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Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Patricia Pelosi ( ; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who was the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first female elected speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, heading the House Democrats from 2003 to 2023. Her 20 years as a House party leader are tied with Joe Martin's as the second-longest after Sam Rayburn. Pelosi is in her 20th term, having served in the House since 1987, representing , which includes most of San Francisco. She is the dean of California's congressional delegation.

The daughter of Representative Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., Pelosi was born and raised in Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College, Washington, in 1962 and married businessman Paul Pelosi the next year. They moved to New York City before settling down in San Francisco with their children. Focused on raising her family, Pelosi entered politics in the 1960s as a volunteer for the Democratic Party. After years of party work, rising to chair the state party, she was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election. Pelosi steadily rose through the ranks of the House Democratic Caucus to be elected House minority whip in 2001 and elevated to House minority leader a year later.

In the 2006 midterm elections, Pelosi led the Democrats to a majority in the House for the first time in 12 years and was subsequently elected Speaker. She was the first woman to hold the office. Until 2021, Pelosi was the highest-ranking woman in the presidential line of succession in U.S. history. During her first speakership, Pelosi was a major opponent of the Iraq War as well as the Bush administration's attempts to partially privatize Social Security. She then helped pass the Obama administration's landmark bills, including the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the 2010 Tax Relief Act. Pelosi lost the speakership after the Republican Party retook the majority in the 2010 midterm elections, but retained her role as leader of the House Democrats.

In the 2018 midterms, Democrats regained majority control of the House, and Pelosi was again elected speaker. This made her the first former speaker to reclaim the gavel since Sam Rayburn in 1955. During her second speakership, the House impeached President Donald Trump twice, first in December 2019 and again in January 2021; the Senate, unable to reach the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction, acquitted Trump both times. She contributed to the passage of the Biden administration's principal bills, such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. In the 2022 midterms, Republicans narrowly retook control of the House, ending her tenure as speaker. She subsequently retired as House Democratic leader, and was succeeded by Hakeem Jeffries. In November 2025, she announced she would not seek reelection in 2026 and would retire in January 2027. Considered an influential power broker in modern American politics, Pelosi has been regarded as a polarizing figure, drawing criticism from both conservatives and progressives for her policy positions, anti-populist rhetoric, and leadership style, and has faced scrutiny over issues such as the Trump impeachments, insider trading allegations, and moments seen by critics as emblematic of liberal elitism.

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