Pelosi sees threat to Clinton from Libertarian candidate

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi speaks onstage at the 2016 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park to end extreme poverty by 2030 at Central Park on September 24, 2016 in New York City. / AFP PHOTO / ANGELA WEISSANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images less Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi speaks onstage at the 2016 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park to end extreme poverty by 2030 at Central Park on September 24, 2016 in New York City. / AFP PHOTO / ANGELA ... more Photo: ANGELA WEISS, AFP/Getty Images Photo: ANGELA WEISS, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Pelosi sees threat to Clinton from Libertarian candidate 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that it’s up to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to win over the young voters who she said are keeping the race with Donald Trump close by flirting with third-party candidates, particularly Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.

A narrow victory “would deprive Hillary Clinton of a big mandate that I think she should have going into the White House and that would be helpful as to how we go forward,” the San Francisco Democrat said.

A close presidential race would also probably deprive Pelosi of a shot at becoming House speaker again. She held the post from 2007 to 2011.

Pelosi predicted that Democrats would make gains in the House in November, but said the size of those gains would be linked to Clinton’s fortunes. Democrats would have to net 30 seats to make Pelosi speaker again. Many analysts think Clinton would have to win in a landslide to give the Democrats a shot at a House victory of that magnitude.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, said Monday that prospects were improving for House Republicans. “I internally have not seen one poll where a Republican incumbent is behind,” he said. “As (Trump’s) numbers go up, our numbers go up as well.”

Pelosi blamed the tight polls mainly on young voters’ interest in Johnson, and suggested he wasn’t worthy of their attention.

“Do you think most people who have said they’re going to be for the Libertarian because they like his hairstyle or whatever it is are going to stick with that?” Pelosi said at a briefing in her Capitol conference room.

Clinton’s big August polling lead over Trump has narrowed to a near-tie, in part because she has not secured support from Millennials, those born after 1980. Young voters powered Barack Obama’s primary victory over Clinton in 2008 and fueled Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ stiff primary challenge to Clinton this year.

Pelosi said the Future Forum, a group of House Democrats in their 30s led by Rep. Eric Swalwell of Dublin, has identified four big issues that young voters care about: climate change, college affordability, Wall Street reforms and money in elections.

Pelosi said Sanders emphasized all those issues in his campaign, while the Libertarian Party platform “is to shut down public schools, eliminate clean air, clean water and every kind of protection in terms of regulation, dismantle Social Security, dismantle Medicare.”

She predicted that Sanders will work hard for Clinton in the last stretch of the campaign, but that Clinton is “going to have to make her own case to them as well because you can only transfer so much.”

Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: clochhead@sfchronicle.com