WASHINGTON — In a closing love letter to San Francisco, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who made historical past because the nation’s first feminine speaker of the Home and twice served in that high job, stated Thursday in a video message she is not going to search re-election in 2026.
“I cannot be looking for re-election to Congress. With a grateful coronary heart, I sit up for my closing yr of service as your proud consultant,” Pelosi, 85, stated in her video message to San Francisco voters, interlaced with sweeping imagery of the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and different landmarks, in addition to pictures that captured her storied political profession.
The highly effective California Democrat led her social gathering within the Home for 20 years — from 2002 to 2022 — serving as an important ally for Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and orchestrating the opposition to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
NBC Information reported this week that Democrats in California and on Capitol Hill had been making ready for her retirement announcement.
Whereas she had stepped apart as social gathering chief three years in the past, she had continued to serve within the Home as a rank-and-file member and her Democratic colleagues granted Pelosi the title of “speaker emerita.”
Pelosi had stated she would decide about her political future after the end result of California’s Prop 50, the brand new congressional map drawn by state Democrats to fight GOP redistricting efforts in different states. Upon its passage in Tuesday’s election, Pelosi determined it was time to move the torch.
Her resolution will spark a fierce contest for her liberal, deep-blue San Francisco seat at a second when Democrats throughout the nation are embracing a brand new era of leaders.
“As we go ahead, my message to the town I really like is that this: San Francisco, know your energy,” Pelosi stated in her video announcement. “We’ve got made historical past; we now have made progress. We’ve got all the time led the best way, and now we should proceed to take action by remaining full individuals in our democracy, and preventing for the American beliefs we maintain pricey.”
A former chair of the California Democratic Social gathering, Pelosi, was first elected to the Home in a particular election in 1987 to exchange the late Rep. Sala Burton. Since then, Pelosi has received each bid for re-election by huge margins and has been one in all her social gathering’s most prolific fundraisers and polarizing figures.
Even earlier than her announcement, not less than two Democrats had already launched bids to exchange her: state Sen. Scott Weiner, 55, and rich former tech government Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, a co-founder of the progressive outdoors group Justice Democrats that helped propel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to political stardom.
Pelosi’s resolution is certain to entice others to throw their hats within the ring, given {that a} aggressive congressional race has not been held in San Francisco for practically 4 many years.
Pelosi was born right into a well-connected political household in Baltimore in 1940. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a Democratic congressman, and each he and her brother would go on to function mayors of Baltimore. Her father lived to see Pelosi, then 47 years previous and a mom of 5 grown kids, elected to Congress in June 1987; he died simply two months later.
Having realized the household enterprise from her father, Pelosi rapidly rose by the ranks on Capitol Hill. She scored plum assignments on the Home Appropriations and Intelligence committees, offering her with expertise in federal funding and nationwide safety issues that might later serve her in management.
Her large alternative got here in 2001, when Home Minority Whip David Bonior stated he was stepping except for the No. 2 place to run for governor of Michigan. Within the hard-fought race to exchange him, Pelosi defeated Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. — the 2 had interned on Capitol Hill collectively in 1963 — in a 118-95 closed-door vote, making her the highest-ranking feminine member of Congress in historical past.
One other alternative got here only a yr later. When Democrats did not seize the bulk within the 2002 midterms, Minority Chief Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., introduced he was stepping down and to deal with a presidential run. Pelosi trounced then-Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., in a landslide 177-29 vote for minority chief, making her the highest Democrat within the Home.
After Democrats took again management of the chamber within the 2006 midterms, Pelosi was elected the primary feminine Home speaker in historical past, shattering one of many highest glass ceilings in all of U.S. politics.
