Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sidestepped answering if she is going to retire from Congress after this term, saying she is currently focused on California’s Proposition 50 redistricting effort.
Pelosi, 85, filed for reelection in November 2024, but has yet to declare a bid to retain her seat in the 2026 midterm elections. Multiple Democrats in California and in Congress have stated they believe she is preparing to exit Congress, according to a report by NBC News.
Pelosi, who has served as House Speaker twice while representing California’s 19th Congressional District since 1987, addressed the rumblings of her retirement on Monday, the eve of Election Day.
“I have said I won’t do anything until Preposition 50, so tomorrow night will be very fraught with meaning for all of us. I want to win big, I think we can win big, and I don‘t want to be spending time on whatever I might be doing. I want to spend my time on what we‘re doing, working together to get out the vote,” Pelosi said on CNN.
“Own the ground, you win the election by owning the ground, and you can have all the persuasion in the world, you can have the biggest numbers in the polls, but if you don‘t own the ground, you‘re only having a conversation. You‘re not having a victory,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi spokesman Ian Krager echoed the speaker emerita’s comments on X, saying she is “fully focused” on California’s redistricting effort. He added that any discussion on her political future is “pure speculation.”
Former deputy assistant attorney general Elliott Williams said on a panel discussing Pelosi’s comments that it is “in the water” that most Democratic lawmakers are old, and the party needs “new leadership.” Williams also said partially as to why the party’s 2024 hopes “imploded” was due to then-President Joe Biden’s age, who was 81 before he dropped his reelection bid.
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Democratic California state Sen. Scott Weiner announced last month he is running for Pelosi’s seat, saying he has “enormous respect” for Pelosi. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), announced his candidacy for the same seat in February.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), former Vice President Kamala Harris, and other notable Democrats are campaigning in California for Proposition 50 ahead of Election Day. The state’s redistricting effort was triggered in response to President Donald Trump’s urging of Texas to change its maps to give Republicans a five-seat advantage in next year’s midterm elections, and other red states have followed suit.