After 39 years in politics, Nancy Pelosi will retire from Congress in 2027. Pelosi announced her decision in a video to San Francisco (the city that she has represented for over three decades). Nancy Pelosi, 85 years old, was a major force in U.S. politics. Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987, rising through the ranks until she eventually became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives in U.S. history.
Pelosi is best known for representing San Francisco in the House and her work with presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden in passing the Affordable Healthcare Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, the Honoring the PACT Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. She has passed several laws about healthcare for everybody, rights for LGBTQ+, gun control, immigration and protecting the middle class.
Pelosi didn’t actually run for office until she was 47 years old, when she ran in a special election for the House of Representatives. In 2002, she became the leader of the Democratic Party in the House, which was the minority at the time. She was the first female Speaker of the House from 2007 until 2011, when the House was taken over by Democrats. She then became Speaker again from 2019 to 2023 after the Democrats lost control. She was also the first person to regain control of the House for a second time in over 60 years.
During her time in Congress, she has been involved in several key moments in U.S. history. She has worked with four presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Pelosi also helped President Obama with the economy’s recovery after the Great Recession in 2007 and was one of the people who publicly encouraged Joe Biden to step down from the 2024 presidential race.
Pelosi is also well-known for being very outspoken against the current president, Donald J. Trump. She led two impeachment efforts against Donald Trump (2019 and 2021) and started investigating him for the Jan. 6 attack.
After her impeachment efforts of Trump, politics entered into her personal life: in 2022, her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked inside their home by someone who wanted to talk to Nancy Pelosi. Her husband was then sent to the hospital, where he then went into surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm.
There have been several mixed feelings about Pelosi’s retirement announcement. Donald Trump has made several accusations about her.
“The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “She was evil, corrupt and only focused on bad things for our country.”
On the other hand, former president Joe Biden talked about how grateful he was for her and how they made history together.
“When I was President, we worked together to grow our economy, create millions of jobs and make historic investments in our nation’s future,” Biden said on X. “She has devoted much of her life to this country, and America will always be grateful.”
In 2024, for all the work she has done within the government, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. While Pelosi is retiring in 2027, there have already been several talks about who will run for her position next year.
