SAN FRANCISCO — Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a trailblazing San Francisco Democrat who leveraged a long time of energy within the U.S. Home to change into probably the most influential political leaders of her technology, is not going to run for reelection in 2026, she mentioned Thursday.
The previous Home speaker, 85, who has been in Congress since 1987 and oversaw each of President Trump’s first-term impeachments, had been pushing off her 2026 determination till after Tuesday’s vote on Proposition 50, a poll measure she backed and helped bankroll to redraw California’s congressional maps in her social gathering’s favor.
With the measure’s resounding passage, Pelosi mentioned it was time to start out clearing the trail for an additional Democrat to signify San Francisco — one of many nation’s most liberal bastions — in Congress, as some are already vying to do.
“With a grateful coronary heart, I sit up for my ultimate 12 months of service as your proud consultant,” Pelosi mentioned in a virtually six-minute video she posted on-line Thursday morning, by which she additionally recounted main achievements from her lengthy profession.
Pelosi didn’t instantly endorse a would-be successor, however challenged her constituents to remain engaged.
“As we go ahead, my message to the town I really like is that this: San Francisco, know your energy,” she mentioned. “Now we have made historical past, we now have made progress, we now have all the time led the way in which — and now we should proceed to take action by remaining full contributors in our democracy, and preventing for the American beliefs we maintain pricey.”
Pelosi’s announcement drew speedy response throughout the political world, with Democrats lauding her dedication and accomplishments and President Trump, a frequent goal and critic of hers, ridiculing her as a “extremely overrated politician.”
Pelosi has not confronted a severe problem for her seat since President Reagan was in workplace, and has gained current elections by vast margins. Only a 12 months in the past, she gained reelection with 81% of the vote.
Nonetheless, Pelosi was going through two hard-to-ignore challengers from her personal social gathering in subsequent 12 months’s Democratic major: state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), 55, a prolific and bold lawmaker with a robust base of help within the metropolis, and Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, a Democratic political operative and tech millionaire who’s infusing his marketing campaign with private money.
Their challenges come amid a shifting tide in opposition to gerontocracy in Democratic politics extra broadly, as many within the social gathering’s base have more and more questioned the power of its longtime leaders — particularly these of their 70s and 80s — to maintain an lively and efficient resistance to President Trump and his MAGA agenda.
In saying his candidacy for Pelosi’s seat final month after years of deferring to her, Wiener mentioned he merely couldn’t wait any longer. “The world is altering, the Democratic Social gathering is altering, and it’s time,” he mentioned.
Chakrabarti — who helped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) topple one other older Democratic incumbent with a message of generational change in 2018 — mentioned voters in San Francisco “want an entire totally different strategy” to governing after years of longtime social gathering leaders failing to ship.
In an interview Thursday, Wiener referred to as Pelosi an “icon” who delivered for San Francisco in additional methods than most individuals can comprehend, with whom he shared a “deep love” for the town. He additionally recounted, specifically, Pelosi’s early advocacy for AIDS remedy and care within the Nineteen Eighties, and the impression it had on him personally.
“I bear in mind vividly what it felt like as a closeted homosexual teenager, having a way that the nation had deserted folks like me, and that the nation didn’t care if folks like me died. I used to be 17, and that was my notion of my place on this planet,” Wiener mentioned. “Nancy Pelosi confirmed that that wasn’t true, that there have been folks in positions of energy who gave a rattling about homosexual males and LGBTQ folks and other people residing with HIV and people of us in danger for HIV — and that was actually highly effective.”
Chakrabarti, in an announcement Thursday, thanked Pelosi for her “a long time of service that outlined a technology of politics” and for “doing one thing really uncommon in Washington: making room for the following one.”
Whereas anticipated by many, Pelosi’s determination nonetheless reverberated via political circles, together with as yet one more main signal {that a} new political period is dawning for the political left — as additionally evidenced by the beautiful rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist elected Tuesday as New York Metropolis’s subsequent mayor.
Referred to as a relentless and savvy social gathering tactician, Pelosi had fought off considerations about her age prior to now, together with when she selected to run once more final 12 months. The primary girl ever elected speaker in 2007, Pelosi has lengthy cultivated and maintained a spry picture belying her age by strolling the halls of Congress in signature four-inch stilettos, and by maintaining a rigorous schedule of flying between work in Washington and constituent occasions in her house district.
Nonetheless, that veneer has worn down in recent times, together with when she broke her hip throughout a fall in Europe in December.
That occurred simply after fellow octogenarian President Biden sparked intense hypothesis about his age and cognitive talents together with his disastrous debate efficiency in opposition to Trump in June of final 12 months. The efficiency led to Biden being pushed to drop out of the race — partly by Pelosi — and to Vice President Kamala Harris shifting to the highest of the ticket and shedding badly to Trump in November.
Democrats have additionally watched different older liberal leaders age and die in energy in recent times, together with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, one other San Francisco energy participant in Washington. When Ginsburg died in workplace at 87, it handed Trump a 3rd Supreme Court docket appointment. When Feinstein died in workplace ailing at 90, it was amid swirling questions on her competency to serve.
By bowing out of the 2026 race, Pelosi — who stepped down from social gathering management in 2022 — diminished her personal potential for an ungraceful final chapter in workplace. However she didn’t concede that her present effectiveness has diminished one bit.
Pelosi was probably the most vocal and early proponents of Proposition 50, which amends the state structure to offer state Democrats the facility via 2030 to redraw California’s congressional districts of their favor.
The measure was in response to Republicans in pink states similar to Texas redrawing maps of their favor, at Trump’s route. Pelosi championed it as essential to preserving Democrats’ probabilities of successful again the Home subsequent 12 months and checking Trump via the second half of his second time period, one thing she and others urged can be very important for the survival of American democracy.
On Tuesday, California voters resoundingly permitted Proposition 50.
In her video, Pelosi famous a litany of accomplishments throughout her time in workplace, crediting them to not herself however to her constituents, to labor teams, to nonprofits and personal entrepreneurs, to the town’s vibrant variety and aptitude for innovation.
She famous bringing federal sources to the town to get well after the Loma Prieta earthquake, and San Francisco’s main function in tackling the devastating HIV/AIDS disaster via partnerships with UC San Francisco and San Francisco Common, which “pioneered complete group primarily based care, prevention and analysis” nonetheless used at present.
She talked about passing the Ryan White CARE Act and the Reasonably priced Care Act, constructing out varied San Francisco and California public transportation programs, constructing inexpensive housing and defending the setting — all utilizing federal {dollars} her place helped her to safe.
“It appears prophetic now that the slogan of my very first marketing campaign in 1987 was, ‘A voice that can be heard,’ and it was you who made these phrases come true. It was the religion that you just had positioned in me, and the latitude that you’ve got given me, that enabled me to shatter the marble ceiling and be the primary girl speaker of the Home, whose voice would definitely be heard,” Pelosi mentioned. “It was an historic second for our nation, and it was momentous for our group — empowering me to convey house billions of {dollars} for our metropolis and our state.”
After her announcement, Trump ridiculed her, telling Fox Information that her determination to not search reelection was “a terrific factor for America” and calling her “evil, corrupt, and solely targeted on unhealthy issues for our nation.”
“She was quickly shedding management of her social gathering and it was by no means coming again,” Trump advised the outlet, in response to a section shared by the White Home. “I’m very honored she impeached me twice, and failed miserably twice.”
The Home succeeded in impeaching Trump twice, however the Senate acquitted him each occasions.
Pelosi’s fellow Democrats, against this, heaped reward on her as a one-of-a-kind pressure in U.S. politics — a savvy tactician, a prolific legislator and a mentor to a whole technology of fellow Democrats.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a longtime Pelosi ally who helped her impeach Trump, referred to as Pelosi “the best Speaker in American historical past” on account of “her tenacity, mind, strategic acumen and fierce advocacy.”
“She has been an indelible a part of each main progressive accomplishment within the twenty first Century — her work in Congress delivered inexpensive well being care to hundreds of thousands, created numerous jobs, raised households out of poverty, cleaned up air pollution, introduced LGBTQ+ rights into the mainstream, and pulled our economic system again from the brink of destruction not as soon as, however twice,” Schiff mentioned.
Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned Pelosi “has impressed generations,” that her “braveness and conviction to San Francisco, California, and our nation has set the usual for what public service needs to be,” and that her impression on the nation was “unmatched.”
“Wishing you the most effective on this new chapter — you’ve greater than earned it,” Newsom wrote above Pelosi’s on-line video.
