nancy pelosi has led democrats to four straight defeats in elections to control the u.s. house, which explains why republicans are endorsing her to stay as minority leader. she finally has a challenger in ohio rep. tim ryan in a secret-ballot vote on wednesday, but the party<u+2019>s weakness in congress runs deeper than its leadership. mr. ryan, a seven-term congressman who represents northeast ohio around youngstown, has promised to bridge the party<u+2019>s cultural chasm with white, working-class voters. the 43-year-old has also pledged to decentralize power and reinvigorate the democratic caucus<u+2019>s aging leadership. that leadership is personified by the 76-year-old mrs. pelosi, who has ruled house democrats since 2002 like boss tweed ran tammany hall<u+2014>rewarding loyalty with campaign cash and committee assignments. she has responded to mr. ryan<u+2019>s challenge by expanding the top echelons with even more attendants. this patronage system has helped mrs. pelosi build support among the congressional black and hispanic caucuses, which will make up an estimated 70 of the 194 democrats seats next year. democrats also don<u+2019>t have term limits for committee chairs, which has frozen young members out of influence. all of this has magnified the caucus<u+2019>s insularity and its swing to the political left. democrats won the house in 2006 by recruiting moderates to run in competitive districts. mrs. pelosi then forced them to walk the plank on the stimulus, cap and trade and obamacare. the centrist blue dog coalition has lost three-fourths of its members since 2010. house democrats are now largely a coastal party with nearly a third hailing from california, new york and massachusetts. since 2010 half of the democrats from ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan have been wiped out. democrats hold a mere eight seats in the deep south out of 42, and most of those are protected by racial gerrymanders. <u+201c>majority-minority<u+201d> districts<u+2014>an outgrowth of the voting rights act<u+2019>s requirement to safeguard minorities<u+2019> voting power<u+2014>have shielded many democrats from normal electoral pressures. democratic voters have increasingly sequestered themselves in urban areas and college outposts, which also drives the party to the left, especially on cultural issues and identity politics. democrats nonetheless claim that gerrymandering since the 2010 census gives republicans a built-in electoral advantage. but while donald trump lost the nationwide popular vote, house republicans won three million more votes than democrats this year. mr. ryan wants democrats to refocus on economics rather than whose lives matter, but his voting record isn<u+2019>t much different than mrs. pelosi<u+2019>s. in 2009 he voted for cap and trade despite opposition from 44 house democrats. thirty-four democrats voted against obamacare, but mr. ryan wasn<u+2019>t one of them. he voted against gop resolutions to approve the keystone xl pipeline and disapprove epa power grabs such as the clean power plan. these votes don<u+2019>t help the job prospects of the working-class folks he claims to speak for. mr. ryan represents a liberal echo, not a choice. his challenge to mrs. pelosi is premised mainly on expanding the party<u+2019>s geographic diversity rather than encouraging ideological diversity. unlikely to prevail, mr. ryan may hope that challenging mrs. pelosi will raise his profile for a gubernatorial bid in 2018. mrs. pelosi wants to hang around during the trump presidency in hopes that a backlash akin to 2010 in reverse will send her back to the speakership. anything is possible, and republicans shouldn<u+2019>t get cocky. but the democrats<u+2019> larger problem is the way they governed when they last had power. republicans will have to really mess up before voters give the pelosi democrats another chance.
nancy pelosi<u+2019>s minority party - wsj
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