Democratic House Speaker has spoken out again following the violent attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi. As he continues to recover from a fractured skull, the family says they feel uplifted by we’ll-wishers.
“He’s one good day after another, he’s improving,” Nancy Pelosi told ABC News. “It will take a little while.”
An intruder broke into the family’s California home looking for Nancy but violently attacked her husband with a hammer.
Pelosi, 82, says the violence is a wake-up call to all of how dangerous political division can be, adding that people have reached out to her to say, “I wasn’t going to vote, but now I’m going to vote because this has gone too far.”
Pelosi has had many challenges over the past few weeks. She has aided in the recovery of her 82-year-old husband and rallied in support of Democratic House candidates nationwide. She urged that Democrats would do well in the midterms although polling suggested otherwise. As of Saturday, her belief proved true, PEOPLE reported.
“It was not anything that we ever accepted when the pundits in Washington said we couldn’t win because of history, history, history. Elections are about the future,” she told Stephanopoulos. “I’m very proud of our candidates, both our incumbents as well as our red to blue candidates. They never accepted the punditry that they couldn’t win. They had courage, they had purpose, and they understood their district.”
Election forecasts started significantly shifting in favor of Republicans in the final weeks ahead of campaign season, and many tried to find the reasons behind it all. Some questioned if enthusiasm for reproductive rights had dwindled over time and accused Democrats of failing to articulate their vision for the nation.
Pelosi had the data to support why candidates campaigned on the issues that they did. “Our message was clear: people over politics. Lower cost, bigger paychecks, safer communities,” she said. “And [Democratic candidates] knew the value of a woman’s right to choose. They knew how important it was to protect our democracy. They knew the contrast between themselves and their opponents, and that is what made them win.”
Pelosi added that Democrats’ unexpected success in House, Senate, and gubernatorial races should be a wake-up call for those claiming victories before election day. “It suppresses the vote sometimes when people say ‘it’s all over’ 18 months before the election. We never accepted that.”
Pelosi is expected to reveal whether she plans to remain the Democratic House leader, or if she will let someone else take the lead.
