Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has filed to run for reelection in 2026 even as she is reportedly doing “terrible” after President-elect Donald Trump’s massive victory and Republicans taking the Senate and retaining the House majority.
The 84-year-old career politician, whose district covers San Francisco, has been in the House since 1987 and remains so after winning a 20th term last week.
She made her thoughts clear on the election outcome by saying Democrats might have fared better if President Joe Biden had exited the race sooner and gone before the party turned on him.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband Paul, greets guests before Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the crowd at Howard University after conceding the presidential race to Donald Trump on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Pelosi told the New York Times that “had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race.”
She was speaker of the House twice: from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023 and now she plans to stay at the very highest level of government by filing for a 2026 return, according to the Federal Election Commission.
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In a New York Times interview after the election, Pelosi did not answer directly whether this term would be her last but indicated that she intends to continue to be a fighting force.
“I’m not here to talk about that,” Pelosi told the outlet. “I’m here to fight the fight so that we win in the next election. I must have thought I had the last term over and over again, but as fate would have it, the mission called.”
The two-time speaker was one of Trump’s major antagonists when she served as speaker during his first term and is already saying she despairs at him being back in the White House.
When he takes office once again, it will mark the first time she is not a member of leadership during a Republican administration since George W. Bush’s first term.
The San Francisco mother of five is seen as the main figure who helped end Biden’s reelection bid, although she has denied playing a significant role.