Nancy Pelosi announces she will not seek reelection to Congress after nearly 40 years in Washington

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/politics/nancy-pelosi-congress-retirement?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit

24 comments

  1. [Nancy Pelosi](https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/01/politics/nancy-pelosi-fast-facts), the first and only female speaker of the US House of Representatives and one of the most powerful figures in Democratic politics for decades, has announced she will not seek reelection.

    “I say to my colleagues in the House all of the time, no matter what title they had 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.’

    “I have truly loved serving as your voice in Congress, and I have always honored the song of St. Francis, ‘Lord make an instrument of thy peace,’ the anthem of our city. That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know. I will not be seeking reelection to Congress,” Pelosi, 85, said Thursday in a sweeping video that stood as a love letter to the city she has represented for nearly 40 years in Washington.

    The announcement ends heightened speculation in recent days that the longtime Democrat would soon announce her intention to draw her congressional career to a close after 38 years. She was widely expected to leave Congress after this term, her first in decades as a rank-and-file member.

  2. Her district is most likely safe dem, and she is 85 years old

    We need more people to pass the torch…hell on both sides of the fence the fact that Chuck Grassley is still a senator at 92 is insanity especially with how far right Iowa has darted he should have stepped down 20 years ago lmao

  3. Happy retirement and about time. You had the chance years ago to move on and spend time doing other things while getting younger people ready to govern. You did not.

  4. Thank goodness. Finally.

    Not that we’re gonna get them anytime soon, but we desperately need an age limit for the president & congresspeople.

  5. Thank fucking god.

    The old people being in charge while continually voting themselves money has to end.

    The old people being in charge while not being able to save as PDF has to end.

    The old people being in charge while not being able to explain what “two factor authentication” is has to end.

    Edit: thanks for the spellcheck.

  6. She goes down as one of the most effective and influential speaker of houses in history, up there with Henry Clay.

    From Obamacare, to leading two impeachment inquiries into Trump, to bring an actually good opposition leader (looking at you, Chuck), two reconciliation packages, and almost scavenging the 2024 election by pushing Biden out. Pelosi always somehow managed to get it done.

  7. It’s time for her to retire. Her district is safe and at this point she’s more of an old guard persona that has become an effective attack target for Republicans.

    I’ll give her what she is due though, despite me disagreeing with her on what ideology in the Democratic Party she leans towards, she was extremely effective at getting votes locked up and making sure her party in the House was united when the Republicans were all over the place. I think a lot of more left leaning Democrats (which I would be part of) are going to realize what losing that sort of ability can mean.

  11. One of the issues that I see with the modern political environment is that everyone feels the need to form a polarized opinion on every politician and event. Nancy Pelosi did some good things and she did some bad things. People are rushing to get in the comments and declare their joy or distain or whatever it is. Not everything needs to be distilled to a single feeling. Things can be complicated and they can be ‘meh.’

  12. 85 years old.

    Now Nancy ask Auntie Maxine to do the same.

  14. She was an extremely effective Speaker but it’s time for some younger candidates.

  15. She was the biggest fundraiser for the party. While I am find with her retirement, I do hope she continues to fundraise and support in the background. Let the new generation take over.

  22. Saikat Chakbrabarti, co-founder of Justice Democrats and former AOC campaign manager for her pivotal 2018 run is running for her seat!

    His opponent will be a center-right AIPAC prop who tried to remove the 1A rights of California university protesters from protesting against Israel.

  24. Based on the comments in this thread I’m going to get down voted to oblivion for this, but as a former Congressional staffer, I’m going to share anyway.

    Yes, she is aging, yes, she maybe should have retired long ago and trained a successor. But for my money right now, I am not seeing anyone at the moment who is ready to fill her shoes. People had been pushing for Jeffries for years, a younger replacement with good cache in the party, and he’s clearly not been up to snuff. At least not yet.

    I used to waiver between disdain and indifference towards Pelosi, until I moved to DC and worked in Congress for a few years. Watching her work up close, her ability to both listen to but also rein in a rowdy caucus with a wide array of views along the political spectrum, was impressive. She got massive legislation through with consensus that only she could reach in the party. This is not to mention her impressive fundraising ability, which like it or not, you need to stay in power. This isn’t to say she was perfect or did not have her share of bad moments, but in any career, you serve long enough and you’ll be able to find plenty to disagree with.

    People are over her now, especially with this hunger for generational change, but history will look back on her as one of the greatest speakers of all time. We do need younger, fresher voices in the party, but politicking and the House of Representatives are incredibly complex beasts to handle, and it does require some experience that cannot be discounted.

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