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Article snippet: Democratic insurgents hoping to topple House Minority Leader MORE (D-Calif.) lack a key ingredient in their master plan: a formidable challenger. Pelosi’s detractors have argued for years that Democrats need an image overhaul by empowering newer members at the very top of the party. But they suffered a big setback when Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), thought by many to be Pelosi’s heir apparent, was unseated himself in an astonishing primary defeat earlier this year. Crowley's downfall has left Pelosi critics scrambling in search of another challenger bearing the requisite combination of experience, gravitas, popularity — and not least, interest — to take on Pelosi, a political juggernaut who's led the party for the past 15 years. As the midterms inch closer, many Democrats on and off of Capitol Hill say there’s simply no standout figure to fill the vacuum. “You can’t beat somebody with nobody,” said a former senior Democratic aide, who worked for a frequent Pelosi critic. “And they have nobody right now.” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, echoed that message, expressing some frustration that none of Pelosi’s critics have stepped forward to launch a challenge. “There’s no real obvious pretender to the throne right now. You hear supposition and rumor that so-and-so is interested, and that Pelosi is the one under scrutiny by everybody,” he said. “It would be good to get a name that people can also begin to provide that... Link to the full article to read more