SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
FILE – Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks at the Capitol in Washington, April 19, 2023. – J. Scott Applewhite/AP, FILE
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday she will run for reelection in 2024.
“Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery,” Pelosi wrote in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote,” she continued.
Pelosi, 83, was first elected to Congress in 1987. She became the first woman to hold the House speakership in 2007, and was elected by her peers to serve in the top position again in 2019.
Pelosi, a political power player revered for her legislative prowess and fundraising abilities, steered the Democratic Party through four presidents. She helped usher the Affordable Care Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and other bills through Congress and led the House through two impeachments of former President Donald Trump.
She stepped down from House Democratic leadership last year after the party narrowly lost its majority in the midterm elections. She remained in Congress as a member. She said then that the time had come to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders.
“A new day is dawning on the horizon, and I look forward, always forward, to the unfolding story of our nation, a story of light and love, of patriotism and progress, of many becoming one,” she said in an emotional speech delivered on the House floor. “And always an unfinished mission to make the dreams of today the reality of tomorrow.”
Pelosi was later honored with the title “Speaker Emerita” and had her official portrait unveiled in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
“No matter what titles my colleagues may have given me, my highest official honor will always be to speak for the people of San Francisco,” she said at the portrait unveiling ceremony.
Pelosi’s reelection announcement comes as Democrats look to take back majority control of the chamber in the 2024 cycle. If she is reelected in the Bay Area district, which is solidly Democratic, it will be her 20th term in Congress.
The decision also comes amid debate about the relatively advanced age of the nation’s elected officials.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, now 90, faced calls to resign earlier this year after a serious case of shingles caused her to be absent from Washington for several months. Feinstein has already announced she will retire at the end of her term in early 2025.
Pelosi defended Feinstein against such calls, arguing she’d never seen a man in Congress face similar criticisms.
“I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way,” Pelosi said earlier this year.
