WASHINGTON — The House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, who is facing an unexpected challenge for her longtime post atop the Democratic Party in the House, enjoys only tepid support from the Massachusetts caucus of lawmakers, which includes some high-profile legislators who remain undecided about her reelection bid.

The Boston Globe reached out to all nine of the Bay State’s Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives ahead of next week’s leadership vote, in which Pelosi faces Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio for the position of minority leader.

Seven responded. In interviews, nearly all agreed on the need for Democrats in Congress to be more inclusive of Rust Belt voices, empower younger members of the caucus, and rethink the party’s messaging on economics.

Fissures emerged over Pelosi.

Katherine Clark, Joseph Kennedy III, and Jim McGovern offered rousing endorsements of the California lawmaker. Other members of the Massachusetts caucus, including Michael Capuano of Somerville and Seth Moulton of Salem, were explicitly noncommittal.

“In the coming days, I’ll look forward to hearing Tim Ryan and Nancy Pelosi communicate their vision for our caucus and country,’’ Moulton said in a statement. “The Democratic Party is the party of the future. . . . We are also the party that stands up and fights for working people. But we lost far too many of these voters and now we have some serious introspection to do.’’

Through a spokeswoman, Capuano said he is “having conversations’’ with colleagues about why Democrats fell short.

“Who should lead the caucus is part of that discussion,’’ said Allison Mills, the spokeswoman.

Last week, in conjunction with Moulton, Congressman Richard Neal of Springfield pressured the House Democratic caucus to delay the leadership vote, which allowed for Ryan to formally announce his candidacy.

“As a caucus, we need to rethink our message and change some of our messengers,’’ Neal said at the time.

Later, in a statement to the Globe through a spokesman, Neal said he has decided to support Pelosi’s bid for reelection.

On Tuesday, about a week before the Nov. 30 vote, Pelosi attempted to insulate herself from criticism.

After several lawmakers spoke out about the need for new voices in the party, Pelosi promised that, if reelected, she would provide more influence to junior lawmakers within her leadership team and congressional committees.

Pelosi also secured a key endorsement from the AFL-CIO, a powerful labor group within the Democratic Party.

In an interview, Kennedy said while he supported a vigorous debate, and especially the input of his Massachusetts colleagues, he expects Pelosi to lead the caucus going forward.

The debate about Pelosi’s record, according to Kennedy, was more of a reaction to the shock Election Day loss, and not an indictment of her history.

“She’s the right leader in the caucus,’’ Kennedy said.

“We’re a diverse party with diverse ideas,’’ Kennedy, of Brookline, said. “So there’s a number of different ways things could go in the days and weeks ahead . . . but Leader Pelosi has my full support.’’

When asked about a statement from Ryan that Democrats had become a party of coastal elites, McGovern said he disagreed.

He is also supporting Pelosi, along with Kennedy, Clark, and Representative Niki Tsongas of Lowell.

“A lot of Democrats in the Congress are frustrated we didn’t win, but that didn’t have to do with Nancy Pelosi,’’ McGovern, of Worcester, said. “I never accepted the premise that the reason we didn’t prevail on Election Day was because of the House Democratic leadership. We’re not the ones who were setting message and rules of engagement. That’s going to change now.’’

Stephen Lynch of Boston and William Keating of Bourne did not respond to several requests for comment.

In an interview, Clark said she supports Pelosi because of her history of corralling votes amid tough debate.

The Melrose representative also said she welcomed a vigorous debate about Pelosi’s record, because she thinks it will make the party stronger.

“The strength of our caucus is our diversity,’’ Clark said.

Astead W. Herndon can be reached at astead.herndon @globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @AsteadWH.