House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said in a Rolling Stone interview that civilization as we currently know it is "at risk" in the 2018 midterm election.
"You have something like 104 districts that are more favorable than the Conor Lamb district Democrats won in Pennsylvania. That’s probably too big a playing field to be serious about funding races all across it. How do you narrow it down?" Rolling Stone reporter Tim Dickinson asked.
"Civilization as we know it today is at risk in this election. We have to win," Pelosi responded. "We have to win."
Pelosi added that if the election was held today, Democrats would win.
"If the election were today – no question we would win," Pelosi said. "But you have to be aware of the undercurrents. Because you don’t know what can come along – and what comes along eclipses what you’re doing."
"People say, 'Is it a wave? Is it a tsunami?' Well, it’s a lot of droplets that make up a wave or a tsunami," Pelosi said. "But they are all close – these races are all close. So it’s not like a presidential [election] where someone might get momentum and get a great big vote. I don’t want people to think that there’s a wave coming so that they don’t have to work very hard in every single district. Because you could have a wave that earns you 20 seats big and you miss 30 seats small [leaving the GOP in control of the House]."
Pelosi hopes the midterm elections will sweep her in the speakership again but she will most likely face increasing resistance within her own party. At least 20 Democrats who are running for Congress, publicly stated they would not support Pelosi to be the leader of the their party if they win.
At a forum held in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District for the 10 Democrats running for Congress, only one candidate said they would support Pelosi for speaker of the House.
After the 2016 election, Pelosi faced a challenge in being minority leader. More than 60 Democrats voted for Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio) over Pelosi in the leadership race.