Former Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement from Congress after a nearly 40-year career

Nancy Pelosi, the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the United States House of Representatives and one of the most influential figures in the Democratic Party for decades, has announced that she will not run for another term, reports CNN.

“I tell my colleagues in the House all the time: No matter what title I've been given—speaker, leader, caucus leader—there has been no greater honor for me than to sit on the floor of the House and say, “I speak for the people of San Francisco.'' That's why I want you, my fellow citizens of San Francisco, to be the first to know. I will not be running for re-election to Congress,” Pelosi, 85, said Thursday in a wide-ranging video message to the city she has represented in Washington for nearly 40 years.

“With gratitude in my heart, I look to my final year of service as your proud representative. As we move forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power. We've made history. We've made progress. We've always been at the forefront, and now we must continue to be so, remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”

The announcement ends heightened speculation in recent days that the veteran Democrat would soon end her 38-year career in Congress. Political analysts and members of the Democratic Party had expected Pelosi to leave Congress at the end of this term — the first in decades that she was a mere member of the House.

Pelosi was the first and only woman to lead the US House of Representatives

Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987 and made history in 2007 as the first woman elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. She remains the only woman to hold that position, one she returned to after the 2018 congressional elections. Even now, decades after her rise to the top of the House Democratic caucus, she remains one of the most influential voices in the party.

She announced her decision to step down two days after one of the Democratic Party's biggest political victories in recent years, in Tuesday's multi-state elections.

Pelosi has had a long and personal relationship with the most recent Democratic president, Joe Biden, and the two have jointly approved the allocation of billions of dollars in new funds to help the country recover from the Covid pandemic and to expand programs such as additional subsidies for the ACA (Affordable Care Act), now at the center of the gridlock crippling the federal government.

Still, Pelosi chose not to publicly endorse Biden in the final months of his campaign and was one of the veteran Democratic Party leaders who privately encouraged him to withdraw from the presidential race. Former First Lady Jill Biden later called Pelosi's actions in the run-up to the election “disappointing” after a 50-year friendship.

Pelosi has led the party through a period of rapid change, where increasing political polarization has reshaped the US national political scene. This also included a sharp increase in political violence, which affected her own family in 2022, when her husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently attacked with a hammer by a man who broke into their San Francisco home.

Paul Pelosi, who suffered a fractured skull, required surgery and a long recovery period. Nancy Pelosi later told CNN that that attack complicated her decision to stay on as party leader at the time.