Rep. Tim Ryan said Thursday that Democrats need to be a more tolerant party to win back the House of Representatives next election cycle.

“When I came here in 2003, and we took the House back in 2006, and then had gains in 2008, we had a lot of pro-life, pro-2nd amendment members, from the South,” Mr. Ryan, Ohio Democrat, said on MSNBC. “We’ve lost all of those members. You’ve got to be economically progressive, you’ve got to be tolerant, but you may disagree with the national Democratic Party on a few issues, and we can’t just say you’re not welcomed in the Democratic Party.”

Mr. Ryan also emphasized the importance of a unifying economic message that he says the party has lost.

“We don’t have a strong economic message. When I was growing up, and you ask my grandfather or grandmother why we’re Democrats, and it’s that Democrats are for the working class people, and we’ve lost that message,” he said.

Mr. Ryan said that winning back the House in 2018 will be “challenging” with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as a member of the party leadership. Mrs. Pelosi has been used in attack ads in the special elections, and many have said she is a weakness for the Democratic Party.

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