Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she will not seek reelection to Congress after having spent 39 years representing San Francisco in the legislative body.
The 85-year-old, who made history as the country’s first and only female House speaker, will retire at the conclusion of her term in early 2027.
“With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said in a nearly six-minute video posted on X early Thursday morning.
“My message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” she added. “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.”
Pelosi led the House Democrats for 20 years, including eight years spent as speaker.
She was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election to replace the late Representative Sala Burton (D., Calif.) She ultimately would become one of the most influential voices in the Democratic Party.
In the days ahead of her announcement, Pelosi’s staff responded to rumors of her retirement by saying she would address her political future after Californians headed to the polls to vote on the state’s redistricting measure, Proposition 50. That ballot measure, which will see the state redraw its congressional map to potentially add as many as five Democratic seats, easily passed on Tuesday. Pelosi personally raised tens of millions of dollars for Proposition 50, according to CNN.
Pelosi first became speaker after the 2006 election, and again after the 2018 election. She frequently clashed with President Trump during his first term and oversaw congressional oversight that twice ended in Trump being impeached by the House.
In another infamous moment from her second term as speaker, Pelosi tore up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech to Congress while she sat behind him during his address.
During her time in Congress, which has spanned the terms of seven presidents, Pelosi’s team has also credited her as the “chief architect” of the Affordable Care Act.
Trump, who has dubbed Pelosi “Crazy Nancy,” celebrated the news of her retirement in comments to Fox News.
“The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America,” he said, calling her “evil,” “corrupt,” and “only focused on bad things for our country.”
“She was rapidly losing control of her party and it was never coming back. I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice,” Trump said.
Before Pelosi’s retirement announcement, two Democrats had already announced their intention to run for her seat: state Senator Scott Weiner and Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D., N.Y.)