Harris Defeat Signals Waning Influence Of Top Dems: Report
President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris could mark the decline of aged leaders like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Democratic politics.
Pelosi, “who for decades reigned as kingmaker in her party,” now faces the possibility of losing her status as a key power player in the wake of Harris’s loss.
This dramatic fall from influence comes mere months after Pelosi played a critical role in urging President Joe Biden to step aside from the race.
During Harris’s concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday, the 84-year-old Pelosi appeared visibly emotional, engaging in a tense exchange with Democratic insider and former DNC Chair Donna Brazile.
As Democrats search for answers following the surprising defeat, Pelosi has emerged as a central figure in the blame game.
“The influences of a [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer or a Pelosi or a movie star or an Obama deciding to anoint somebody—those guys are gone,” business investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary remarked.
“In four years, they won’t have that kind of influence,” he added, hinting at figures like actor George Clooney, who had publicly urged Biden to withdraw from the race after a poor performance in a debate against Trump.
Some Republicans have pinned significant Democratic losses—including the Senate flipping to Republican control and a contested House—squarely on Pelosi.
“You’ve got to blame Nancy Pelosi,” said former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during an interview on Fox News.
Most observers agree that Pelosi played a major role in Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race in July, leaving Harris to step in as the Democratic nominee just months before Election Day.
McCarthy criticized this maneuver as undermining the democratic process, arguing that primary voters who had supported Biden were effectively sidelined.
“Joe Biden never should have run for office. I knew it when I sat with him. There was something wrong with him,” McCarthy said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez contributed to the growing sense of alarm among Democrats regarding Trump’s sweeping victory. She characterized the situation as ushering in a new era of “fascism” and “authoritarianism.”
The New York Democrat addressed her followers on social media as the election results became clear.
“I’m not here to sugarcoat what we all are about to collectively experience, but I think that what we can do to prepare is build community. We do not have a choice. We don’t have a choice. Our choice is to build. Our choice is to continue to fight. Our choice is to win. Our choice is to have each other,” she stated.
She warned, “We are about to enter a political period that will have consequences for the rest of our lives. We cannot give up. We now find ourselves in a time in history that has precedent, and we find ourselves, I believe, in a time where there are, let’s say, peers in history of mass movements of people that mobilize to protect one another in times of fascism and authoritarianism. And this is the era that we are poised to enter,” she claimed, offering no evidence.
Ocasio-Cortez further alleged that “Donald Trump has talked about turning the military on U.S. citizens that he deems his domestic political enemies.” She pointed to patterns seen in authoritarian regimes, where political dissidents or opponents are often jailed.
“This is the world that we very realistically may be entering,” she claimed. “And the way that we do everything that we can to prevent this is by building a very strong social fabric and social infrastructure.”