Pelosi to step down as top House Democrat
Says she will not seek re-election as the House Democratic caucus’s top leader
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California), who broke Congress’s glass ceiling as the first woman to hold the top position in the House, announced yesterday she will not seek reelection as the House Democratic caucus’s top leader, ending one of the most consequential and historic leadership tenures in American political history. She will continue as a member of the House.
Her decision to not seek reelection as the top Democrat in Congress’s lower chamber marks the culmination of a political career widely seen as setting the standard for wielding political power. Historians largely agree that Pelosi redefined the speakership, and she made history climbing the ranks of Democratic leadership, becoming the first woman to be second in line to the presidency as speaker of the House — twice.
In her more than three decades serving in the House, Pelosi earned a reputation for amassing power in the face of male colleagues who at times undermined her opinions, and she earned respect by delivering votes on her party’s top priorities, even if that meant twisting the arms of her colleagues to take a bill over the finish line.
Pelosi’s ability to keep her caucus in line has led to bipartisan recognition that she alone may be capable of wrangling Democrats’ disparate factions. She led the House Democratic caucus through a bitter fight in 2010 to pass the Affordable Care Act and most recently managed a razor-thin majority in passing several key pieces of President Biden’s legislative agenda.
Pelosi’s decision to step back has been somewhat expected; she said in 2020 she would not seek reelection to a leadership position. But she revealed little about her intentions outside a small and extremely loyal circle of trusted confidants, and her plans were never fully clear.
Her choice to step back from leadership comes weeks after her husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently attacked in their San Francisco home by an intruder who was searching for the speaker. The attack on her husband played a major role as she deliberated on her decision, Pelosi said during a recent television interview. She noted in the interview that she felt guilt about the violent attack as the intruder was looking for her.
Nancy Pelosi’s entrance to politics began the moment she was born in 1940 to Annunciata M. D’Alesandro and then-Rep. Thomas D’Alesandro (D-Md.), who later became mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi moved to San Francisco in 1969, where she remained active in Democratic politics and quickly became known as an activist helping the Democratic National Committee. It was there she started to gain a reputation as a prolific fund-raiser, a trait that has set her apart in recent years as the Democrat who consistently raised the most money for her colleagues’ reelection efforts in the House.