Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Hope Hicks witnessed nearly every Trump scandal. Now she must testify.

World Press Freedom Day, 2024

Biden holds events in battleground state of North Carolina

You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

Adaptive equipment is making national parks more inclusive

Ukrainian men abroad voice anger over pressure to return home to fight 

Blinded in battle, these Ukrainian soldiers will never see their new babies 

Protesting Georgians are begging for real support from the West

Wait, what is Stephen A. Smith talking about? Find out with our quiz.

Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention

Local sports networks go dark mid-game amid dispute with Comcast 

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Funding shortfall for new tech endangers rural cell service, FCC says

Russian state media ramping up English, Spanish presence on TikTok, study finds

Microsoft is changing how you log in to your accounts

Riot police and over 2,000 arrests: A look at 2 weeks of campus protests

Look inside a D.C. mansion with an interesting ownership history

Carolyn Hax: Husband keeps pushing modest spouse to wear sexier clothes

Ask Amy: Should I be the best man if I think the bride is abusive?

Miss Manners: Host eats luxurious breakfast, leaves cereal for guest

Nationals can’t solve Nate Eovaldi, drop series finale to Rangers

How the Nationals helped Mitchell Parker develop into a big leaguer

The 6 best things to do with kids in the D.C. area this weekend 

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

Young Georgians want to be part of Europe. Their government is in the way.

Taxes are inevitable. Paying to prepare them doesn’t have to be.

Trump hush money trial live updates: Hope Hicks takes the stand

See more coverage in your recommendations

Get the weekly Campaign Moment newsletter

Set alerts for major election developments

Election 2024

The Campaign Moment newsletter

Politics alerts

Minh Connors

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Friday that she will run for reelection in 2024 for her San Francisco-area House seat, ending speculation about her political future after she decided last year that she would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/17/nancy-pelosi-house-speaker/" target=_blank>step down as the leader of the House Democratic caucus</a>.

Pelosi, 83, said she had been receiving calls from people who asked if she could stay in Congress.

“I have decided now that in light of the values of San Francisco, which we have always been proud to promote, I’ve made the decision to seek reelection,” Pelosi said during an event at a labor hall in San Francisco on Friday morning.

Michael Cadenhead

In a 30-minute telephone interview Friday, Pelosi said the decision to remain in Congress came down to two critical things: the needs of her district and her ability to continue using her high profile to boost Democrats, particularly financially, ahead of the 2024 elections.

“We have our local challenges, and now they are a little more significant,” she said.

Pelosi wants to focus on building a high-speed rail line along the coast from San Francisco to Southern California, saying it would reduce car traffic and emissions while allowing workers to live in lower-cost regions and commute to their jobs. San Francisco also needs more federal funding to help alleviate a crime and drug problem in some downtown areas, she said, an effort that could make the city safer while respecting the “civil liberties” of the homeless population.

While she still does not intend to seek committee assignments, Pelosi said running for reelection allows her to “amplify my role” in helping President Biden and House Democrats in next year’s elections.

As long as she’s actively campaigning, Pelosi can keep raising money for her own campaign account, which hauled in more than $2 million in the first six months of this year. In a very safe Democratic seat, she pours most of that into helping other campaigns, including at least $400,000 sent to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Pelosi’s career has been marked by historic firsts: She was the first woman to serve as speaker of the House when she assumed the position in 2007. More than a decade later, she again assumed the speakership in 2019 after she helped usher in a large Democratic majority.

In November, Pelosi announced that she would not seek reelection as the House Democratic caucus’s top leader, saying in a speech on the House floor that it was time “for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.”

Pelosi,<b> </b>who does not sit on any legislative committees, is making history again by serving in the rank and file with no official perch of power. Since Sam Rayburn of Texas, who was first elected speaker in 1940, no Democratic speaker has returned to life in the rank and file and continued to serve more than a year after his or her tenure ended. Instead, Pelosi’s predecessors retired from Congress at the time they gave up the gavel or within months of bowing out as speaker.

Her decision to step down as the top House Democrat last November came weeks after a hammer-wielding assailant <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/28/paul-pelosi-attack-san-francisco/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9">broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband</a>. Paul Pelosi suffered a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and hands, and the attack weighed heavily on Nancy Pelosi’s mind as she decided on her political future. She <a href="https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-nancy-pelosi-congress-government-and-politics-a9c6b5e7c01989f1f9cb78bc853ba830">later said</a> that the incident almost pushed her to want to stay in Democratic leadership but that she ultimately felt “balanced” about her decision to become a rank-and-file member again.

Paul Pelosi, also 83, has about “20 to 25 percent more to go” in his recovery from October’s attack, which left him with a “severe head injury,” she told The Post.

She hopes that by Christmas he will be about fully recovered. “He’s coming along fine,” she said, noting that “if he were going in the opposite direction” she might have opted not to stay in Congress.

Pelosi, who on Thursday celebrated her 60th wedding anniversary, announced her reelection campaign at a moment when she has emerged as a staunch defender of politicians serving well into their 80s.

She has a formal role in Biden’s campaign, and she continues to raise money for former attorney general Eric Holder’s group fighting to help redraw congressional districts.

“We need all the help we can get,” she said, explaining she believes that Democrats will win the majority and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) will become the first Black speaker. “I just can’t sit it out.”

Pelosi has accused critics of 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) of sexism for their calls for her resignation as her mental and physical condition has deteriorated in the last few years. In recent months, after a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/09/dianne-feinstein-returning-senate-shingles/">lengthy hospitalization</a> following a case of shingles, Feinstein has been escorted around the Capitol and back home by one of Pelosi’s daughters. The two families bonded living on the same San Francisco street years ago.

Pelosi has also staunchly defended Biden, 80, as he readies his reelection bid for next year amid growing questions about his age. Pelosi said  critics of octogenarians like herself and Biden and nonagenarians like Feinstein need to appreciate that the test is in the ability to do the job, not one’s age.

“We have wisdom. We have experience. That counts for something,” she said in the Friday interview.

Despite a diet that includes hot dogs and lots of chocolate, the ex-speaker said she remains very active and agile. “I have an enormous amount of energy. I don’t know if it’s the chocolate or the Italian heritage,” she joked.

In recent weeks, Republicans have faced similar questions after Senate Minority Leader <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/30/mcconnell-freeze-speaking/" target=_blank>Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had a pair of public moments</a> this summer in which he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/26/mitch-mcconnell-freezes-press-conference/">froze up</a> while speaking to reporters. McConnell, who suffered broken ribs and a severe concussion after falling in March, has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/31/mcconnell-freezes-doctor-letter/">tried to tamp down concerns</a> about his health.

When she stepped out of leadership at the end of last year, Pelosi repeatedly said that she did not want to appear as the “mother-in-law in the kitchen” hovering over the new Democratic leaders. She took no legislative committee assignments and became a roving political ambassador for Democrats, still helping to raise money for candidates and liberal causes but without an official portfolio.

But Pelosi said repeatedly in interviews that she worried about her hometown’s clout, with Feinstein retiring next year and longtime senator Barbara Boxer (D), from just across the bay in Marin County, having retired six years ago.

During her event in San Francisco on Friday, Pelosi said that “because of the graciousness and generosity of our constituents here,” she has been able to “play a leading role nationally and globally.”

“I know the Congress very well. I know the country very well,” she said. “More importantly, I know this city very well. And that is why in light of all that is at stake, and that people have been calling me and saying, ‘Can you stay longer?’”

Pelosi acknowledged in December that she would be transitioning from a role that comes with “awesome power” to one with still “strong” if subtler influence, particularly on women who might want to run for office. She recalled how, when she arrived in Congress in 1987, there were only 23 women in the House out of 435 lawmakers.

“I want women to have confidence,” Pelosi <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/22/pelosi-zelensky-churchill-kennedy/">said in December</a>. “So sometimes when I act a little more, shall we say, like myself, it’s because I want them to know it’s okay to assert yourself, to have confidence in what you bring to the table and also to understand your uniqueness.”

A Pelosi victory in 2024 would seem all but assured. Since narrowly winning the nomination for her seat in a 1987 special election, Pelosi has easily won reelection every two years to one of the most liberal districts in the nation.

Under California’s all-in, jungle primary system instituted in 2012, she has faced several challengers to her left in recent primaries, but none has received even 15 percent of the vote. Should she win next year, Pelosi would be 86 at the end of her term in early January 2027.

<i>Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.</i>

Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress

University of Delaware, BA

Paul Kane is The Washington Post's senior congressional correspondent and columnist. His column about Congress, @PKCapitol, appears throughout the week and on Sundays. He joined The Post in 2007. 

Paul Kane

Yale University, BA in psychology

Columbia University, MS in journalism

Amy B Wang is a national politics reporter. She joined The Washington Post in 2016 after seven years with the Arizona Republic.

Amy B Wang

washpost

Nancy Pelosi says she will run for reelection to House in 2024

the-washington-post

The Washington Post

Biden administration

The Fix

The 202s

Polling

Democracy in America

Balance of Power Pair

U.S. House Aggregate

U.S. Senate Aggregate

Politics

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/politics&limit=20

Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration and White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, elections and more.