Pelosi clinches landmark 20th House term

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will return to Congress next year for a landmark 20th term, Decision Desk HQ projects.

The San Francisco liberal easily won reelection on Tuesday in California’s deep-blue 11th District, dismissing a nominal challenge by Republican Bruce Lou, a former "Jeopardy!" champion, who likened Democrats to communists.

Pelosi was already a historic figure heading into the current Congress. She was the first woman to ascend to the House Speakership in the nation’s history, and she orchestrated massive legislative wins — including the Affordable Care Act under former President Obama, and a mammoth climate bill under President Biden — that will reverberate for years to come.

This year, despite stepping out of a formal leadership role at the start of the 118th Congress, she added another chapter in her chronicle by playing a major role in convincing Biden not to seek reelection after his disastrous debate against former President Trump over the summer.

The episode has strained relations between the two powerhouse Democrats, but it highlighted Pelosi’s pragmatic approach to raw power politics — and her killer instincts for winning. With Biden at the top of the ticket, Democrats were on track to be routed on Election Day. With Harris’s ascension, they got a boost up and down the ballot.

Pelosi is 84 years old, leading to perennial questions about when she’ll retire from Congress and rampant speculation that she’s preparing one of her daughters to replace her — a dynamic she denies.

Fueling the questions about her future, Pelosi is also managing the aftermath of the attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi, by a conservative conspiracy theorist who broke into the family’s San Francisco home in 2022 and bashed his head with a hammer. The attacker was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole.

Pelosi, in the current term, has been a frequent if informal adviser to her successor, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who christened her with the honorary title of "Speaker Emerita” two years ago.

She is also among the fiercest Trump critics, particularly after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and at least part of her impetus for remaining in Congress was to fight to ensure that the former president doesn’t win a second term. Pelosi’s prodigious fundraising helped in that effort.

In challenging Pelosi, Lou, who’s in his late 20s, had argued that San Francisco was ready for a younger generation to take over. San Francisco voters had a resounding reply: Not yet.