Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a video on Thursday that she would not seek reelection to the House of Representatives, capping nearly 40 years in Congress.
Pelosi, 85, made the announcement just two days after a Democratic sweep in elections throughout the country. She reportedly planned to announce her decision after the elections.
“No matter what title they have bestowed upon them, speaker, leader, there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, ‘I speak for the people of San Francisco,’” Pelosi said in the video. “I have truly loved serving as your voice in Congress, and I’ve always honored the soul of St Francis, ‘Lord make me an instrument of thy peace,’ the anthem of our city. That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know I will not be seeking reelection to Congress.”
In the clip, Pelosi touted her decades in public service, walking through San Fransicso’s various challenges and successes since she first ran for Congress in 1987.
“It seems prophetic now that the slogan of my very first campaign in 1987 was ‘a voice that will be heard,’ and it was you who made those words come true,” she said. “It was the faith that you had placed in me and the latitude that you have given me that enabled me to shatter the marble ceiling to be the first woman Speaker of the House whose voice would certainly be heard.”
Pelosi became the first female House speaker in 2007, cementing her status as a Democratic power broker who understood how to unify her party. After Democrats lost the House in 2010, she spent years galvanizing her party before it took back the chamber in 2018, when she once again ascended to the speakership. She stepped down from party leadership in 2022 once Democrats lost the House again.
Some of her most notable acts as a legislator have occurred in the last 15 years, including shepherding the Affordable Care Act through the House and presiding over both of Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings.
“With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” she said. “As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power. We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way, and now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”
