Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker and polarizing Democrat, to run for re-election in 2024

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will seek re-election in 2024, she announced Friday, almost a year after she said she would relinquish her powerful and polarizing post as the top House Democrat.

A politically-motivated attack on her husband contributed to Pelosi, D-San Francisco, reconsidering a role in House Democratic leadership in 2023 when Republicans would control the majority.

Pelosi, 83, was the first woman to be Speaker of the House of Representatives when she served from 2007 to 2011. She regained the gavel in 2019. During her two decades in whipping Democratic votes, Pelosi became known for uniting and guiding her party through historic and sometimes bitterly debated votes.

She promised to continue serving the people of San Francisco when she planned to leave leadership. And Friday, the San Francisco Democrat promised to do so for at least another two years.

“Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery,” Pelosi posted on social media. “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.”

Changing California leadership

A POLITICO story published yesterday telegraphed Pelosi’s interest in running again as the faces of Bay Area congressional legislators have shifted significantly in the past six years.

Several prominent California Democrats have stepped away from Congress or promised to, leaving the state’s Washington D.C. presence starkly different from the one Pelosi is used to.

Former Rep. Jackie Speier retired at the beginning of this year. Former Sen. Barbara Boxer stepped down in 2017.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, will not seek election in 2024. The leading contenders to succeed her are from Southern California.

And Vice President Kamala Harris, who started her political career as San Francisco district attorney, had been in the Senate since 2017. With her rise to the vice presidency in 2021, Sen. Alex Padilla, from the Los Angeles area, took her seat.

When Pelosi yielded her spot as the House’s Democratic leader, speculation about her retirement from Congress spurred murmurs about succession down to the city level. Would a state lawmaker take over after Pelosi? Who would replace them in the Legislature?

No one said they would run, but talked-about potential congressional candidates included Pelosi’s daughter, Democratic activist Christine Pelosi, and State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.

Pelosi as House Speaker

Pelosi was first elected to the U.S. House in 1987. She ascended to the top of the party in 2003, making her a fixture of Democratic leadership for two decades before she announced she would step down last November.

“For me the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect,” Pelosi told the House floor last November, the day after Republicans officially won control of the chamber for 2023.

If Democrats retake the House next year, she won’t be leader, but she’ll have a say in shaping legislation and policy again.

It was long expected that Pelosi would turn over the reigns. In 2018, she told Democrats that she would leave her leadership post by 2022. Republicans taking the House and the attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi, likely sealed the deal.

Three weeks before Pelosi said she would step down, her husband was assaulted in the couple’s San Francisco home by an attacker who was looking for the congresswoman. She was in Washington D.C. at the time.

David DePape faces state and federal charges over the attack on Paul Pelosi from Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi was hospitalized for a week following assault, undergoing surgery for a skull fracture and treatment for his hands and right arm.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper a few days after Paul was released, Pelosi said her decision about stepping down as speaker from the House would be affected by the attack.

“Will your decision be impacted by the attack in any way?” Cooper asked.

“Yes,” Pelosi said.

“It will?” Cooper asked.

Pelosi reiterated, “Yes.”

McClatchy DC’s David Lightman contributed to this story.