Nancy Pelosi, who is 83, says she will run for another term after nearly 40 years in power

• Nancy Pelosi says she will run for another term in Congress.

• "Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery," she wrote on Twitter.

• Pelosi has been in Congress for nearly four decades.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that she will run for reelection, ending speculation that the powerful House Democrat was ready to call it quits after nearly four decades in Washington.

"Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery," Pelosi wrote in a message posted on her team's Twitter account. "Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote."

Pelosi, who is 83, won a special election in 1987 and has since won 18 full terms. She previously stepped down from House Democratic leadership after leading her party for two decades. Pelosi is far from a backbencher though, her fellow Democrats bestowed the title of Speaker Emerita on her and she remains a force in Washington.

Before she stepped down, Pelosi was the oldest House speaker in history. She has encouraged President Joe Biden, the oldest president ever, to embrace his age ahead of his own reelection. Polls show that Americans are weary of Biden's age.

Politico, which first reported the news of Pelosi's decision, earlier published a lengthy profile of the former speaker where the subject of her future loomed large. In a telling moment, Pelosi appeared to cut off her husband who was discussing the speculation that Pelosi might become US ambassador to Italy.

"It wouldn't go away but she was very clear," Paul Pelosi told Politico's Jonathan Martin: "'I don't want the job, I'm done, I'm done.'"

In Martin's recounting of the moment, Pelosi then grabbed her husband's hand "in that way spouses do when they want to quietly convey something to one another, in this case: Please don't say anything more on that topic to this reporter."

Paul Pelosi was violently attacked in October 2022 when an assailant was hoping to confront Nancy Pelosi, who was not in California at the time.

As for her future, Pelosi previously spoke of a generation of California women who represented the state in Congress. Now, only her and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who at 90 is the oldest senator, remain.

"Well let's just go back about six years and we had Dianne, we had [Sen.] Barbara [Boxer], we had [Congresswoman] Jackie Speier, now Jackie is gone, so we'll see," Pelosi said.

Read the original article on Business Insider