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When she took the gavel for the first time in the House chamber in 2007, she surrounded herself with children — including some of her own grandchildren — on the floor. Drew Hammill, Pelosi's longtime spokesperson, regularly answered questions about her future in recent years, saying the speaker "is not on a shift, but on a mission." In the 2020 election Trump was defeated by Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, and the Democrats maintained a slim majority in the House.
Minority Leader
The following is a transcript of her remarks, as recorded by The New York Times. The first and only female speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi announced that she would step down from leadership in January but would remain in Congress. When Obama won the presidency that year, Pelosi and House Democrats expanded their majority.
Healthcare reform
"The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., And the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history," Pelosi said the day after the election. In the 111th Congress, Speaker Pelosi led the House passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to rescue the nation from the depths of the financial crisis, helping create or save millions of American jobs. Her leadership in enshrining the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law helped restore the ability of women to fight pay discrimination in the courts and ensure they too could participate in the economic recovery. Pelosi also led the Congress in enacting the historic Dodd-Frank reforms to rein in big banks and create strong protections for consumers, seniors and Servicemembers.
First tenure as minority leader (2003–
In 2002, Pelosi was selected to be the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, making her the first woman in history earn the honor. After the Democrats won majorities in both the House and the Senate in the 2006 midterm elections, Pelosi was chosen to become the first woman to take the post of speaker of the House. Before the midterm elections, some of her fellow Democrats, including moderate Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, openly called for fresh blood in the ranks of party leadership. In 2007, after serving in other party leadership roles, she became the first woman elected by her colleagues to serve as speaker of the House, forever securing her place in history for breaking the "marble ceiling" of congressional leadership until then dominated by men.
2019 government shutdown
The fear of reprisal is one reason Pelosi hasn’t been seriously challenged in a leadership election since she first won the post of Democratic whip over Hoyer in 2001. Since 2003, she has been her party’s leader in the House, the longest streak in either party since Speaker Sam Rayburn, the Texas Democrat who died in 1961 after more than 21 years running his party. 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. “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.
Nancy Pelosi joins Schumer in slamming Netanyahu, calls for Israel PM to resign over Oct. 7 attack - New York Post
Nancy Pelosi joins Schumer in slamming Netanyahu, calls for Israel PM to resign over Oct. 7 attack.
Posted: Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:47:00 GMT [source]
But Pelosi, who often boasted of herself as a "master legislator," also worked with the Bush administration to keep the wars abroad funded — often to the anger of the party's liberal base — and reliably delivered Democratic votes on must-pass legislation when necessary. Perdue left his Georgia seat vacant until either he or Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff is certified as the winner of one of Tuesday's widely watched runoffs. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., also faces a runoff Tuesday, but she remains in her seat through the election because she was appointed to continue a term that did not expire Sunday.
Pelosi announces she will not run for leadership post after GOP wins House
Her pivotal role in these particularly acrimonious moments in recent political history often drew the ire of opponents and made her the target of criticism and physical threats. Prosecutors said the recent attack on Paul Pelosi, her husband, in the couple's San Francisco home was politically motivated. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California is surrounded by members of the media as she heads back to her office after announcing she would step away as a party leader.
Pelosi has been a strong supporter of increased funding for health research and for other health care and housing programs and initiatives. Hoyer called him "a skilled and capable leader who will help us win back the majority in 2024" and said "he will make history for the institution of the House and for our country" if he is elected leader. Clyburn also endorsed Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California for the No. 2 and No. 3 leadership spots, respectively. Her legacy is also one of institutional leadership outside the lines of policy.
Pelosi, who has led her party in the House since 2003 and is the only woman to be speaker, received 216 votes to 209 for McCarthy, who again will be the chamber’s minority leader. After months of resisting calls from progressives to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Trump, in September 2019, Pelosi announced that the House would launch a formal impeachment inquiry. The tipping point came with reports that Trump had withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure its government into investigating the actions of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden's son. After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Pelosi was in a position to work with a president of the same party. She was instrumental in pushing for the health care reform legislation that became the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2010, a position that earned her more criticism from the GOP.
At the top of the list is Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California. All three serve in lower-tier leadership roles now and are interested in moving up the ladder. Jeffries, who is 52, Clark, who is 59, and Aguilar, who is 43, would make an African American, a white woman and a Hispanic the new faces of the party. Reps. Ami Bera and Tony Cárdenas, both of California, have already announced campaigns to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democrats' campaign arm, for the 2024 election. In her remarks, Pelosi warned that democracy is "majestic, but it is fragile" and said voters in 2022 sent a message to Congress that they would not support those who supported violence or insurrection.
She also applauded the chamber for becoming more diverse over the course of her 35-year career. When she first entered Congress in 1987 there were 12 women in the Democratic caucus and now there are 90. Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who shattered the "marble ceiling" to become the first woman to lead the U.S. After Congress passed a funding bill that allocated only $1.375 billion for the border wall, Trump declared a national emergency on February 15, allowing him to divert money for other projects to his wall. Pelosi countered by scheduling a House vote on legislation to end the national emergency, ratcheting up the pressure on Senate Republicans to take a stand on the issue. The gambit paid off, as the Republican-controlled Senate also voted to overturn the national emergency, forcing Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency.
The move was seen as an attempt to secure certain conditions for the Senate trial, and its effect was debated. Pelosi developed a reputation as a shrewd politician, and she steadily rose within the party, becoming minority whip in 2002. Later that year she was elected minority leader, and, when she took office in 2003, she became the first woman to lead a party in Congress. Using what she referred to as her “mother of five” voice, Pelosi began pushing for unity among the diverse factions within her party by embracing conservatives and moderates. Still, Pelosi continued to vote consistently in favour of such liberal causes as gun control and abortion rights, opposed welfare reform, and cast a vote against the Iraq War. George W. Bush could be harsh; she once characterized him as an “incompetent leader.” Her critics in turn claimed that her “left coast,” left-wing politics put her out of touch with most of the country.
