House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, announced Thursday that she will not run for re-election after serving in Congress for nearly 40 years.
Pelosi, 85, was the first woman elected by her peers to be speaker of the House of Representatives, a role she served from 2007-2011 and again from 2019-2023. She first joined Congress in 1987 and represents California’s 11th Congressional District, which covers most of San Francisco.
In a nearly six-minute video posted to social media with clips showing her time serving the city amid many historical moments, Pelosi said “there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say ‘I speak for the people of San Francisco.’”
Her term ends after the November 2026 election, and she said, “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as our proud representative.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, have already previously announced plans to run for Pelosi’s seat in the 2026 election.
Pelosi’s congressional biography page describes her as “the chief architect of generation-defining legislation under two Democratic administrations, including the Affordable Care Act and the American Rescue Plan.”
Her father Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. also served in Congress before becoming mayor of Baltimore for 12 years, and her brother Thomas D’Alesandro III also served as Baltimore’s mayor. Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, have five grown children and 10 grandchildren.
