Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Will Run for Her 17th Term

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) departs after answering questions during her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 5, 2019. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Nancy Pelosi will run for another term in 2020. Unlike many of her Republican colleagues who are retiring, Pelosi will run for re-election with the chance to continue leading a majority of Democrats in the House.

Pelosi is Washington’s top Democrat and will be 80 on Election Day, 2020.

“Oh, yeah, well I’m not making any political plans right now but we’ll just take it one day at a time,” the Democrat initially told C-SPAN’s Steve Scully in an interview yesterday but then, she added, “I intend to file, we have to file by December of this year, we have to file, so I’ll be filing, yes.”

On Nov. 3, 2020, the United States elections will be held. All 435 seats in the House, 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and the office of president will be contested.

Unlike Pelosi, 4 Democrats and 15 Republican House members as of early September 2019 declared that they will not seek re-election, as well as 1 Democrat and 3 Republicans in the Senate.

During her interview, the speaker shared her thoughts about why she thinks the 15 Republican House members are choosing to retire in 2020.

“I think it’s an indication that Republicans know that they'll probably be serving in the minority in the next Congress and most likely with a Democrat in the White House,” said Pelosi. “So maybe they think it’s time to spend more time with their families.”

Republicans will need to win 18 seats in the House to win the majority and gain control.

Pelosi has said she was poised to retire after the 2016 election if Hillary Clinton had won. But she decided to stay on when Donald Trump won instead, to guarantee that there would be a woman during congressional negotiations, as the other top three leaders are all men.

Nancy Pelosi is the 52nd Speaker of the House, having made history in 2007 when she was first elected to that lofty position. Now in her third term as Speaker, Pelosi made history again when she regained her position in 2019.

Currently Pelosi represents California’s 12th Congressional District. She is the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the House. She is second in the line of presidential succession as the highest-ranking member of that chamber.

During the interview, Scully questioned the speaker about how things have changed since her induction into Congress in the late 80s.

“It is the institution established by our founders in Article One to be the representatives of the people. What has changed drastically in the last decade or so is communication, social media and the rest. Sharing of information in real-time, even faster than that. That has made a difference, so that people are more aware. It is an opportunity but it is also a challenge.”

In 2002, Pelosi was elected minority leader, 15 years after she was first elected to the House in 1987.

According to her official website, “Pelosi comes from a family with a tradition of public service. Her late father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served as Mayor of Baltimore for 12 years. Her brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, also served as Mayor of Baltimore. She and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have five children and nine grandchildren.”

In 2013, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.