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Representative Nancy Pelosi is making room for a new generation of Democrats. The former House speaker announced Thursday she will retire at the end of her current term. She will exit when her term expires in 2027 after a remarkable 39 years in office. “I will not be seeking reelection to Congress. With a grateful heart I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said in a video statement posted to X. “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.” The San Francisco lawmaker was first elected to Congress in 1987, representing the city through the AIDS crisis, the legalization of gay marriage, and the rise of Silicon Valley. In 2007, she became one of the most powerful women in U.S. history when she was elected as the first—and to this day the only—female speaker of the House. Even as her significance atop the party dwindled in her final years in office, Pelosi held an unparalleled influence: she played a critical role in pushing President Joe Biden off the ticket after he floundered during a live debate with Donald Trump in July 2024, paving the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to take the party nomination. But at 85 years old, Pelosi has become a symbol of an aging Congress. For years, she has resisted calls to remove herself from office to make way for younger party members in California District 11. Calls for older lawmakers to retire have grown louder in the past two years, after Representatives Gerry Connolly and Dianne Feinstein (a close friend of Pelosi’s) died in office, leaving Democrats short on critical votes. Already, there are two young-ish Democrats vying to replace her. Representative Sara Jacobs, who currently represents California District 51 (the region north of San Diego), is Pelosi’s protégée. Jacobs comes from a billionaire family and has years of experience under Democratic titans familiar to Pelosi and her politics, such as Hillary Clinton. The opposition: Saikat Chakrabarti, co-author of the Green New Deal. The 39-year-old multimillionaire also has experience in Washington, albeit from a very different corner of the liberal party. He served as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first chief of staff and also worked on Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign. Pelosi’s exit will also pass the mantle of Democratic party leadership to a class of Capitol Hill politicians that she has spent years mentoring, led by Representative Hakeem Jeffries. This story has been updated.
