BALTIMORE — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was moments into a highly anticipated speech about her political future Thursday when she referenced “our beloved hometown of Baltimore.”
Pelosi then gave her U.S. House colleagues a brief history lesson: how she glimpsed the wondrous Capitol dome for the first time while traveling to Washington for the swearing-in of her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., who was a congressman from 1939 to 1947 before becoming Baltimore's mayor.
Pelosi’s brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, also served as the city's mayor.
Pelosi, 82, who grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood, often referenced Baltimore during her two decades leading the House Democrats. She announced in her speech that she won’t seek reelection to a leadership post. Democrats lost their House majority during the midterm elections.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the Southern Maryland Democrat, also announced he won’t seek reelection to Democratic leadership, although he too will remain in Congress.
Baltimore still seems part of Pelosi’s identity.
Taking a break from Washington, she returned to her old neighborhood in 2007 when a street was named for her. One observer labeled the event “The Return of the Prodigal Hon.”
“Every step that I took to the speakership began in this neighborhood,” she told the crowd.
Recently, a video was released showing her on Jan. 6, the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Pelosi is heard saying in the video that she hopes Trump arrives so she can “punch him out.”
Popular posts on social media quickly followed, some saying that her feistiness was evidence of “The Baltimore” coming out in her.
“Baltimore is a better predictor of her behavior than San Francisco,” Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institution, once said.
Pelosi, the House’s first female speaker, attended The Institute of Notre Dame, whose graduates also included former U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in Senate history.
It was Maryland’s oldest Catholic college preparatory school for girls.
“Sad news,” Pelosi tweeted when it was announced in 2020 that the school was closing. “My mother and I both went to IND. My brother Tommy was a longtime board member. Its creed — Pro Deo et Patria — is enshrined in our hearts.”
The creed means “for God and country.”
She later left Baltimore, first for Trinity College in Washington and then after marrying Paul Pelosi, moving to his native San Francisco, where she said she will continue to represent her constituents in the House.
“Nancy Pelosi has been one of the strongest and most effective speakers in U.S. history. Coming from Baltimore, this should surprise no one,” U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said Thursday.
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