Some Democrats believe Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi may soon announce her retirement from politics, following a pivotal vote Tuesday in which voters in her home state of California cast their ballots on Proposition 50, an emergency redistricting proposal meant to counter a Trump-led effort in Texas to add more GOP seats to Congress.
Pelosi, who left House leadership in 2022, is expected to make an announcement about her political future after Tuesday’s vote, NBC News reports.
“I think she’s preparing to exit the stage,” a House Democratic leadership aide told the outlet. “We will not fully appreciate the time we have spent with her.”
“I wish she would stay for 10 more years,” a House Democrat added in an interview with NBC. “I think she’s out. She’s going to go out with Prop 50 overwhelmingly passing, and what a crowning achievement for her to do that.”
Pelosi, 85, has not made any public announcements regarding her political future, and a spokesperson dismissed talk of her retirement as premature.
“Speaker Pelosi is fully focused on her mission to win the Yes on 50 election in CA,” Pelosi’s spokesperson Ian Krager wrote on X on Monday. “Any discussion of her future plans beyond that mission is pure speculation. As she has said, Speaker Pelosi will not make any announcements about her future until after Prop 50 is settled.”
Pelosi, in an interview aired Monday on CNN, reiterated her focus on retaking the House for Democrats and stoping the “vile” influence of President Donald Trump.
“For me it’s just a question of one thing: winning the House for the Democrats,” the San Francisco-based representative said. “That’s what we’re doing with Prop 50. It’s the first step. And then we go from there to winning. My only reason I’m in Congress this term is to win the House for the Democrats to protect us from the poison of the Trump admin.”
On the subject of another congressional campaign, Pelosi added that she had “no doubt that if I decided to run, I would win.”
If Pelosi does decide to run again, she faces two primary challengers in 2026: state Senator Scott Wiener and former tech executive Saikat Chakrabarti, who previously worked as chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Pelosi spent two decades as the Democratic leader of the House, becoming the first woman to hold the Speaker’s gavel.
She guided the caucus during pivotal moments including the 2008 financial crisis and the passage of President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act legislation.
