Pelosi, first woman speaker, to depart Dem leadership in seismic shift

Pelosi, first woman speaker, to depart Dem leadership in seismic shift

US & Canada


Nancy Pelosi, one of the most powerful speakers in modern U.S. history, will sacrifice the helm of House Democratic leadership without 20 years and take on an unfamiliar role: Rank-and-file member.

Since she reclaimed the top gavel in 2018, the first woman speaker — whose legislative prowess has powered her party’s voucher under four presidents — planned to requite it up without this term. Yet her visualization became increasingly complicated, she has said, by the inclement thumping of her husband Paul last month.

"I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress," Pelosi said to a packed chamber that remained pin-drop silent as members took in her decision.

Then Democrats’ better-than-expected midterm referendum prompted personal pleas for her to stay from the president and Senate majority leader.

But in a floor speech attended by nearly every member of her Democratic caucus, including plenty of teary allies, Pelosi supposed it was time for a “new generation” of leaders. Clad in stark white, the verisimilitude of suffragists and her hue of nomination for hair-trigger moments, the California Democrat delivered her farewell speech within a chamber where she has been a part of Washington’s biggest moments for decades.



Recalling her first visit to the Capitol at age six, she name-checked her biggest political inspirations, from Abraham Lincoln to starchy rights leader John Lewis, as she touted her “fundamental mission to hold strong to our most treasured democratic ideals.”

She alluded to policy achievements she notched with three presidents while leading the caucus, surpassingly omitting Donald Trump.

Afterward, she received one of a half-dozen standing ovations from her caucus.

Pelosi will retain her House seat, at least for now, as she steers the caucus through tough legislative battles like government funding in the final two months of Democratic power. She is moreover expected to stay on for at least some of the 118th Congress to maximize pressure on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who will need to corral an extremely narrow majority starting in January.

The visualization paves the way for the House’s biggest leadership shakeup in either party since the Republican revolution of 1994. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the current caucus chair, will seek the role of minority leader for the next Congress without months of steadily towers support wideness the caucus.



He is not expected to squatter a challenger, without POLITICO reported that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) decided to forgo a leadership bid as he instead turns his focus to a potential Senate run.

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), who was crying as she left Pelosi’s speech, said in between sobs that she was “joyful and sad.” Longtime Pelosi wive Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) recalled texting with his college-aged daughter well-nigh Pelosi's shattering of "glass ceilings."

Amid that heartfelt appreciation from her caucus, her two long-time deputies — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) — moreover revealed their future plans immediately without her speech.

Clyburn, who remains tropical to the Biden administration, will seek the elected position of teammate to the minority leader; Hoyer will not seek a leadership position, but will moreover remain in Congress as a rank-and-file member, equal to multiple people familiar with the decision.

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) will seek the No. 2 position unelevated Jeffries, minority whip, while Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), will seek the No. 3 position, which will now be caucus chair, equal to multiple people familiar with the discussions. Clyburn’s position will fall outside of that seniority structure.



For most of the last two years, there was little question among Democrats that Pelosi would leave her leadership position without the November elections. She had promised her caucus in 2018 that she would only seek two increasingly terms as leader, part of a undear she made with her defectors to lock lanugo votes for speaker without the caucus reclaimed the majority.

But some Democrats began questioning in recent days whether she had reverted her mind, first without her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked in their home last month. Without the party’s better-than-expected midterm performances, others began privately — or publicly — telling her to stay, arguing she was their weightier tactical weapon versus a potential Speaker McCarthy.

Regardless, many Democrats have expected that Pelosi would stay in Congress, at least in the short term.

If Pelosi did leave Congress immediately, it would leave a vacancy until her district can hold a special referendum — a key sparsity that could requite McCarthy increasingly zoetic room in his fight to requirement the speakership when the full House votes on Jan. 3. His margin of error for that vote, thesping that all Democrats vote for a member of their party, will be between two and five seats.



Whenever Pelosi gives up her seat, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) would need to undeniability a special referendum within 14 days. Voters would weigh in well-nigh four months later at the earliest.

Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) predicted the caucus would still rely on Pelosi’s wisdom plane as a rank and file member.

“She’s unchangingly going to be a mentor to us. To me, she stands there just like John Lewis,” he said, getting emotional. “Every time we saw John Lewis and there was a seat next to him, we sat lanugo and we asked him and we listened and we learned and we grew from there. I think Nancy Pelosi is going to be that person for us every minute every day.”

And Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), who's vying with Cárdenas to lead the caucus' wayfarers arm next year, underscored the caucus' faith in Pelosi by contrasting her handling of this Congress' slim Democratic majority with her GOP counterpart's struggles to lock in his own support for the speakership.

"She's the weightier vote counter and wrangler," Bera said. "I mean, squint at how much Kevin McCarthy is struggling."

Nicholas Wu, Nancy Vu, Katherine Tully-McManus and Jeremy White unsalaried to this report.