Nancy Pelosi, first woman US House Speaker, announces retirement from Congress

Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as the powerful Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has said she will not run for re-election to Congress in 2026, ending a four-decade career of a progressive Democratic icon often vilified by the right.

The 85-year-old congresswoman, first elected in 1987, made her announcement two days after voters in California on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, a state redistricting effort aimed at flipping five House seats to Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

“I will not be seeking re-election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service,” Ms Pelosi said in a video posted on X.

California’s embrace of Proposition 50 was in response to a similar move by Texas to boost Republicans’ chances. The political strategy was spearheaded by California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, but was right in Pelosi’s wheelhouse.

She has been at the forefront in battling for control of the House and especially taking on Republican Donald Trump, who feuded with her in his first presidential term from 2017-2020.

Ms Pelosi’s retirement follows years of younger Democrats chafing at elders hanging onto their positions of power and not doing enough to cultivate future leaders.

Nowhere was that more on display than the summer of 2024 when an 81-year old Democratic President Joe Biden limped through his debate with Mr Trump, weeks before dropping out of the race in part due to pressure from fellow Democrats including Ms Pelosi.

Ms Pelosi was asked by Reuters during a 2022 roundtable interview whether she had any career regrets, including the deepening rancour and divisions plaguing the House.

She said she wished she had won more elections to deny Republicans power and “to make sure that a creature like Donald Trump never became president of the United States.”

Indeed, Ms Pelosi tried to remove Mr Trump from power twice, with House impeachments in late 2019 and early 2021, only to see Senate Republicans acquit him.

So deep was the animosity between Ms Pelosi and Mr Trump that it spilled onto the President’s 2020 State of the Union address, when he refused to shake her hand upon his arrival in the House chamber.

She, in turn, stood up at the conclusion of his speech and with a dramatic flair ripped in half a printed copy of the speech, later saying she did so because every page contained a “lie.”

Republicans in 2021 expressed outrage at Ms Pelosi when she rejected their recommendations of two staunch Mr Trump defenders to serve on a special committee investigating Mr Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

While Ms Pelosi accepted partisan fighting as a part of the job, the growing anger in US politics took a toll on her family in 2022, when a right-wing conspiracy theorist broke into her San Francisco home and struck her husband Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer. He later recovered.

With her exit from the national stage at the end of 2026, when her 20th term expires, the House and Democrats nationwide will be losing one of its highest-profile liberals at a time of party upheaval.

Three years ago, Ms Pelosi announced she was retiring from Democratic leadership, which included two four-year stints as speaker, from 2007-2011 and 2019-2023.