She's gone
"I will not seek reelection to leadership."
Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, says she’ll step down as Democratic leader
Pelosi, 82, has been the Democratic leader for two decades. She is expected to remain a member of the House, at least temporarily.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces Thursday that she will step down as the Democratic Party’s leader.
WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, who helped shape many of the most consequential laws of the early 21st century, said Thursday that she will step down after two decades as the Democratic Party’s leader in the chamber.
“With great confidence in our caucus I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress," Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor.
Pelosi was speaker from 2007 to 2011 and returned to the top job in 2019. She announced her decision just a day after NBC News and other news outlets projected that Republicans had flipped control of the House in last week’s midterm election, sending Pelosi and the Democrats back to the minority.
More personally, just weeks ago, her husband of nearly 60 years, Paul Pelosi, survived an assault by a hammer-wielding intruder at the family’s home in San Francisco.
Pelosi won't be leaving Congress after winning her 19th term last week. She is expected to remain, at least temporarily, given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
As Pelosi took the mic, the chamber was packed with Democratic lawmakers, while the Republican side of the aisle was largely empty — a symbol of how politics have changed over Pelosi’s three and a half decades in the House. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not attend the speech in person, but House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was present. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., crossed the Capitol to watch Pelosi speak, while the front row on the Democratic side of the chamber was filled with fellow female lawmakers from California.
Pelosi is one of the most powerful lawmakers of her generation or any other, and her departure will rob Democrats of strategic acumen and unmatched fundraising skills.
“She’s been at the center of the country’s biggest crises, initiatives and showdowns for a quarter-century,” Pelosi biographer Susan Page said. “People can certainly disagree with her policies and her tactics. She hasn’t done much to temper the partisan tone in Washington. But what you can’t disagree with is this: She has gotten things done, even when almost everybody else thought they were impossible.”
Pelosi, 82, was a central player in passing the most significant laws in recent history, from President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance measure and President Joe Biden’s climate change initiative to President George W. Bush’s Wall Street bailout and President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 rescue programs.
"I have enjoyed working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush, transformative 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 in her speech Thursday; she did not mention Trump.
Her legacy is also one of institutional leadership outside the lines of policy. As she and other congressional leaders took refuge from rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Pelosi coordinated with Vice President Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then the Senate majority leader, and law enforcement to ensure the building would be cleared and Biden’s election would be certified that day.
The attempt to sack the Capitol led Pelosi to start a record second impeachment of Trump during his final days in office.
“She will go down in history, without equivocation, as the strongest, most effective, most powerful speaker the country has ever had. And her talents and skills are unmatched,” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a top ally who represents a Bay Area district next to Pelosi’s, told NBC News. “So I feel very fortunate to have served under her because I don’t think we’ll see anything like it again.”
Political boss
Elected to the House in 1987 from a San Francisco-based district, Pelosi, the daughter and sister of Baltimore mayors, rose through the ranks of the House — from seats on its powerful spending and intelligence panels to Democratic whip, minority leader and speaker — on the strength of acute political instincts, big-time fundraising for a member of Congress and the ability to unify factions of an often-fractious caucus.
Then-congressional candidate Nancy Pelosi, in front of her campaign headquarters in San Francisco in 1987.
Colleagues have long pointed to her upbringing in old-school city machine politics — she kept a “favor file” for her father — to explain what often seemed like an innate sense of how to reward, punish and cajole them to win support in leadership elections and on the legislative battlefield.
In her speech Thursday, Pelosi referred to her first trips to the Capitol with her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., when he represented Maryland in the House. “When I first came to the floor at 6 years old, never would I have thought that someday I would go from homemaker to House Speaker,” she said.
“She is the single best at the inside game that I’ve ever seen or served with,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa. “She remembers every time a person has been with her on a vote and every time a person has been against her, and that memory is very important in that type of a position.”
The fear of reprisal is one reason Pelosi hasn’t been seriously challenged in a leadership election since she first won the post of Democratic whip over Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in 2001. Since 2003, she has been her party’s leader in the House, the longest streak in either party since Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, who died in 1961 after 25 years running his party.
“For a woman, she’s opened the doors wider for every last one of us,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who grew emotional talking about Pelosi. “And it’s not pleasant being on the other side of her, but I thank her for everything that she’s done.”
CONTINUED:
Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, says she’ll step down as Democratic leader (nbcnews.com)
.
"I will not seek reelection to leadership."
Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, says she’ll step down as Democratic leader
Pelosi, 82, has been the Democratic leader for two decades. She is expected to remain a member of the House, at least temporarily.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces Thursday that she will step down as the Democratic Party’s leader.
WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, who helped shape many of the most consequential laws of the early 21st century, said Thursday that she will step down after two decades as the Democratic Party’s leader in the chamber.
“With great confidence in our caucus I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress," Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor.
Pelosi was speaker from 2007 to 2011 and returned to the top job in 2019. She announced her decision just a day after NBC News and other news outlets projected that Republicans had flipped control of the House in last week’s midterm election, sending Pelosi and the Democrats back to the minority.
More personally, just weeks ago, her husband of nearly 60 years, Paul Pelosi, survived an assault by a hammer-wielding intruder at the family’s home in San Francisco.
Pelosi won't be leaving Congress after winning her 19th term last week. She is expected to remain, at least temporarily, given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
As Pelosi took the mic, the chamber was packed with Democratic lawmakers, while the Republican side of the aisle was largely empty — a symbol of how politics have changed over Pelosi’s three and a half decades in the House. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not attend the speech in person, but House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was present. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., crossed the Capitol to watch Pelosi speak, while the front row on the Democratic side of the chamber was filled with fellow female lawmakers from California.
Pelosi is one of the most powerful lawmakers of her generation or any other, and her departure will rob Democrats of strategic acumen and unmatched fundraising skills.
“She’s been at the center of the country’s biggest crises, initiatives and showdowns for a quarter-century,” Pelosi biographer Susan Page said. “People can certainly disagree with her policies and her tactics. She hasn’t done much to temper the partisan tone in Washington. But what you can’t disagree with is this: She has gotten things done, even when almost everybody else thought they were impossible.”
Pelosi, 82, was a central player in passing the most significant laws in recent history, from President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance measure and President Joe Biden’s climate change initiative to President George W. Bush’s Wall Street bailout and President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 rescue programs.
"I have enjoyed working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush, transformative 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 in her speech Thursday; she did not mention Trump.
Her legacy is also one of institutional leadership outside the lines of policy. As she and other congressional leaders took refuge from rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Pelosi coordinated with Vice President Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then the Senate majority leader, and law enforcement to ensure the building would be cleared and Biden’s election would be certified that day.
The attempt to sack the Capitol led Pelosi to start a record second impeachment of Trump during his final days in office.
“She will go down in history, without equivocation, as the strongest, most effective, most powerful speaker the country has ever had. And her talents and skills are unmatched,” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a top ally who represents a Bay Area district next to Pelosi’s, told NBC News. “So I feel very fortunate to have served under her because I don’t think we’ll see anything like it again.”
Political boss
Elected to the House in 1987 from a San Francisco-based district, Pelosi, the daughter and sister of Baltimore mayors, rose through the ranks of the House — from seats on its powerful spending and intelligence panels to Democratic whip, minority leader and speaker — on the strength of acute political instincts, big-time fundraising for a member of Congress and the ability to unify factions of an often-fractious caucus.
Then-congressional candidate Nancy Pelosi, in front of her campaign headquarters in San Francisco in 1987.
Colleagues have long pointed to her upbringing in old-school city machine politics — she kept a “favor file” for her father — to explain what often seemed like an innate sense of how to reward, punish and cajole them to win support in leadership elections and on the legislative battlefield.
In her speech Thursday, Pelosi referred to her first trips to the Capitol with her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., when he represented Maryland in the House. “When I first came to the floor at 6 years old, never would I have thought that someday I would go from homemaker to House Speaker,” she said.
“She is the single best at the inside game that I’ve ever seen or served with,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa. “She remembers every time a person has been with her on a vote and every time a person has been against her, and that memory is very important in that type of a position.”
The fear of reprisal is one reason Pelosi hasn’t been seriously challenged in a leadership election since she first won the post of Democratic whip over Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in 2001. Since 2003, she has been her party’s leader in the House, the longest streak in either party since Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, who died in 1961 after 25 years running his party.
“For a woman, she’s opened the doors wider for every last one of us,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who grew emotional talking about Pelosi. “And it’s not pleasant being on the other side of her, but I thank her for everything that she’s done.”
CONTINUED:
Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, says she’ll step down as Democratic leader (nbcnews.com)
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