Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House and a dominant force in American politics for nearly four decades, announced Thursday that she will not seek reelection in 2026, closing the book on one of the most influential congressional careers in modern history.
“For decades, I’ve cherished the privilege of representing our magnificent city in the United States Congress,” Pelosi said in a video message posted on social media.
“No matter what title they have bestowed upon me — Speaker, Leader, Whip — 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.’”
Voters first sent the Democrat to the House in a 1987 special election. Pelosi, now 85, became the first female Speaker in 2007 and again in 2019 when Democrats regained control of the chamber. Over the decades, she delivered billions in federal funding to California — including the transformation of the Presidio into a national park and major expansions of BART and Caltrain — helped pass Wall Street reform, climate protections, and infrastructure investments, and led both impeachments of President Donald Trump.
Pelosi’s Signature Achievement
But few legislative battles define Nancy Pelosi’s speakership like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. As Speaker, Pelosi, working alongside Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), orchestrated one of the most polarizing domestic policy overhauls in decades: “Obamacare.”
Billed as a next-generation expansion of healthcare coverage to over 20 million Americans that banned insurance denials for pre-existing conditions; critics decry it as a costly government takeover of one-sixth of the economy for the sake of just six percent of the population, pointing to millions who lost existing plans, soaring premiums, “death panels,” trillions in added debt, and repeated legal and legislative patches — including a Supreme Court ruling upheld only by reclassifying the legally dubious mandate as a “tax.”
The final push came on Christmas Eve 2009, when the Senate passed its version of the bill (H.R. 3590) at 7:05 a.m. after an all-night session — the first time in history the Senate voted on Christmas Eve. Reid secured the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster with a razor-thin Democratic majority. The House had already passed its version in November, but reconciliation was required. On March 21, 2010, the House approved the Senate bill 219–212, with Pelosi delivering the votes without any Republican support.
“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy,” she famously said during remarks to the National Association of Counties in the days leading up to the final floor vote.
On March 20, 2010, Speaker Pelosi and Democratic leaders — including Representatives Representatives Steny Hoyer (D-MD-05) and John Lewis (D-GA-03) — walked arm-in-arm through a massive Tea Party protest on the Capitol steps, forgoing secure underground tunnels.
During their sojourn through the scrum of an estimated 30,000 demonstrators, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) reported being spat on, and Lewis said he was called the N-word. Tea Party activists vehemently denied the racial slurs, and launched efforts to identify any bad actors in their midst. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL-01) was seen recording the contingent with a video camera as they walked through the crowd. The activists reportedly reached out to congressional staffers for details but received no cooperation. Conservative news man Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 for video or audio proof of the slurs — a reward that remains unclaimed to this day.
At the March 23 signing ceremony, Pelosi said, “We’re here to do what’s right for the American people,” and that the legislative package was “a victory for patients, for families, for seniors, for small businesses.”
She handed Obama a gavel engraved with the date, symbolizing the bill’s hard-won passage.
During her time as Speaker in the first Trump administration, Pelosi’s tenure was marked by intense clashes with the administration, including leading the House of Representatives’ first impeachment of the president.
At Trump’s first State of the Union address in February 2019, he urged lawmakers to “reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good.” Pelosi, seated behind him, rose and delivered a series of slow, deliberate claps — arms extended, eyes locked in what many called a “patronizing” or “sarcastic” stare-down.
The “Pelosi Clap” exploded into memes, GIFs, and parodies, with critics deriding it as petty shade and supporters praising her poise. Pelosi later insisted it wasn’t sarcasm but applause for the sentiment itself, though body language experts noted the “laser focus” and irony given the ongoing government shutdown Trump had triggered.
The next year, just one day after the Senate acquitted Trump in his first impeachment, Pelosi punctuated the president’s February 5, 2020 State of the Union Address by standing at the podium to methodically tear up her copy of the speech, a couple of pages at a time. The stunt was broadcast live as Republicans in the chamber cheered of “Four more years!”
Pelosi later explained to Democrats, “He shredded the truth, so I shredded the paper,” adding she couldn’t find a single lie-free page. Republicans decried it as “childish” and “disrespectful,” with Trump tweeting it was her “legacy,” while Democrats gave her a standing ovation.
That acrimony simmered through the 2020 election cycle. After Joe Biden was declared the victor amid a spate of deeply troubling irregularities in key swing states, President Trump called for a rally on January 6, 2021 — a day which ultimately resulted in thousands of arrests and at least one civilian dead, as rally goers rushed the Capitol.
Pelosi’s role in the January 6 events remains controversial, particularly after unaired HBO footage from that day filmed by her daughter Alexandra was released in 2024, showing Pelosi expressing frustration over security lapses. With cameras rolling, she said, “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.” Republicans on seized the statement arguing she bore blame for the unrest.
Pelosi’s reputation for dogged toughness played out in real time in December 2024, when, while on a bipartisan congressional delegation to Luxembourg marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, the then-84-year-old, slipped and fell down marble stairs at the Grand Ducal Palace. She sustained a fractured hip that required surgery, which she underwent the next day at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Defying timelines of most women her age, Pelosi returned to the House floor three weeks later on January 7 to vote for a Republican-backed continuing resolution to keep the government funded through September 30, 2025. It was her last “yea” vote on a CR to date.
The long time lawmaker has also become synonymous with savvy — or suspiciously timed — stock trading, inspiring the so-called “Pelosi Index,” a meme-inspired tracker of her family’s disclosed investments that has outperformed the S&P 500 by wide margins. From 2019 to 2024, trades linked to Pelosi and her husband Paul (a venture capitalist) reportedly returned 65.5% vs. the market’s 31%, per an Unusual Whales analysis. The Pelosis’ unusual windfalls fuel bipartisan calls for reform like the ETHICS Act to ban congressional stock trading. Critics, including Elon Musk, have quipped it’s “insider trading on steroids,” while defenders note public disclosures and no proven violations.
Pelosi’s legislative activity has waned since relinquishing the Speaker’s gavel in January 2023. The last bill she sponsored was introduced in February 2021 with H.R. 1085, which sought to award three congressional gold medals to the United States Capitol Police and “those who protected the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
However, she is cosponsoring over 118 measures that reflect her enduring priorities in social justice, economic equity, and public health. Among them:
- The Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 (H.R. 5449, 55 cosponsors), aimed at curbing partisan gerrymandering;
- The FAMILY Act (H.R. 5390, 193 cosponsors) for paid family leave;
- The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2025 (H.R. 5361, 126 cosponsors) to overhaul law enforcement accountability;
- The Reproductive Freedom for Veterans Act (H.R. 4876, 116 cosponsors);
- The EACH Act of 2025 (H.R. 4611, 177 cosponsors) expanding abortion access;
- The Raise the Wage Act of 2025 (H.R. 2743, 163 cosponsors) to boost the federal minimum wage;
- The American Dream and Promise Act of 2025 (H.R. 1589, 212 cosponsors) for immigration reform;
- The Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2025 (H.R. 20, 212 cosponsors), bolstering union rights.
These cosponsorships – spanning key committees from Judiciary to Ways and Means – underscore Pelosi’s continued push for progressive priorities as she heads into retirement.
Born Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro in Baltimore in 1940, Pelosi grew up in a political family. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a congressman and three-term mayor; her mother, Annunciata, a skilled organizer. After earning a political science degree from Trinity College in 1962, she married Paul Pelosi, a Georgetown-educated financier, and moved to San Francisco. The couple raised five children — Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul Jr., and Alexandra — and now have nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Pelosi’s biography notes she delayed her own political ascent to focus on family and party organizing, chairing the California Democratic Party in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Though not related by blood to outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pelosi is connected through marriage. Her brother-in-law Ron Pelosi was once married to Newsom’s aunt, and the two have been close allies.
Responding the Pelosi’s announcement, Newsom posted on X: “Nancy Pelosi has inspired generations. Her courage and conviction to San Francisco, California, and our nation has set the standard for what public service should be.”
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Nancy Pelosi’s Top 10 Legislative Achievements 1. Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) – 2010 2. Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173) – 2010 3. Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376) – 2022 4. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) – 2021 5. American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319) – 2021 6. Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (H.R. 2965) – 2010 7. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (S. 181) – 2009 8. American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) – 2009 9. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act (H.R. 3792) – 2009 10. Presidio Trust Establishment Act (H.R. 4236) – 1996 |
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Christina Botteri is the Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow her on X at @christinakb.
Image “Rep Nancy Pelosi” by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Divisive. Rich. Term limits. Goodbye