This is a real end of an era for the Democratic Party. Nancy Pelosi will not seek a leadership position within the House for the next session of Congress. The Republicans took back the House by a very slim margin in the midterms, so Pelosi will no longer be Speaker of the House anyway. But even when Democrats were in the House minority in the past twenty years, Pelosi was one of the most respected and efficient Democratic leaders. She was always able to keep the Democratic caucus in line, she stood up to Republican presidents, she shaped Democratic politics and policies for several generations and she – alongside Joe Biden, arguably – had the most institutional memory of how Washington works.

Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, who helped shape many of the most consequential laws of the early 21st century, said Thursday that she will step down after two decades as the Democratic Party’s leader in the chamber.

“With great confidence in our caucus I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor.

Pelosi was speaker from 2007 to 2011 and returned to the top job in 2019. She announced her decision just a day after NBC News and other news outlets projected that Republicans had flipped control of the House in last week’s midterm election, sending Pelosi and the Democrats back to the minority.

More personally, just weeks ago, her husband of nearly 60 years, Paul Pelosi, survived an assault by a hammer-wielding intruder at the family’s home in San Francisco.

Pelosi won’t be leaving Congress after she won her 19th term last week. She is expected to remain, at least temporarily, given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

As Pelosi took the mic, the chamber was packed with Democratic lawmakers, while the Republican side of the aisle was largely empty — a symbol of how politics have changed over Pelosi’s 3½ decades in the House. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not attend or watch the speech, citing “meetings,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was present. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., crossed the Capitol to watch Pelosi speak, while the front row on the Democratic side of the chamber was filled with fellow female lawmakers from California.

[From NBC News]

It’s likely that Hakeem Jeffries will take Pelosi’s place as House Minority Leader, and with Pelosi staying in the House, she will likely use this time to mentor Jeffries and other House Democrats. While some of the Democratic caucus grumbled about Pelosi, her age or her methods, no one can deny that she was deeply respected and she held the caucus together for decades, through thick and thin. One of her most awe-inspiring moments was on January 6th, 2021, when she rode out the insurrection and used her cell phone to keep the government together, to call in the calvary by contacting governors, by speaking to the SecDef and the Joint Chiefs and telling VP Pence not to let anyone know his location.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Cover Images.