Nancy: I’m done leading Dems
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she will not seek re-election as the Democratic leader in the chamber after Republicans secured a majority in last week’s midterm elections.
Pelosi, 82, has led House Democrats for nearly two decades, initially taking the helm as minority leader in 2003 and developing a reputation for enforcing strict party unity in key votes.
“I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a packed chamber from the House floor. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus.”
One last dig at Don
Pelosi’s decision launches a scramble among Democrats to replace her — with Brooklyn and Queens Rep. Hakeem Jeffries the heavy favorite to become the next party leader with support from the Congressional Black Caucus, which includes about a quarter of House Democrats.
The House’s No. 2 Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, announced moments after Pelosi’s statement that he, too, would step aside from leadership in the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3. House Democrats are expected to select their next leader Nov. 30.
Pelosi, the first woman to wield the gavel, reflected in a 15-minute speech on her trajectory from “homemaker to House speaker” and even worked in digs at former President Donald Trump, saying she enjoyed working with “three” of the four presidents in office since she became leader.
“I have enjoyed working with three presidents — achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush, as well as health care reform with President Barack Obama and forging the future from infrastructure to health care to climate action with President Joe Biden,” Pelosi said.
She did not directly mention the 45th president — with whom House Democrats worked to approve a landmark criminal justice reform bill and massive COVID-19 relief packages.
Trump launched a 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday while telling cheering supporters that Pelosi had been “fired” by voters — a longtime base-rallying objective for Republicans.
The Democratic leader worked in another implicit rebuke of Trump while celebrating the fact that Republicans made fewer gains than expected in the midterm elections, in which Democrats held the Senate with many Trump-backed candidates losing.
“With these elections the people stood in the breach and repelled the assault on democracy,” she said. “They resoundingly rejected violence and insurrection, and in doing so, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”
Pelosi has said her future plans would be affected by the health of her husband Paul, 82, who was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder at the couple’s San Francisco home last month and is recovering from a fractured skull.
Biden praised Pelosi in a statement, calling her the “most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history.”