Nancy Pelosi to step down as Democratic party leader

The departure of Nancy Pelosi, 82, after 20 years as Democrat House leader in the wake of the midterms will set off a dramatic shake-up in the party’s top ranks not seen in years.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announces she will not seek a leadership role in the upcoming Congress. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

The US Democrats’ billion-dollar woman, fundraising powerhouse and outgoing Speaker, Nancy ­Pelosi, will not seek to lead her party in the House of Representatives next year, ending her reign as the most powerful Democrat in congress for a generation.

After Republicans’ slender ­majority in the next congress ­became clear Mrs Pelosi, 82, ­addressed a packed house on Thursday (Friday AEDT) to bid farewell to her political fans and foes alike, and pave the way for what she called “a new generation” of Democrat leaders.

“I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next congress … for me, the hour’s come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect,” she said, marking the end of a 20-year stint as Democrat leader in the lower house, including eight as Speaker, the second most powerful job in Washington.

“Never did I think I would go from homemaker to house Speaker,” a beaming Mrs Pelosi, mother of five children and grandmother, said before an audience of largely Democrat members of congress and staff.

Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy, 57, also from California, and the most likely candidate to replace Mrs Pelosi, did not attend the speech, reflecting the deep and bitter partisan divide in a congress about to enter a period of dual control.

A little after her speech her two deputies, also in their 80s, Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, said they would not seek leadership positions, ending what some critics had branded an octogenarian triumvirate that refused to hand over power to a new generation of Democrat leaders.

“You might not have heard, I’m 83 … I think it’s always good for a party to have new blood and new invigoration, enthusiasm and new ideas,” Mr Hoyer said.

Hakeem Jeffries, 52, from New York, was the favourite to become the new house leader, and the first black Democrat leader, alongside senator Chuck Schumer, who is expected to remain Democrat leader in the Senate.

Mrs Pelosi, dubbed a fashion icon by The Washington Post, ­entered the house chamber looking typically resplendent in a white suit, a colour she often embraces given its association with the suffragist movement, pinned with a gold Mace of the Republic brooch.

“I will strive to honour the call of the patron saint of our city, St Francis: ‘Lord make me an instrument of thy peace’,” she said, signalling she would remain in congress as a backbencher representing San Francisco, as she has since 1987.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is hugged by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) after she stood down from her leadership roles. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

Hailing from a political family – her father and sister were mayors of Baltimore – Mrs Pelosi developed a reputation as formidable fundraiser, hauling in $US1.25bn for the Democrat Party, according to The New York Times, since she became leader in 2002.

“Her haul so far this election cycle is $US276 million, reaped at more than 400 events,” the Times said in October, noting in that time she had also flown to Taiwan and Croatia on congressional business.

Her daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, lauded the political skills that propelled her mother, a self-described devout Catholic, to become Speaker twice, first from 2007 until 2011, and then again in 2019 after a Republican bloodbath in the 2018 midterm elections.

“She’ll cut your head off and you won’t even know you’re bleeding,” she told CNN in 2019. “No one ever won betting against Nancy Pelosi … She’s persevered. You’ve got to give her credit.”

In her final speech as Speaker, Mrs Pelosi highlighted the energy policy and healthcare reforms she helped enact with former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively, and the ­infrastructure law passed with President Joe Biden, who had ­reportedly urged Mrs Pelosi to stay on as leader, last year.

She was a strident and relentless critic of former president ­Donald Trump – who in turn called her an “animal” on the midterms campaign trail – famously tearing up his State of the Union speech in early 2020.

“Look at her stocks. I mean, she did better than Warren Buffett,” Mr Trump said last month, tapping into growing chorus of ­Republican criticism of Mrs Pelosi for throttling rules that would have restricted members of congress from trading shares.

Re-elected with 83 per cent of the vote in her San Francisco congressional district in last week’s midterm election, and feted by the Washington establishment, she will leave office likely with a lower net favourability rating than Mr Biden, according to Morning Consult.

“For my dear husband Paul, who has been my beloved partner in life and my pillar of support. Thank you. We are grateful for all of the prayers and well-wishes as he continues his recovery,” Mrs Pelosi said, referring to a hammer attack on her husband in their San Francisco home last month, which Democrats argued was inspired by extremist supporters of Mr Trump.