House Democrats in marathon call squabble over how they lost seats amid projections of Blue Wave

House Democrats are squabbling over their disappointing results in Tuesday’s elections in which Republicans unexpectedly cut into their majority.

Members during a three-hour conference call Thursday accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership team of numerous missteps including what they considered poor voter messaging and strategy, including too little grassroots campaigning. 

They also lamented about Republicans this election cycle having won over many Hispanic and black voters – particularly in Texas and in Florida, in which Democrats lost two House seats in the once-reliable Miami-Dade area, according to news gathering agencies that had access to the details of the conversations in the call. 

Among the biggest concerns, some of the lawmakers said, was failing to pass a second, major coronavirus stimulus package, with election-year politics having stalled negotiations between Pelosi and the White House. 

Others said Republicans had successfully tagged incumbents as “socialists,” as a result of some the caucus’s most liberal members having supported calls to “defund” police departments following the May 25 death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.

“I think that the Democratic party needs to clearly push that we are not supportive of ideas like socialism or defunding the police or anti-Semitism,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a co-chair of the House’s centrist Blue Dog Coalition, according to the Associated Press.