Pelosi Announces She Will Run for Reelection

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said Tuesday she plans to run for reelection this year.

“While we have made progress much more needs to be done to improve people’s lives. This election is crucial: nothing less is at stake than our Democracy,” the 81-year-old Democrat said in a tweet.

Pelosi, who has led her party in the chamber since 2003, narrowly won reelection as Speaker in a 216–209 vote in January 2021. Her current term, which is her fourth as speaker, is expected to be her last as she said in 2018 that she would seek a fourth and final term only if she had the support of two-thirds of her caucus.

At the time, she noted there had been a move to place limits on the leadership and the chairs of committees and that she planned to abide by the limits whether they were put in place or not.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who currently serves as the House Democratic Caucus chairman, is internally considered the favorite to succeed Pelosi as the leader of the House Democrats, according to The Hill.

Now, many are wondering whether Pelosi will go back on her word and seek to retain her leadership spot if Democrats hold on to their majority this year.

Meanwhile, the future of Democrats’ majority in the House is in question as the GOP needs a net gain of just five seats in the 2022 midterms to regain control of the chamber after losing the majority in the 2018 midterms for the first time in eight years.

On Tuesday, Pelosi reiterated her commitment to fighting for her party’s agenda despite a series of recent failures, including the inability to pass President Biden’s Build Back Better plan or the party’s voting rights legislation.

“Our democracy is at risk because of assaults on the truth . . . and the state-by-state assault on voting rights,” Pelosi said. “This election is crucial. Nothing less is at stake than our Democracy . . . and that is why I am running for reelection to Congress.”