shot of taking over the Senate and losing at least half a dozen Democratic centrists in the House.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), a Blue Dog whose race remains uncalled though she declared victory this week, grew angry as she warned her party against some of the rhetoric she argued hurt moderate Democrats like herself, saying the election results were a “failure.”
“No one should say ‘defund the police’ ever again,” Spanberger said on the call, according to two sources. “Nobody should be talking about socialism.”
Spanberger also warned that Democrats kept up their tactics in 2022: “We will get f—— torn apart.”
Spanberger was one of several battleground Democrats who faced a barrage of GOP attack ads accusing her of attempting to “defund the police” after she voted for a policing reform bill this summer amid a national reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism.
Pelosi pushed back on Spanberger’s comments, saying Tuesday night wasn’t a failure for Democrats because they kept the House and are likely to oust Donald Trump from the White House.
The California Democrat also instructed members to raise any complaints directly to her.
“I hope any of you who have something to report or feedback will come to me,” Pelosi said, before giving out her personal cell phone number.
House Democrats lost seven seats in battleground districts, including in South Carolina, New Mexico and Iowa. Democrats also lost two seats in South Florida, including one that was hardly on their radar, which some Democrats blame on the potency of “socialism” attacks in a Cuban expat stronghold.
Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.), who unexpectedly lost her race in Miami, said on the call that she did not blame top Democratic or the campaign arm: “Leadership has been excellent and I have no complaints.”
John Bresnahan contributed to this report.