After nearly forty years of electoral service in Congress, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be on her way out.
The representative from California and power player in Democratic Party politics is expected to make a statement on her future following Tuesday’s elections. Democrats are bracing themselves for the 85-year-old Pelosi to announce her retirement.
“I think she’s preparing to exit the stage,” an unnamed Democratic aide told NBC. “We will not fully appreciate the time we have spent with her until she’s gone.”
“Most people think it is highly unlikely that she will run for another term,” a political official in Pelosi’s Bay Area stronghold said.
Pelosi hasn’t been idle, either way. The veteran politician has spent recent months pushing California’s Proposition 50, which would redraw congressional lines in California to give Democrats a political advantage. California Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced the measure after Texas and other red states redrew their congressional maps at the behest of President Donald Trump.
“Here’s the thing: We must win the House. If you talk about ‘no kings,’ we must win the House to put a stop to this,” Pelosi told the San Francisco Examiner. “We won’t be able to get many things done, but we’ll be able to stop a lot of the poison that he’s putting there, and the best antidote to poison is to win the election,” she said.
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Some are seeing Pelosi’s efforts to redistrict California as her political swan song.
“I think she’s out,” an anonymous House Democrat from California told NBC. “She’s going to go out with Prop 50 overwhelmingly passing, and what a crowning achievement for her to do that.”
