Nancy Pelosi to Retire
The octogenarian Speaker Emerita will not seek re-election.
Earlier in the week, Steven Taylor and I shared a chuckle over the NBC News headline “Democrats brace for Nancy Pelosi’s possible retirement.”
Democrats are bracing for the possible retirement of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, one of the party’s most powerful, popular and effective leaders, who served as chief antagonist to President Donald Trump during his first term and has quietly counseled Democrats as they take on Trump in his second term.
She is expected to make an announcement about her future after Tuesday’s elections, when voters will consider a ballot measure, known as “Proposition 50,” that would redraw the state’s congressional lines. Pelosi is a prominent proponent of the plan, which Democrats hope would net them several seats in next year’s midterm elections.
Multiple Democratic sources in her home state and in Congress told NBC News they believe the 85-year-old California Democrat will choose not to seek re-election in 2026 after nearly four decades representing her San Francisco-based district.
“I wish she would stay for 10 more years,” said one House Democrat from California. “I think she’s out. She’s going to go out with Prop 50 overwhelmingly passing, and what a crowning achievement for her to do that.”
It should not be surprising, much less shocking, when an 85-year-old retires. Regardless, she has in fact done so.
NYT (“Pelosi Plans to Retire in 2027 After 39 Years in Congress“):
Representative Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that she will retire when her term concludes in early 2027, ending a remarkable career in which she rose to become one of the most powerful women in American history.
Ms. Pelosi, 85, was the nation’s first and only female House speaker, and she will have represented San Francisco in Congress for 39 years when she leaves office. She has served during an era of seismic change for American society and her own city, from the throes of the AIDS crisis to the legalization of gay marriage, and through the meteoric rise of the tech sector and the nation’s extreme polarization.
She entered political office later in life and became a hero to Democrats for the way she wielded immense power to push Obamacare, climate change legislation and infrastructure programs through Congress.
[…]
Her Democratic colleagues said she was unlike any other politician with whom they had worked. Jackie Speier, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the House for 15 years, said that Ms. Pelosi would go down in history “as the most consequential speaker ever.”
I doubt Pelosi, who only served eight years as Speaker, will go down as the most consequential. But, certainly, she was the most effective in the hyperpolarized era of the last three decades or so.
A November 2022 AP encomium(“Pelosi, dominant figure for the ages, leaves lasting imprint“) as she handed the reins to a younger generation:
She is the most powerful woman in American politics and one of the nation’s most consequential legislative leaders — through times of war, financial turmoil, a pandemic and an assault on democracy.
[…]
Across the policy spectrum, whether you liked the results or not, she delivered votes that touched ordinary lives in many ways. Among them: how millions get health care, the state of the roads, the lightened burden of student debt, the minimum wage, progress on climate change that took over a decade to bear fruit.
Even former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich, a self-described “partisan conservative who thinks that most of her positions are insane,” said Pelosi had a “remarkable” run. This, from a fellow “troublemaker with a gavel,” as she called herself. He flamed out; she didn’t.
“Totally dominant,” Gingrich said of her in an interview. “She’s clearly one of the strongest speakers in history. She has shown enormous perseverance and discipline.”
Those qualities are essential if you don’t want to be run out of town, as was a succession of modern Republican speakers, back to Gingrich. It’s one thing to herd sheep. It’s another thing altogether to herd Democrats and all their messy factions.
Pelosi dealt with conservative Blue Dog Democrats, the liberal women of the Squad, the Out of Iraq Caucus — not to mention old-guard legislators who treated their committees like fiefdoms.
Many of the above, at one point or another, earned her look of icy disapproval, well practiced and not always reserved just for the other side.
“Politics is tough,” she said in 2015, “but intraparty? Oh, brother.”
[…]
Princeton political scientist Frances Lee said there’s no doubt Pelosi was a “truly great legislative leader, among a handful truly in command. She’s really had her party in the House of Representatives in hand. The difficulty of managing them should not be underrated. It didn’t always look pretty but she held the party together.”
Pelosi prevailed — for nearly 20 years as House Democratic leader including nearly eight as speaker in two separate stints — with hard-nosed sentiments like these:
“Whoever votes against the speaker will pay a price.” — to Democrats who resisted her push for a select committee on climate change early in her speakership.
“Nobody’s walking out of here saying anything, if they want to keep an intact neck.” — to negotiators trying to work out a 2007 House-Senate compromise to restrain pork, according to the notes of John A. Lawrence, her then-chief of staff and author of a new insider book on her speakership, “Arc of Power.”
Sometimes, she could snap her lawmakers into line without a word.
A flick of her hand was all it took to silence Democrats who cheered when the House first passed articles of impeachment against Trump. It was an occasion for sobriety and Pelosi was a stickler for institutional decorum. But not always.
[…]
Over the years, Pelosi honed the art of aiming high, then disappointing one faction of her party or another without losing her core of support. Rare is the major achievement that was as far left as the party’s left wing wanted it to be.
But many are the major achievements. She settled for an “Obamacare” bill that did not give everyone the option of government health insurance, but did, over time, fundamentally expand access to health care.
As financial institutions and large segments of the economy sank into the Great Recession, with the 2008 election looming, she settled for a Bush-era stimulus package that essentially bailed out Wall Street — when liberal Occupy Wall Street activists had very different ideas.
She delivered Democratic votes to help even some Trump initiatives get over the line, like early COVID-19 pandemic relief, before swinging behind President Joe Biden on some of the most far-reaching legislation since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society push in the 1960s.
[…]
For all the accolades, Pelosi crushed a multitude of toes along the way.
“Her instincts are to find a path and if you happen to be standing in the hole, she’s going to treat you like a running back,” said political scientist Cal Jillson at Southern Methodist University. “If she can go through you, fine. If not, you’re headed to the medicine tent.”
[…]
Her prowess in persuading people to open their wallets on behalf of Democratic candidates was one of the keys to her success. Harman calls those dollars crucial to the “big tent” that Pelosi erected for her caucus and to her ability to hold sway over it — “a $1.25 billion tent.”
Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican who was in the same freshman class with Pelosi and is retiring from Congress, said of her: “This is why the Democrats had more money than God. She was magic, and I don’t think she lost a vote.”
Gingrich tacks on other elements of her power: “Her fundraising, her ability to inspire intense loyalty, her willingness to punish people who don’t do what she wants.”
“As a professional, you have to have great respect for her ability to acquire and wield power and her ability to build what was an effective machine,” he said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement that despite their many disagreements, “I have seen firsthand the depth and intensity of her commitment to public service. There is no question that the impact of Speaker Pelosi’s consequential and path-breaking career will long endure.”
[…]
For all her clout in government, Pelosi was an unpopular figure in the country overall. In a Pew Research Center poll conducted in late June and early July, only about a third of respondents had a favorable opinion of Pelosi, while 6 in 10 were unfavorable toward her.
Most Democrats and Democratic leaners — about 6 in 10 — were thumbs up about her, though she lagged Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, both rated favorably by three-quarters of Democrats. About 9 in 10 Republicans viewed her unfavorably.
Through it all, she went at practically everything as if it had a best-before date. After all, she would say, “Power is perishable.” Washington is “the perishable city.”
Politics, they say, ain’t beanbag. That she managed to hand over the leadership of the House Democratic caucus on her own terms, despite serving mostly in the minority, was remarkable in its own right. That she was able to wrangle the votes of such a disparate and fractious group much more so.
So glad she decided to retire while she is still strong. No Diane Feinstein there. Sure she cracked the whip but she allowed some to vote against her when it was important to their voters and yet did not change the outcome. That is leadership.
I think that of all of our female politicians she was the one who was most hated just because she was female. I have countless people volunteer that they hated her just for doing stuff other Speakers have done and just for holding power. You could also make a case that Hillary had it worse but I think she had the general Clinton record, positive and negative, to deal with also.
Steve
Much respect to her! It’s a little late but she still has some fight in her and was right to step down as speaker when she did. None of us are getting any younger but we should all be preparing the next generation to take over before we lose our drive and effectiveness. If only Grassley, Schumer and many others would follow.
@Scott:
The praise is warranted and we should keep it up. The more fulsomely we celebrate Pelosi’s career and retirement, the more we incentivize other Democrats of her generation to follow her leadership again – in this case, choosing to retire before their Best if Used By date.
Both of our parties need a massive infusion of youthful pols. If the Democrats shift their average age down first, all the better.
@Scott F.:
Why tho? I’m fairly young, and even I’m not as sold on the alleged virtues of youthful politicians and politics as others around here. I’ve no burning desire to see a Congress of Charlie Kirks. I like my peers but I’m not entirely sure I trust them yet.
“And the sandwich was this big.”
@HelloWorld:
I’m with you on this.
I’ve said this before, but I’m old enough to remember when, in 1980 Chuck Grassley ran for the Senate in part based on his support for Term Limits. Well about 45 years and 7 terms later it seems that he forget to term himself out.
Chuck Schumer? Technically a good senator, but as the Minority Leader, he is an energy and charisma-free zone. He should step aside and let new leadership take the reins. He doersn’t even haver to relinquish his seat to so, just get out of the way.
@DK:
I remember Pete Buttigieg, when he was campaigning in 2020, talking about climate change through the lens of someone who would be alive as the consequences of inaction manifested. He proposed that he, as a person in his generation, had unique interest in getting the national response right. Even as I am a tail end Baby Boomer, Pete’s position resonated with me.
I don’t trust “youthful politicians” en masse either and you’re right to name Kirk as a cautionary example of blind trust in the young as a general category. But, people who will be alive in the future having a greater influence on how the future is shaped through policy strikes me as a sound principle worth supporting.
I recall an interview with Pelosi some years ago on the BBC’s “Next 100 Days” US political analysis progemme (it’s a damn shame they dropped that, imho)
She came across as very sharp indeed, but also with a certain sense of humour, and empathy.
Very impressive.
But I foumd most Dem Congresspersons who turned up on that show seemed pretty smart, and rather likeable.
I thought Hakeem Jeffries came over very well, for instance.
And I’d quite like to move to California just to be able to vote for Adam Schiff.
Republicans, more a mixed bag.
Once moved out of their “comfort zone” talking points, many seemed rather uncomfortable
Ted Cruz in particaular did not impress, lol.
Likewise, Josh Hawley.
Rand Paul, sincere, but rather dim.
McConnell was obviously a serious operator, despite an intial affected persona of bemusement.
In short: the Democrats seem to have a lot of talent both in Congress, and governors: Newsom, for instance. Or Whitmer. Or etc.
All told: I can see no reasons not to vote Democrat in the US, and a lot of good reasons to do so.
I have to admit, I’d have rather liked to see Pelosi as President.
@Scott F.:
“Bah! What’s posterity ever done for me?”
@DK:
I tend to agree; a lot of young politicians tend to be enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm, as opposed to calculation, is not always the best thing in politics.
“Old and sneaky often beats young and exuberant.”
It often helps to know, from experience, where the leverage is, what the trade-offs are, and what traps the opposition is setting.
I’ve never been as great a Pelosi fan as most Democrats appear to be. I thought the time for her to make way for new leadership was 2011, following the debacle of the mid-terms. Regardless of whether or not she could have prevented it, sometimes leadership consists of accepting responsibility for bad outcomes and acting accordingly.
Hakeem Jeffries has not been an especially impressive replacement, which is no credit to the Pelosi/Hoyer/Clyburn troika who dominated the House Democratic caucus for so many years, along with committee chairs like Waters, Lee, Kaptur and Nadler. Reportedly there is a mood in the caucus to abandon the longstanding commitment to seniority in appointing committee members, which would be a good thing.
Nancy Pelosi is an American hero. Godspeed to her.