Now Soto is one of the nine Democrats from the Problem Solvers Caucus who is among the holdouts in Pelosi’s bid to win another term as speaker. Those nine currently have considerable influence as she works to reach the number of votes she needs to be elected speaker. Soto and his fellow Democrats in the caucus announced last week that they would not support Pelosi unless she agreed to rule changes that they argue would “break the gridlock.” Pelosi is scheduled to meet with its members on Tuesday, though she preempted the conversation by having an aide put out a statement arguing that she’s already agreed to many of their proposals and gone further.

Read: Manchin quits No Labels amid Democrats’ anger at group

The Republican members of the Problem Solvers Caucus made no such demands on Paul Ryan before supporting him in his bid for speaker last year. Members of the Problem Solvers from both parties meet regularly and met with Trump at the White House last September. So far, they have not produced any workable legislative solution on any issue.

The idea of challenging Pelosi first came up in a series of conference calls among No Labels officials and outside advisers in January 2017, and made it as far as the founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson asking in an internal email chain, “How many people voted for Pelosi in her last primaries?” Jacobson is a former Democratic operative who currently works as a business consultant and helped form No Labels in 2010; she has run it ever since. She is married to Mark Penn, the former Clinton strategist who has since fallen out of favor with them.

The internal email was obtained by The Atlantic, along with several others from and to Jacobson. Her questions prompted a response from her staff that described Pelosi’s overwhelming support in 2014 and 2016 and reminded Jacobson and the others that California’s “top-two” system meant that a challenge to Pelosi would be more difficult than in most states’ primaries: An opponent would have to be able to beat her not just among Democrats, but among the whole electorate on the day of the general election.

Read: The war on partisanship

Pelosi has been in office since 1987 and has huge support in her district. Jacobson had wanted to run a candidate against her from the center, as it was then preparing to do in several House races over the last year.

Jacobson’s idea of running against Pelosi faded. But her opposition to Pelosi did not. In the spring of 2018, she asked staff to explore looking into labeling Pelosi a “bogeyman” after the Democratic Representative Dan Lipinski of Illinois, a centrist member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, fended off a primary challenge from the left. While Pelosi had endorsed Lipinski, Jacobson believed Pelosi had secretly opposed his bid. (The argument against Jacobson’s “bogeyman” idea, put forth by Ryan Clancy, No Labels’ chief strategist, the Daily Beast reported on Monday, was that it would be like declaring war on the Democratic leader.)