Nancy Pelosi, first female speaker of U.S. House, announces she won't seek reelection

WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to become speaker of the U.S. House, turning major policy initiatives into law under two Democratic presidents and twice leading efforts to impeach President Donald Trump, said Thursday that she is not seeking reelection.

Pelosi, 87, announced her plans in a video message to constituents of her San Francisco-area district. "San Franciscans, know your power," she exhorted. "We have made history. We have made progress. We have led the way."

Pelosi's career has epitomized a surge in women’s political power in Washington. She was first elected to her San Francisco-area House seat in 1987, at age 47, when there were 23 female members in the 435-seat House. She will conclude her career at the end of the 2025-26 congressional session, in which 126 House members and four delegates are women.

She became the first to be addressed as "madame speaker" when she took the top House post in January 2007. “For our daughters and our granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling,” she said at the time. “For our daughters and our granddaughters now, the sky is the limit. Anything is possible for them.”

On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised Pelosi for what he called "an unwavering commitment to the American people."

“As the first woman to wield the Speaker’s gavel, Nancy has been a trailblazer in every sense of the word," Schumer said. "She didn’t just break glass ceilings — she shattered them and then built a ladder for countless others to climb."

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), lauded Pelosi as a historic figure who broke barriers, and also recalled her personal touch, when his father died.

“I have always admired her work ethic and ability. Her retirement marks a generational shift and end of an era,” Suozzi said.

Suozzi added, “As a fellow Italian-American I have always shared a warm bond with her — she was the first person to send flowers when my father died — and I wish her happiness in this next chapter of her life.”

Legislative accomplishments

While speaker, a post she held while Democrats were in the House majority from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, Democrats passed the the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama, which Pelosi called her proudest achievement.

Then, under President Joe Biden, Pelosi helped pass what she called "the most consequential climate action in human history" — the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which offers tax credits and other incentives for the production of electric vehicles and renewable energy.

A devout Roman Catholic, Pelosi as speaker defied leaders, including her own city’s archbishop, over her support for abortion rights.

Most dramatically, Pelosi authorized and oversaw two impeachment investigations of Trump.

In 2019, the House approved articles of impeachment charging Trump with abusing his power in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and obstructing Congress in its investigation. In 2021, near the end of Trump’s first presidency, the House charged him with inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

In both cases, the Senate fell far short of the two-thirds supermajority necessary to convict Trump.

Asked Thursday about Pelosi's eventual departure from Congress, Trump did not spare his antagonism. “I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job," Trump said, "who cost the country a lot in damages and in reputation.”

Pragmatic approach

The daughter of one Baltimore mayor and sister of another, Pelosi's earlier life eventually led her to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Trinity College in Washington in 1962. In 1963, she married Paul Pelosi and moved to his hometown of San Francisco, where he became a successful businessman and the couple had five children.

Mainly through her husband’s business, Pelosi was one of the wealthiest members of the House.

Her overall record during her legislative career showed a preference for pragmatism over idealism. On the campaign stump, Pelosi reigned — and remains — a fundraising juggernaut for her party.

At the same time, Republicans energized their base and raised money by painting her as a liberal firebrand.  Her first stint as speaker came to an end when Republicans took back the House majority in the 2010 Tea Party election, in which the GOP urged its candidates to feature Pelosi’s image in campaign ads.

In 2022, a hammer-wielding assailant broke into her San Francisco home, yelled, "Where’s Nancy?" and seriously injured her husband, who was there alone.

The attacker, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, said he viewed Pelosi as the leader of a liberal plot to take away freedoms — a belief not unlike the political rhetoric used against her for years.

Continued influence

Even after she had left the speakership, Pelosi was still playing a major role for her party, most notably leading efforts to convince Biden last year to not seek a second term. After stepping down from party leadership at the end of 2022, Pelosi chose to remain in the House representing California’s 11th Congressional District, which includes most of San Francisco.

By the end of her House leadership career, however, she was skirmishing with a new generation of female lawmakers who advocated a more aggressively progressive agenda.

Pelosi told author Susan Page, who wrote a biography about her, that the younger lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, would have to learn, as she did, that compromise was necessary to achieve results. 

Former Long Island Democratic congressman Steve Israel said that in the years he served in the House with Pelosi as party leader and speaker, “At every meeting, I was cognizant of the fact that I was watching history in action.”

“As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, I probably spent more time with her on a daily basis than most of my colleagues,” Israel said in a statement. “Many love her, some loathe her. But anyone who’s spent time with her respects her for impact, her tenacity, her ability to win the toughest battles.”