Former United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that Democrats might have performed better in Tuesday’s election if President Joe Biden had withdrawn from the race earlier.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi stated.
Her remarks come as Democrats face internal scrutiny after losing the White House to President-elect Donald Trump and potentially losing control of both chambers of Congress.
Pelosi is widely reported to have led efforts among Democrats urging Biden to step aside. Ultimately, Biden exited the race at the end of July, following weeks of pressure and a challenging debate performance against Trump.
After Biden withdrew, he quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor in the race. However, Harris ultimately suffered a decisive defeat to Trump on Election Day.
Reflecting on the outcome, Pelosi told The New York Times, “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
An open primary would have allowed multiple Democratic candidates to compete for the party’s nomination. Pelosi argued that Harris could have strengthened her position through such a process.
“It would have made her stronger going forward,” Pelosi noted. “But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened.”
Meanwhile, Pelosi herself was re-elected on Tuesday to her 20th term representing California in the House.
She added, “Because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
In Harris’s camp, aides similarly pointed to Biden’s timing as a factor in the loss. Speaking with Politico, one aide stated, “We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president.” The aide continued, “Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight.”
