"She said that the overwhelming view of the caucus was to hold elections on Thursday and obviously that was not the overwhelming view," Seth Moulton said. | Getty Moulton raises doubts about Pelosi's claim of support

Nancy Pelosi claimed to have the support of two-thirds of the House Democratic Caucus Wednesday as she attempted to squash a budding rebellion against her leadership. But the Massachusetts lawmaker who instigated it isn’t so sure.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who gathered enough signatures to pressure Pelosi to delay leadership elections until after Thanksgiving, noted that the California Democrat had also initially claimed her colleagues were eager to hold elections this week – only to be rebuffed by those who wanted a fuller debate about their miserable performance in recent elections.


“I haven’t seen her list [of supporters],” Moulton said, “but she said that the overwhelming view of the caucus was to hold elections on Thursday and obviously that was not the overwhelming view.”

Moulton said he’s not sure how many members are willing to buck Pelosi’s bid for a new term as Democratic leader, but he said “an awful lot of people are coming to me and saying, ‘I want other options.’”

Moulton said he’d consider supporting Pelosi and her team if they presented a credible plan to make gains in 2018. But he also hinted that he’s been told he'd pay a political price for his decision to intervene in Pelosi’s reelection.

“There’s great political cost to what I’m doing,” he said. Asked whether he’d been warned by anyone to anticipate such a cost, he said, “I’m not worried about it. I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

Moulton said he’s still unsure whether a challenge to Pelosi will actually emerge. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan has been the most openly vocal about a potential bid to unseat her. But as of late Wednesday he was still noncommittal.

Moulton said a challenge would be a “healthy” development for Democrats.

“I got here through a competitive Democratic primary. It made me a stronger candidate and I think a stronger member of Congress,” he said, referring to his 2014 defeat of then-Congressman John Tierney, who was beset by ethical questions. “The reason you have elections is to have alternatives. It would be a healthy thing for the caucus to have that debate.”

Democrats are meeting Thursday and are expected to discuss the path forward for their caucus. Moulton insists he’s not backing any particular candidate in that debate – in part because no one as emerged. But he said accepting the status quo would be unacceptable.

“I don’t think that you can come in and say the way forward is to do exactly what we’ve been doing,” he said. “That’s Einstein’s definition of insanity.”

