When Nancy Pelosi first ran for convention, she was one of 14, a front runner and a target.
At the time, Pelosi was little known to San Francisco voters. But he was still an enigma in national politics. He was a great democrat, who helped the party’s 1984 national convention go to his hometown. He served as the head of California’s Democratic Party and hosted a salon that was a must-see for politicians.
He was a chosen fan of rep. Sala Burton, a short-lived accountant who took the seat of the house held for decades by her husband, Philip, and freed the person who was.
But at the age of 49, Pelosi had never held public office – she was too busy raising five children, on top of all the political stirrings and shocks – and opponents made light of the role as guests. “The daughter of a party group,” he reported, and billboards around the city were attacked.
Apparently he showed them.
Pelosi not only made history, she became the first female speaker of the first house nation. He became the team’s core and backbone, holding together many teams fighting the Demopterac
Affordable Care Act – President Obama’s signature achievement
He played a key role in twice helping to save the country from economic collapse – first in 2009 in the midst of the Great Recession, and in 2020 during the covid-19 shutdown
“He will go down in history as one of the most important speakers,” James Thuber, Ronmessional expert at Washington’s American University, said. “He knew the rules, he knew the process, he knew the personalities of the key players, and he knew how to work the system.”
Pelosi’s announcement Thursday that she would not seek re-election — at age 85, after 38 years in Congress — came as no surprise. He saw first-hand the ravages that plagued his friend and former neighbor, Dianne Feinstein. (Pelosi’s oldest daughter, Nancy, was the late senator’s last caretaker.)
He hadn’t come close to repeating that last, sad commandment.
Pelosi, who was first elected in 1987, once said she never expected to serve in Congress for more than 10 years. He remembered seeing a member of the Geriatric Helbbles house in the musical and telling his partner, “it’ll never be me. I don’t hang around.”
(He’s never used a cane, but he gave up his trademark Stiletto heels for a while after suffering a fall last December and undergoing hip replacement surgery.)
Pelosi had intended to retire for a while, it is expected that Hillary Clinton will be elected President in 2016 and she sees that as a reasonable, appropriate, and last step in her political career. “I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost,” she said in a 2018 interview.
However, he was determined to Stemie President Trump in his first term and stuck, emerging as one of his greatest bosses. After Joe Biden was nominated, Pelosi finally revealed the tale of the speaker in November 2022.
But he remained a powerful figure, still wielding enormous power behind the scenes. Among other quiet maneuvers, he was instrumental in helping to reverse the bid after the performance of his dangerous argument sent Democrats to become Democrats. He was your personal friend, and a longtime guest in his political salon, but Pelosi expected disaster for the Down ticket if Biden remained nominated. Therefore, in his limitation, he had to go.
It was the kind of ruthlessness that gave Pelosi great pride; He boasted of a cold case and, but, although he met with the decline of his hometown, Pelosi was not an opinion. That’s what made him a superb executive and lawmaker, and the personal touch he brought to his leadership.
Thurber said: “He had an iron will, but he also had great kindness and great warmth, and that’s not always the case with speakers.”
A history maker, Pelosi left a lasting mark on San Francisco, where she moved to Baltimore as a young mother with her husband, Paul, a financial investor and venture capitalist. He brought in billions of dollars in earthquake safety, retrofitting old military bases – the Presidio Army Base is a scenic park – medical research and expanding other programs.
His work in the 1980s and 1990s with AIDS funding was crucial in helping to move the discussion of the disease from the shadows – where it was viewed as a disease that mostly struck men and drugs – to pressing national concerns.
In the process, he became a San Francisco institution, as revered as the Golden Gate and as popular as tangy sourdough bread.
“He’s an icon,” said Aaron Peskin, a former San Francisco County executive and 2024 mayoral candidate. “You walk into a room, people walk, right and center, old, young, white, white, black stand on their feet.”
Pelosi grew up in Baltimore in a political family. His father, Tommy D’Alesandro, was a Democratic New Cue CORTRESSMAN, who went on to serve three terms as Mayor. The “petty” thin envelopes “as his children can make their holes add votes and often travel by their father’s side to campaign events. (D’Alesandro went on to serve three terms as Mayor; Pelosi’s brother, Tommy III, held the job for one term.)
David Axelrod, who saw Pelosi up close while serving as the top chair in the Obama White House, said he once asked her what she learned growing up in a political family. “He didn’t skip a beat,” Axelrod said. “He said, ‘I learned how to count.’ “
Which means when to call for a vote in an important legislative vote and when to stop his loss in the face of inevitable defeat.
Pelosi remains so popular in San Francisco that she could pull off another early victory in 2026, even though she faces her first major challenge since the start of Congress. But the campaign would have been brutal and downright bad.
More than anyone, Pelosi knows how to read a political situation with dispassion, the appearance and calculation of cold eyes and coldness.
He knew it was time.
