Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she’ll retire at the end of this term, closing out a historic 20-term congressional career that saw her become the first woman speaker of the U.S. House.
She would lose that post then regain it again eight years later, before ultimately turning the reins over to a younger generation of Democrats.
She was the driving force behind two administrations, that of President Obama and President Biden, including the passage of Obamacare in 2010 and recovery efforts after the 2008 Wall Street collapse and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
She also served as a foil to President Trump, twice overseeing successful House votes to impeach him, though the Senate would later acquit him.
Mrs. Pelosi, 85, first won election to her seat in San Francisco in 1987.
“I have truly loved serving as your voice in Congress,” she said in a video message Thursday announcing her decision. “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”
“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,” she concluded in her video.
She had hinted at the move in recent days, saying she would have an announcement after Tuesday’s election, where California voters approved new congressional maps intended to erase GOP seats.
Fellow Democrats hailed her as an unparalleled leader and political icon.
“Nancy Pelosi is the greatest speaker in the history of our country,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, Colorado Democrat. “She has a backbone of steel, and her determination to stand up for our democracy will be written about for decades.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the New York lawmaker who succeeded Mrs. Pelosi as leader of House Democrats, called her “an incredible mentor, trusted friend and awesome colleague.”
Her departure opens up a high-profile seat in an overwhelmingly Democratic district.
Two Democrats have entered the primary: state Sen. Scott Wiener and Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat.
Another possibility is Mrs. Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, who has been involved in the Democratic Party for decades but has not officially declared her candidacy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson commended Mrs. Pelosi for her years of service but said her departure was “a very important sign” about the direction the Democratic Party is going.
“Even the famous San Francisco liberal is not far left enough for the neo-Marxists,” the Louisiana Republican said.
That was a reference to the election Tuesday of Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist, to be mayor of New York City.
Indeed, Mrs. Pelosi’s career saw her emerge as part of her party’s left flank, become its center and then watch as it drifted even further to the left as young stars like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez emerged.
Her four terms as speaker, from 2007 to 2011, and again from 2019 to 2023, saw passage of the Affordable Care Act; the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which set standards for being able to sue over gender pay parity; the Recovery Act and the American Rescue Plan, to bolster the economy after economic downturns; and the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr. Biden’s major budget-climate law.
Mr. Biden on Thursday called Ms. Pelosi “the best Speaker of the House in American history.”
She was also instrumental in ushering Mr. Biden out of last year’s presidential race.
Mrs. Pelosi was presiding over the counting of votes from the Electoral College on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, disrupted business and invaded her office.
She forged a panel to investigate the events of that day, which became fuel for criminal cases against those in the mob and was used by then-Special Counsel Jack Smith in one of his criminal prosecutions of Mr. Trump.
Mrs. Pelosi’s own role on that day would later come under scrutiny after she was accused of refusing to accept National Guard troops in advance. She has maintained her stance that Mr. Trump is to blame for delaying sending the guard on the day itself.
A video from Jan. 6 — recorded by her daughter, a documentary filmmaker — was released in 2024 showing her amid the chaos, saying she took “full responsibility.”
“We have totally failed. We have to take some responsibility for not holding the security accountable for what could have happened,” she said.
The animosity between her and Mr. Trump has persisted. She made headlines in 2020 when, while standing on the dais behind him, she ripped up her copy of his just-delivered State of the Union speech.
And she recently labeled him “the worst thing on the face of the Earth.”
Mr. Trump told Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy on Thursday that he was happy to see Mrs. Pelosi go.
“The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America. I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice. Nancy Pelosi is a highly overrated politician,” the president said.
Even before she was speaker, Mrs. Pelosi set the bar for her party’s left wing.
As Democratic whip, she led the rebellion among House Democrats to the 2002 resolution that authorized President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, breaking with then-Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
She would go on to take over as minority leader after the 2002 election, building her party for its eventual recapture of control of the House in the 2006 election.
Her first speakership saw her pull Mr. Obama to the left with liberal wish-list health care and climate change bills. The former got watered down into Obamacare in the Senate, while the later never cleared the upper chamber.
She lost control of the House — and the speakership — in the tea party wave election of 2010, returning to minority leader for eight years before claiming the top post in the anti-Trump 2018 election.
By the time Mr. Biden was in the White House, she was more of a brake on her party’s left wing, though still driving the president’s priorities.
“I often said Nancy Pelosi was the best Speaker of the House in American history,” Mr. Biden said in a statement Thursday.
