House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Friday announced to her Democratic Caucus that leadership elections should take place "sometime after Thanksgiving."
Pelosi said that holding elections later than early November would allow newly elected lawmakers more time to get oriented. The later date would also give candidates running for leadership positions more time.
Politico's Jake Sherman tweeted out a letter that Pelosi wrote to House Democrats, in which she praised Rep. Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and struck an optimistic tone about the Democratic Party's position going into the 2018 midterm elections.
"If the elections were held today, we would win many new seats, putting us into the majority," Pelosi wrote. "This would mean more leadership positions, more committee assignments, and a large freshman class."
Pelosi used this as a reason to hold leadership elections later in the month.
"In that vein, I believe it is important that we follow the schedule for leadership elections that the caucus set last cycle, allowing additional time for freshmen to get oriented," she said.
In 2016, Pelosi grudgingly delayed leadership elections two weeks following an unexpectedly severe defeat for Democrats.
"My recommendation to the caucus would be to set leadership elections sometime after Thanksgiving, at a date to be determined by the Caucus," she wrote.
Pelosi has shot back at other Democrats who are calling for new leadership in the House, calling them "inconsequential" and saying "they don't have a following in our caucus."
She clarified that "there are people who work very hard to win the elections, who have been in legislative battles. People who paid their dues. Not to put anybody down. Anybody is consequential."
"But I have great support in my caucus," she added. "I'm not worried about that. And I'm certainly not worried about them."