Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced Thursday that she is 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 would like you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the primary to know,” Pelosi stated in a video message. “I can’t be looking for reelection to Congress. With a grateful coronary heart, I sit up for my ultimate 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 steer a significant political celebration in both chamber of Congress.
Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced Nov.6, 2025 in a video, that she is 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 stated within the video announcement.
For weeks, Pelosi had deflected questions on her political future, insisting her central focus was on making certain that Prop 50 redistricting poll measure handed 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 better honor for me than to face on the Home ground and say, I converse for the folks of San Francisco. I’ve actually cherished serving as your voice,” Pelosi stated 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 celebration 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 grew to become minority chief when Gephardt stepped right down to run for president
“That is an historic second,” she stated 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 in an effort 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 Photographs
Journalist Susan Web page, the creator 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 guide 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 expenses stated 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 rebel 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 attaining historic investments in clear vitality 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 stated in a speech bidding farewell to the speakership in December 2022, notably leaving Trump off the checklist.
Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi rips up her copy of President Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union deal with 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 Photographs
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 Celebration membership at her dwelling, 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 Celebration chair for the state of California.
In 1987, Pelosi received a particular election for California’s then-Fifth Congressional District which encompassed many of the metropolis of San Francisco. Pelosi superior by 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 dwelling. The assailant, later informed authorities the assault was supposed for Nancy Pelosi, based on a legal grievance filed in federal courtroom.
Following the lack of a Democratic majority within the Home in November 2022, Pelosi stated she can be giving up the gavel for the final time.
“Historical past will word she is essentially the most consequential Speaker of the Home of Representatives in our historical past,” Biden stated in an announcement on the time.
ABC Information’ Katherine Faulders, Isabella Murray, Allison Pecorin and Adisa Robinson contributed to this report
