Democrats hailed Nancy Pelosi as a “heroic, trailblazing” member of the US House of Representatives, after she announced in Congress that she plans to retire.
The 85-year-old, the first woman to serve as speaker of the house and one of the Party’s most influential leaders, said Thursday that she will not seek re-election in 2026.
“With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said.
The news comes as Democrats are riding high from this week’s election, which brought big wins for the California Party in New York and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia.
Hakeem Jeffries, who succeeded Pelosi in the Democratic Leader of the Congress, he praised the “dignity” of those 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack in 2021 attack on the 2021 attack on the US Capitol and the violent attack against her husband in 2022.
“Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi is an iconic, heroic, trailblazing, transformative leader of all time,” Jeffries wrote.
As Speaker of the House under Barack Obama, Pelosi helped pass the Affordable Care Act, among the democratic president’s underwhelming achievements. Obama said on Thursday that Pelosi “will go down in history as one of the best speakers ever to have been in the house of representatives”.
Adam Schiff, a senator from Pelosi’s home state of California, described Pelosi as “an indelible part of every major progressive accomplishment in the 21st century” and said her work “delivered affordable healthcare to millions, created countless jobs, raised families out of poverty, cleaned up pollution, brought LGBTQ+ rights into the mainstream and pulled our economy back from the brink of destruction not once, but twice”.
“She represents the United States on the world stage, persuading while balancing the demands of a dysfunctional Congress, and like Ginger Rogers — and in heels,” said Schiff in a statement.
Pelosi’s supporters say her service in Congress and groundbreaking rise to the role of speaker “changed the way we conceive of politics”. Her public and private efforts have helped increase the number of women in Congress, Debbie Walsh, the director of the Congressional Center and Politics, highlighted in a statement to Congress when she was in office in Congress, and now there are 151.
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“He made the imaginary real, and for young people who knew nothing about another world, he was permanently pushing the boundaries of what was possible,” Walsh said. “But he’s more than a symbol. He’s as much a speaker as anyone who serves and is much more than most.”
Pelosi’s retirement, long anticipated, is expected to heat up the race for her seat in San Francisco. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech executive who previously served as chief of staff to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and State Senator Scott Wiener announced plans to run.
Chakrabarti said about the news: “Thank you, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, for your decades of being a generation in politics and for doing something that is truly rare in Washington: Creating something for the next.”
Wiener praised Pelosi for “years of brave and tireless service to our country”. “Speaker Emerita Pelosi is more than a lawmaker — she’s an icon of American politics. She led the fight for health care and failed Trump when he tried.”