The Democratic Party needs to have a "family discussion" about the future of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as the leader of the party in Congress, said Rep. Tim Ryan Sunday.

Ryan, an Ohio Democrat, said on NBC the success of the party in 2018 is at stake. While he believes it's unfair, the fact that Republicans can successfully tar Democratic candidates with Pelosi is an issue in elections.

"This is completely unfair, but the reality is the reality," he said. "The fact is we have to go into 2018 with a leader who has been damaged and the caucus, at the end of the day, has to make a decision."

He added, "We do need to have a family discussion."

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., is firmly in the pro-Pelosi camp and disagreed with Ryan — who ran against Pelosi as minority leader in November and was soundly defeated — that Pelosi's position needs to be examined.

Dingell argued that Democrats are performing better in deep-red districts contested during special elections in 2017 than is normal. Despite losing five special elections, she said the trends are pointing to Democrats picking up seats in 2018 and part of that can be traced to Pelosi.

"We've gotta stop this finger pointing and each of us has to learn how we're going to become part of the ‘we' and the party that's going to win," she said.

Speaking about the defeats in the special election, she said, "we've out performed in all four of the seats by 8 percent, and if we continue in those numbers, Republicans should be very worried."

But, Ryan said it's not enough to just come close.

"If we're not in power, we can't help anybody," he said. "This isn't a fight to have a fight. If Democrats aren't in, then we can talk about Republicans taking 25 million people's healthcare away from them."