Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced Thursday that she’s going to retire on the finish of her present time period in Congress, beginning the lengthy goodbye because the California Democrat wraps up probably the most consequential legislative careers in U.S. historical past.
“I need you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the primary to know,” Pelosi mentioned in a video message. “I cannot be looking for reelection to Congress. With a grateful coronary heart, I stay up for my remaining yr of service as your proud consultant.”
Pelosi’s time period in Congress ends on Jan. 3, 2027.
Pelosi, 85, was the primary girl elected speaker of the U.S. Home of Representatives and the primary girl to guide a significant political occasion in both chamber of Congress.
Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced Nov.6, 2025 in a video, that she’s going to retire on the finish of her present time period in Congress.
Courtesy of Nancy Pelosi
She has represented a part of the San Francisco space within the Home since 1987. That is her nineteenth time period.
“As we go ahead, my message to the town I like is that this: San Francisco, know your energy,” Pelosi mentioned within the video announcement.
For weeks, Pelosi had deflected questions on her political future, insisting her central focus was on guaranteeing that Prop 50 redistricting poll measure passed in California. With that achievement within the rear-view mirror, Pelosi rapidly made her plans clear that she is not going to search one other time period within the Home.
“I say to my colleagues within the Home on a regular basis, it doesn’t matter what title they’ve bestowed upon me, Speaker, Chief, Whip, there was no higher honor for me than to face on the Home flooring and say, I communicate for the individuals of San Francisco. I’ve really cherished serving as your voice,” Pelosi mentioned within the video.
Pelosi’s rise
Pelosi was elected as the primary girl speaker in 2007 and elected once more in 2019 — the one speaker in 70 years to have received the workplace twice after having misplaced the workplace when Republicans regained the Home majority in 2010.
She led the Home Democrats for 19 years, beforehand having served as Home Democratic whip. She rose to prominence in 2002 after whipping nearly all of the occasion in opposition to an Iraq Struggle decision that her mentor, then-Minority Chief Dick Gephardt of Missouri, crafted with President George W. Bush’s administration. She turned minority chief when Gephardt stepped all the way down to run for president
“That is an historic second,” she mentioned in a speech after accepting the speaker’s gavel for the primary time. “It is an historic second for the Congress. It is an historic second for the ladies of America.”
Her measured rise to energy was characterised by her regular command of inside politics and her capacity unite conflicting factions of Democrats to be able to obtain legislative success.
Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi takes the Speaker’s gavel from Home Minority Chief Rep. John Boehner after being elected as the primary girl Speaker for the a hundred and tenth Congress within the Home Chamber of the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 4, 2007 in Washington.
Wealthy Lipski/The Washington Put up through Getty Photos
Journalist Susan Web page, the writer of a biography concerning the Home speaker, referred to as Pelosi a “grasp of the within recreation of politics and of being a legislative chief” in an April 2021 interview with ABC Information’ “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.
Web page revealed in her e book that Pelosi initially deliberate to step down after the 2016 election however modified her thoughts after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016.
In 2019, Pelosi led the investigation that resulted within the third presidential impeachment in historical past following what the impeachment fees mentioned have been Trump’s alleged strikes to solicit overseas intervention within the 2020 presidential election and withhold congressionally appropriated help to Ukraine.
Pelosi headed Trump’s second impeachment in 2021 after his supporters mounted a violent riot in opposition to the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 presidential election that Trump sought to overturn. She then led the Home in making a bipartisan choose committee to research the Jan. 6 assault.
“I’ve loved working with three presidents reaching historic investments in clear power with President George Bush, reworked well being care reform with President Barack Obama and forging the long run from infrastructure to well being care to local weather motion with President Joe Biden,” Pelosi mentioned in a speech bidding farewell to the speakership in December 2022, notably leaving Trump off the record.
Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi rips up her copy of President Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union handle earlier than members of Congress within the Home chamber of the U.S. Capitol, February 4, 2020 in Washington.
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Put up through Getty Photos
Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 1940 to an Italian-American household. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a Democratic politician who represented Maryland’s third Congressional District within the Home and later served as mayor of Baltimore. Her mom, Annunciata M. “Nancy” D’Alesandro, was additionally concerned in Democratic politics as an organizer.
She met Paul Pelosi at Georgetown College in 1961. The couple married in 1963 and had 5 youngsters. Pelosi raised their youngsters in San Francisco and began a Democratic Occasion membership at her house, till she started working for the presidential marketing campaign of California Gov. Jerry Brown in 1976, when she was 36.
By 1981, she was the Democratic Occasion chair for the state of California.
In 1987, Pelosi received a particular election for California’s then-Fifth Congressional District which encompassed a lot of the metropolis of San Francisco. Pelosi superior via the ranks of the Home Democratic Caucus to be elected Home minority whip in 2002. She was elevated to Home minority chief the next yr, changing into the primary girl to carry every of these positions in both chamber of Congress.
In October 2022, Paul Pelosi was the sufferer of an assault on the couple’s San Francisco house. The assailant, later instructed authorities the assault was meant for Nancy Pelosi, in keeping with a prison criticism filed in federal courtroom.
Following the lack of a Democratic majority within the Home in November 2022, Pelosi mentioned she could be giving up the gavel for the final time.
“Historical past will notice she is essentially the most consequential Speaker of the Home of Representatives in our historical past,” Biden mentioned in a press release on the time.
ABC Information’ Katherine Faulders, Isabella Murray, Allison Pecorin and Adisa Robinson contributed to this report
