Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the 85-year-old speaker emerita and San Francisco’s member of Congress since 1987, today announced that she will not run for a 21st term.
This comes after months of speculation, the entry of two viable Democratic opponents into the race, and Pelosi’s steadfast refusal to disclose her plans until after Tuesday’s special election for Prop. 50.
Prop. 50, which will redistrict California into more Democratic-friendly districts in response to Texas midterm redistricting, passed overwhelmingly — a coda to Pelosi’s career.
At 6 a.m., the first — and only — female Speaker of the House of Representatives released a six-minute video on her social media channel. It highlighted the greatness of San Francisco and her time serving it, and made it official that Pelosi’s time representing this city is drawing to a close.
“I say to my colleagues in the House all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader, whip — there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say ‘I speak for the people of San Francisco,'” Pelosi says in the video.
“I have truly loved serving as your voice in Congress. … I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know, I will not be seeking re-election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”
Pelosi’s departure sets in motion what will likely be one of the most-watched and consequential congressional races of 2026. While she easily bested junior varsity challengers throughout most of her long tenure, the 2026 race is already crowded with varsity-level candidates, and it may grow more so.
Saikat Chakrabarti was the first to throw his hat into the ring, entering the race in February and holding a kickoff for his campaign last month. The former campaign manager and chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez amassed a nine-digit fortune as a tech executive.
He told a Mission District crowd at his kickoff that the nation was undergoing a “fascist coup,” and a return to the pre-Trump status quo would not be enough. Democrats, Chakrabarti said, should reshape the economy that “made Donald Trump possible” in a radical way.
Spurred by the entry of the centi-millionaire Chakrabarti, Sen. Scott Wiener, a longtime aspirant to Pelosi’s seat who had previously deferred to the speaker emerita, jolted the political firmament last month by declaring he was running, even before the speaker emerita had made her plans clear.
“You can always say, ‘wait a little longer.’ That becomes a problem,” Wiener told Mission Local. “You have to make a choice. You can always criticize or second-guess. People have told me I made a mistake not getting in three months ago. It’s never the right time, or it’s always the right time.”
Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, has long been seen as a potential successor. And the speaker emerita’s exit also opens up a potential lane for District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan to run for national office.
The Chinese American chair of the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee would run with strong labor backing and offer a third way to left-leaning city voters put off by the moderate stalwart Wiener and the brash newcomer Chakrabarti, who has actually donated against local progressive candidates in the past.
Her housing positions also might be more palatable for conservative voters than those of Wiener, the Godfather of the YIMBYs.
“San Francisco,” Nancy Pelosi concludes in her video announcement, “is the greatest city on earth with the most extraordinary people on earth — and a place that I will always believe is heaven on earth.”
Yep, Wiener is certainly the only candidate in the race with a solid track record of getting things done for his donors, billionaires, nouveau mega rich techies, and the real estate lobby. Yep, he deserves to move up so we can slip further down!
The gall of Senator Scott Wiener vigorously supporting the creation of more housing —
I mean, really, it’s simply unbelievable!
Agreed, he’ll do for housing what he did for regulation of hidden fees in restaurants.
Correction: vigorously supporting the destruction of affordable housing and livable neighborhoods for the purpose of creating luxury housing for the wealthy.
“The creation of more EXPENSIVE housing! That’s what the poor people affected by the actual housing crisis need!”
-YIMBY tools
Wiener loves zionism and capitalism fervently. The real estate industry, capitalists to the core and the heart beat of the SF political economy, love Wiener. As a representative he will be able to fund the Israeli killing machine so it can keep on killing. He has already been instrumental in California in preventing honest discussion of the Israeli killing machine.
Wiener would be considered a hopeless liberal in the vast majority of the nation. Only in SF would anyone consider him to be right-wing.
The only SF politicians to succeed nationally, Feinstein and Pelosi, were both more right-wing than Wiener.
On the issue of excusing Israeli war crimes, genocide, land theft and murder of reporters and physicians, he’s beyond right wing.
He’s a fascist apologist. Straight up. No disambiguation.
It’s terrible that such fantastic politicians can hold onto their jobs and power with such force that their entire career becomes tainted because they held on too long. I mean, Feinstein, also a politician with a fantastic career, was practically in full dementia her final term and she refused to hand off power. Hell, even Ginsberg was a massive hero of mine and her refusal to step down and let Obama appoint a replacement has practically destroyed the nation, tainting her legacy.
I hope we get someone younger; someone who won’t stay on for 35 years, until they’re in their mid 80’s.
And I it’s not soley because I think rich people in their 80’s are unable to truly empathize with the vast majority of the people they represent, but the *baggage*.
Politics is about favors and relationships. Promises and Debts. They build up. People who KNOW they can call your office because they’ve had your back for decades. People who KNOW they can call your office and get your vote on X because 10yrs ago when you were desperate, you got their vote on Y. When you’ve been there for 40yrs, this network builds and makes you powerful, but it’s also limiting. New people and new organizations have to crawl to the door begging, while old people and old organizations become gate-keepers. You become powerful, but also have the weight of decades on your shoulders. A forward move could cause furious reactions from those you owe. But a new person isn’t expected to honor the debts of the past rep. It’s just how it is.
I hope other politicians take her path and let someone 20, 30, 40 even FIFTY years younger have a shot.
Pelosi isn’t even close to being senile.
Don’t compare the right wing Blue Dog Feinstein to the great progressive Pelosi!
Correct. They’re both SF women I guess..
finally
Anyone but Wiener. Absolutely goddam right.
ANYONE > WIENER.
By far the best legislator in the history of Congress.
Thank you, Nancy!
Wall St, the military-industrial complex, the security-prison state apparatus, and of course, Israel, couldn’t agree more!
Israel was/is not Pelosi’s fault by any actual measure.
#What would Wiener do?
In the over 40 years that I have lived in San Francisco, we have witnessed many changes. Only two things have been constant: Nancy Pelosi’s rise to power and the decline of our City. Those two are NOT coincidental.
Actually the City was doing pretty good comparatively when she was Speaker? It’s declined since she was replaced by a spineless lying whelp with crisco-parted hair, IIRC.
Either way if you say that’s not coincidental, what’s the connective specific tissue you’re referring to? Covid was Trump’s baby, remember?
As someone whose work takes me all over the City throughout the years of her tenure both as official Representative from SF and unofficial Leader of the once progressive Burton Political Machine (the “specific tissue”), I can assure you that the City was NOT “doing pretty good comparatively.” Our City was in decline lo-o-o-ng before anyone ever heard of COVID. Working class folks were and are being pushed out and now her political machine’s tools are trying to push more of us out of the Richmond and Sunset with a 21st Century sequel of the Redevelopment scheme that devastated the Fillmore. SF is at or near last place among US cities in population of children. Our infrastructure, public schools and public transit and even our Zoo are substandard. We’re even near the bottom in tree cover (except in wealthy neighborhoods). All these problems were at a time when SF politicians were breaking their arms by patting themselves of the back. When Pelosi won Sala Burton’s seat in Congress, she also inherited the leadership of the Burton political machine which once had a generally progressive record. That machine had been and still is a revolving door for its staff and City Hall. Under Pelosi, it has lost its progressive chops while keeping the unsavory aspects associated with machine politics … as readers of this and other local media well know.
Are you saying Pelosi being speaker was the reason SF lost “progressive chops”?
You’re complaining about the Zoo as if Pelosi was somehow responsible? SF public schools, her direct purview? Really. TREE COVER?
I assumed you would be referring to what everyone else was, the crime/drug/homeless/fent/nocops issues that have been the obvious whipping boy talking points in the US media for the last decade… no, you’re talking tree cover and the zoo.
While I can’t disagree that local progressive political power has waned from Burton’s idealistic heyday you have yet to actually connect that to anything Pelosi said, did, passed, killed, vouched for or anything else directly. Can you assure me that you realize that before you say Burton Political Machine for a fourth time?
Thank you Nancy Pelosi. We love you and are proud to have had you as our representative.
I heard a rumor of Joann Hayes White having interest in this position. She is well liked in SF political circles but no elected experience. Better than Weiner by a long shot
Better than Wiener by virtue of not being that particularly craven liar, sure, but she has no legislative experience which is more to the point than elected experience. Wiener knows how to write legislation to enrich his allies and further his talking points, whether or not they accomplish anything realistically or cost what he says they will. No doubt Hayes White would do less damage to America by virtue of doing less entirely.
Campers,
How about Matt Gonzalez ?
Otherwise we don’t have a proven Progressive in the race which would be a disaster.
Chopblock’s a phony as evinced by AOC dumping him.
Wiener has been chopping away at the rights of the average San Francisco voter from the git go.
Discussion ?
go Niners !!
h.
Wiener is the only candidate with a solid track record of getting things done, both locally and at the State level. Hopefully Pelosi will endorse him.
“Wiener is the only candidate with a solid track record”
Thank you for your commitment, Mr. Wiener but I far prefer Jane Kim.
“getting things done”
In a supermajority state senate that’s waving his legislative concoctions through with a “whatever Scott”. He sure kept his corporate RE developer backers happy though.
More housing is a good thing.
What housing?
Once builders have no costs they’ll like… build huts for the poor and stuff…
-Billionaire YIMBY talk
YIMBY BS is a BS thing.
Their lies have never made housing affordable. The opposite.
Nothing like kicking the doors down so the wealthy can run come in and lock everyone else out.
The “wealthy” are the ones pushing for high-end 5x rent+ towers where existing low-income SF families currently can afford to live in homes they worked hard to pay for. Pretending they’re the big monied interests in town is YIMBY comedy.
Some other people who “got things done”:
Dick Cheney
Kissinger
Hitler
Mussolini
Pinochet
Pol Pot
Charles Manson
John Wayne Gacy
“Gittin’ things done” is important to short-attention-span, get-rich-quick, move-fast-and-break-things sociopaths. Trump certainly “gits things done.” Non-scociopathic grown-ups put more weight on out-of-fashion qualities like intelligent policy proposals, governing competence, transparency, honesty, incorruptibility, reliability, and communication and organizing skills .
I’d argue that NP and Big Scott fail most of the above tests. Fans of Wall St, economic inequality and immiseration, imperialism, genocide, and insider trading may disagree.
Comparing Pelosi to Manson, Gacy, Pol Pot… calling her a sociopath, etc… there’s no meat on that bone you’re picking.
If you have a specific gripe be specific. Listing dictators and serial killers as if the mention alone sullied her somehow is a strange attempt at making an actual point. I certainly don’t agree with everything she did or said but specious comparisons are specious.
Meanwhile Trump’s cuts to foreign aid have killed well over a half million desperate people with millions more to come, and we’re talking about Nancy Pelosi retiring as if she’s Pinochet? Somehow?
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
Some even base it on something real.
Go Scott Wiener!
HELL! You’re no substitute for Pelosi and you ARE NOT CLOSE.
She has spine.