WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Speaker Emerita will not seek reelection to the U.S. House, bringing to a close her storied career as not only in the speaker’s office but arguably the most powerful in American politics.
Pelosi, who has , announced her decision Thursday.
鈥淚 will not be seeking reelection to Congress,鈥� Pelosi said in a video address to voters.
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.
鈥淢y message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way.鈥�
Pelosi said, 鈥淎nd now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.鈥�
The decision, while not fully unexpected, ricocheted across Washington, and California, as a seasoned generation of political leaders is stepping aside ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Some are leaving reluctantly, others with resolve, but many are facing challenges from newcomers eager to lead and confront .
Pelosi, 85, remains a political powerhouse and played a pivotal role with , Prop 50, and the party’s comeback in this week’s 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.
Former President Barack Obama said Pelosi will go down in history as “one of the best speakers the House of Representatives has ever had.鈥�
An unmatched force in Congress
An architect of the Affordable Care Act during Obama’s tenure, and a leader on the international stage, Pelosi came to Congress later in life, a mother of five mostly grown children, but also raised in a political family in Baltimore, where her father and brother both served in elected office.
Long criticized by Republicans, who have spent millions of dollars on campaign ads vilifying her as a coastal elite and more, Pelosi remained unrivaled. She routinely fended off calls to step aside by turning questions about her intentions into spirited rebuttals, asking if the same was being posed of her seasoned male colleagues on Capitol Hill.
In her video address, she noted that her first campaign slogan was 鈥渁 voice that will be heard.鈥�
And with that backing, she became a speaker 鈥渨hose voice would certainly be heard,鈥� she said.
But after Pelosi quietly helped orchestrate Joe Biden鈥檚 , she has decided to pass the torch, too.
Last year, she experienced a fall resulting in a during 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 鈥� after the group photo, in which she’s seen smiling, poised on her trademark stiletto heels.
Pelosi’s decision also comes as her husband of more than six decades, Paul Pelosi, was three years ago when an intruder demanding to know 鈥淲here is Nancy?鈥� broke into the couple鈥檚 home and beat him over the head with a hammer. His recovery from the attack, days before the 2022 midterm elections, is ongoing.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Pelosi faced a potential primary challenge in California. Newcomer Saikat Chakrabarti, who helped devise progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez鈥檚 political rise in New York, has mounted a campaign, as has state Sen. Scott Wiener.
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.
Madam speaker takes the gavel
笔别濒辞蝉颈鈥檚 comes 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.
During her first tenure, from 2007 to 2011, she steered the House in passing landmark legislation into law 鈥� the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms in the aftermath of and a repeal of the military鈥檚 Don鈥檛 Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell policy against LGBTQ service members.
With Obama in 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 Lyndon B. Johnson era.
But a conservative Republican revolt bounced Democrats from power, ushering in a new style of Republicans, who would pave the way for Trump to in 2016.
Determined to win back control, Pelosi helped recruit and propel dozens of women to office in as Democrats running as the resistance to Trump鈥檚 first term.
On the campaign trail that year, that if House Democrats won, she would show the 鈥減ower of the gavel.鈥�
Pelosi returns to the speaker’s office as a check on Trump
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’s antidote to Trump.
Trump was impeached by the House 鈥� twice 鈥� first in 2019 for as it faced a hostile Russia at its border and then in 2021 days after on the U.S. Capitol. The Senate acquitted him in both cases.
Pelosi stood up the Jan. 6 special committee to probe Trump’s role in sending to the Capitol, when most Republicans refused to investigate, producing that became the first full accounting of what happened as the defeated president tried to stay in office.
After Democrats lost control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, Pelosi announced she would not seek another term as party leader.
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 from the speaker’s office in 2023.
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