Nearly two years after stepping down from a formal leadership role, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains a major force within the Democratic Party, best known for her behind-the-scenes advice and occasional pushback.

But she offered public advice to the party on Monday morning, as Democrats kicked off their national convention in Chicago, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, a Bay Area native.

“What works in Michigan will work in San Francisco,” said Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987. “But what works in San Francisco doesn't necessarily work in Michigan. Let's win, baby.”

Pelosi made the comments to reporters after speaking over muffins, melon and eggs at a breakfast for California's delegation in a hotel ballroom. She said the key was to get consensus on a liberal framework, a key tool she has used to translate her party's platform into a series of legislative achievements, including the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

The comments are especially meaningful as Republicans try to define Harris as a San Francisco leftist. Since becoming the party's standard-bearer last month, Harris has rejected the liberal positions she supported when she ran in the Democratic presidential primary four years ago, including Medicare for All and a ban on fracking. She has also adopted a tougher rhetoric on the Southwest border to deflect attacks from former President Trump over the record number of migrants that have arrived under Biden's administration.

But she has also embraced other progressive goals, including an increase in the child tax credit, financial assistance for first-time homebuyers and a new economic package that emphasizes anti-price gouging, though she has not specified how much those ideas would cost or how they would be implemented.

Ms. Pelosi, who knows how to navigate criticism from the right while pushing a partisan agenda, has been the face of San Francisco liberalism for decades and has appeared in Republican campaign ads, memes and fundraisers from Cleveland to Tampa.

“The fact is, we're a very diverse state,” Pelosi said, countering California's reputation as a Democratic-leaning state. “We're not a monolith. We're one state on the coast, we're another inland. And so we've learned to respect differences.”

“We know that in this country we have to govern from the center, and we have to be unified in how we lay out our priorities,” Pelosi said. “That's what a campaign should be. We can't just be like them and say, 'We're this and they're that.' Instead, we need to bring people together.”