{"id":41067,"date":"2025-11-06T17:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/41067\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T17:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:40:09","slug":"speaker-emerita-nancy-pelosi-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/41067\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during an event in Washington, June 23, 2023. (File photo courtesy AP Photo\/Susan Walsh, File)<\/p>\n

Local and state lawmakers sent out statements thanking Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi<\/a>\u00a0after she announced that she would not seek reelection to the U.S. House, bringing to a close her storied career as not only\u00a0the first woman<\/a>\u00a0in the speaker\u2019s office but arguably the most powerful in American politics.<\/p>\n

Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco for nearly 40 years, announced her decision Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not be seeking reelection to Congress,\u201d Pelosi said in a video address to voters.<\/p>\n

Pelosi, appearing upbeat and forward-looking as images of her decades of accomplishments filled the frames, said she would finish out her final year in office. And she left those who sent her to Congress with a call to action to carry on the legacy of agenda-setting both in the U.S. and around the world.<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers were swift to respond with accolades. <\/p>\n

\u201cNancy Pelosi\u2019s announcement marks the end of an extraordinary era in American history, and for me, the end of a chapter defined by mentorship, courage, and grace under pressure,\u201d said Rep. Mike Levin in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe also changed the way I think about leadership,\u201d he added, \u201cWatching her lead through crises taught me that conviction and compassion aren\u2019t opposites, they\u2019re partners. That progress is never easy or inevitable. And that true public service means putting people before politics, even when the cameras are off and the votes are hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Madam Speaker, for your friendship, your wisdom, and your unshakable belief that we can always do better, and we must. Your legacy will echo for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way\u2026. And now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision, while not wholly unexpected, ricocheted across Washington, and California, as a seasoned generation of political leaders is stepping aside ahead of next year\u2019s midterm elections. Some are leaving reluctantly, others with resolve, but many are facing challenges from newcomers eager to lead\u00a0the Democratic Party<\/a>\u00a0and confront\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

California Sen. Adam Schiff described Pelosi as his mentor and friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has believed in me, given me opportunities and been a guiding light for me \u2013 and I know that my story is one of hundreds in the Congress,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cNancy never gave out easy assignments, but they were always important and uniquely suited for one\u2019s talents. She always knew who to turn to at exactly the right moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia will not see another champion that is as committed, as capable, and as filled with the progressive spirit as Nancy Pelosi. Not for a very long time. And I look forward to seeing what she will accomplish in her remaining time in the Congress and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelosi remains a political powerhouse and played a pivotal role with\u00a0California\u2019s redistricting effort<\/a>, Prop 50, and the party\u2019s comeback in this month\u2019s election. She maintains a robust schedule of public events and party fundraising, and her announced departure touches off a succession battle back home and leaves open questions about who will fill her behind-the-scenes leadership role at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

An architect of the Affordable Care Act and a leader on the international stage, Pelosi, who\u2019s 85, came to politics later in life, a mother of five mostly grown children. She has long fended off calls for her to step aside by turning questions about her intentions into spirited rebuttals, asking if the same was being posed of her male colleagues on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

In her video address, she noted that her first campaign slogan was \u201ca voice that will be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with that backing, she became a speaker \u201cwhose voice would certainly be heard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But after Pelosi quietly helped orchestrate Joe Biden\u2019s\u00a0withdrawal<\/a> from the 2024 presidential race, she has decided to pass the torch, too.<\/p>\n

Last year, she experienced a fall resulting in\u00a0a hip fracture<\/a>\u00a0during a whirlwind congressional visit to allies in Europe, but even still it showcased her grit: It was revealed she was rushed to a military hospital for surgery \u2014 after the group photo, in which she\u2019s seen smiling, poised on her trademark stiletto heels.<\/p>\n

Pelosi\u2019s decision also comes as her husband of more than six decades, Paul Pelosi, was\u00a0gravely injured<\/a>\u00a0three years ago when an intruder demanding to know \u201cWhere is Nancy?\u201d broke into the couple\u2019s home and beat him over the head with a hammer. His recovery from the attack, days before the 2022 midterm elections, is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Pelosi faced a potential primary challenge in California. Left-wing newcomer Saikat Chakrabarti, who helped devise progressive superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s political rise in New York, has mounted a campaign, and state Sen. Scott Wiener is also reported to be considering a run.<\/p>\n

While Pelosi remains an unmatched force for the Democratic Party, having fundraised more than $1 billion over her career, her next steps are uncertain. First elected in 1987 after having worked in California state party politics, she has spent some four decades in public office.<\/p>\n

Madam speaker takes the gavel<\/p>\n

Pelosi\u2019s\u00a0legacy as House Speaker<\/a>\u00a0comes not only because she was the first woman to have the job but also because of what she did with the gavel, seizing the enormous powers that come with the suite of offices overlooking the National Mall.<\/p>\n

During her first tenure, from 2007 to 2011, she steered the House in passing landmark legislation into law \u2014 the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms in the aftermath of\u00a0the Great Recession<\/a>\u00a0and a repeal of the military\u2019s Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell policy against LGBTQ service members.<\/p>\n

With\u00a0President Barack Obama<\/a>\u00a0in the White House and Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada leading the Senate, the 2009-10 session of Congress ended among the most productive since the Johnson era.<\/p>\n

But a conservative Republican\u00a0\u201ctea party\u201d<\/a>\u00a0revolt bounced Democrats from power, ushering in a new style of Republicans, who would pave the way for Trump to\u00a0seize the White House<\/a>\u00a0in 2016.<\/p>\n

Determined to win back control, Pelosi helped recruit and propel dozens of women to office in\u00a0the 2018 midterm elections<\/a>\u00a0as Democrats running as the resistance to Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail that year,\u00a0Pelosi told The Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0that if House Democrats won, she would show the \u201cpower of the gavel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelosi returns to the speaker\u2019s office as a check on Trump<\/p>\n

Pelosi became the first speaker to regain the office in some 50 years, and her second term, from 2019 to 2023, became potentially more consequential than the first, particularly as the Democratic Party\u2019s antidote to Trump.<\/p>\n

Trump was impeached by the House \u2014 twice \u2014 first in 2019 for\u00a0withholding U.S. aid to Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0as it faced a hostile Russia at its border and then in 2021 days after\u00a0the Jan. 6 attack<\/a>\u00a0on the U.S. Capitol. The Senate acquitted him in both cases.<\/p>\n

Pelosi stood up the Jan. 6 special committee to probe Trump\u2019s role in sending\u00a0his mob of supporters<\/a>\u00a0to the Capitol, when most Republicans refused to investigate, producing\u00a0the 1,000-page report<\/a>\u00a0that became the first full accounting of what happened as the defeated president tried to stay in office.<\/p>\n

After Democrats lost control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, Pelosi announced she would not seek another term as party leader.<\/p>\n

Rather than retire, she charted a new course for leaders, taking on the emerita title that would become used by others, including Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California during his brief tenure after he was\u00a0ousted by his colleagues<\/a>\u00a0from the speaker\u2019s office in 2023.<\/p>\n

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