Nancy Pelosi, the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced Thursday that this term in Congress will be her last. 

Pelosi, 85, has been in the House for 38 years and served two stints as House speaker, from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. 

“It seems prophetic now that the slogan of my very first campaign in 1987 was ‘a voice that will be heard,’” Pelosi said in a video released Thursday morning addressing her San Francisco constituents. “It was you who made those words come true. It was the faith that you had placed in me, and the latitude that you had given me, that enabled me to shatter the marble ceiling and be the first woman speaker of the House — whose voice would certainly be heard.”

Pelosi formally stepped down from party leadership in 2022 but remained a mentor to the younger generation of House Democratic leaders and a highly influential force in Democratic politics.  

“For nearly four decades, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s leadership transformed our democracy and proved that a woman’s place is in the House—as Speaker,” said Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida, chair of Elect Democrat Women, a member-led PAC supporting Democratic women candidates for the House. “As the first woman to hold the gavel, she broke barriers, expanded opportunity, and redefined what it means to lead with strength and purpose.”

Pelosi’s retirement from the House sets up a crowded race for her safely Democratic San Francisco-area House district. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech founder and ex-chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Democratic state Sen. Scott Weiner launched campaigns for the seat before Pelosi announced she wouldn’t run again. Other names floated for the seat include San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan; Jane Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor and executive director of the California Working Families Party; and Christine Pelosi, an organizer and activist who is Pelosi’s daughter. 

“As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this — San Francisco, know your power,” Pelosi said in the video. “We have made history, we have made progress. We have always led the way, and now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.” 

Pelosi made a mark as one of the most effective legislators and political negotiators of her time in Washington, ushering President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, through the often fractious House of Representatives amid stiff Republican opposition. 

“She made history as the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives, yes, but in that moment she also altered the way we conceive political power,” Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “She made the imaginary real, and for young people who knew no other world, she permanently shifted the boundaries of the possible. But she was more than a symbol. She is as consequential a speaker as any who has ever served and much moreso than many.”

While a devout Catholic, she also consistently supported abortion rights and fought to expand federal funds for family planning services. 

Pelosi also supervised the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the repeal of a 1993 law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” that directed the Defense Department not to ask about military applicants’ sexual orientation, and two major components of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. 

Pelosi was an early supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, opposing the Defense of Marriage Act and advocating for AIDS patients. 

“HIV/AIDS tested our city to its core,” she said in her announcement video. “But out of our agony came action.” 

“Throughout her career, Speaker Emerita Pelosi has remained a tireless champion for LGBTQ+ equality and worked alongside LGBTQ+ advocates to pass historic legislation that expanded access to health care, protected marriage equality, honored Matthew Shepard with federal hate crimes protections and ended ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “Her steel spine, allyship and keen insight have served as powerful tools in our shared fight for progress and we are grateful for her unwavering commitment to our community.”

Pelosi was House speaker during two impeachments of then-Republican President Donald Trump — the first in December 2019 and the second in January 2021. The Senate acquitted Trump in both instances. 

During Trump’s first four years in the White House, he and Pelosi frequently sparred, and she was one of his fiercest critics. During Trump’s February 2020 State of the Union address, Pelosi, who was seated behind him, tore up her official copy of the speech, drawing criticism from Republicans who said it was disrespectful. Pelosi reportedly later told colleagues: “He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech.”

Pelosi was born in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland, as Nancy D’Alesandro, the youngest of seven children and the only girl in a politically active Italian-American family. At the time of her birth, Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a Democratic member of Congress. He would go on to become mayor of Baltimore, as would one of her brothers. 

Pelosi came of age at a time when few women held elected office and the women who were involved in politics, like her mother, primarily operated behind the scenes, volunteering for free and advising men. 

Pelosi married Paul Pelosi, a financier, in 1963 and had five children in six years. After the couple moved to California, Pelosi got involved in local politics and quickly distinguished herself as a talented fundraiser and campaign surrogate, including hosting big Democratic fundraisers at the couple’s home. In addition to her legislative leadership, Pelosi used her fundraising prowess and influence to bolster Democrats on the campaign trail and grow the number of women in the House.

Pelosi, like many women of the time, waited until most of her children were grown to start her own political career. She didn’t run for Congress until her youngest daughter, Alexandra, was a teenager, and was elected to the House in 1987. 

Throughout her career, Pelosi championed Democratic women running for office and elevated women to leadership roles. 

“When she took office, there were just 25 women serving in Congress. Today, there are 151,” Walsh said. “This tectonic shift is due in no small part to her private and public efforts.”

Amanda Becker contributed reporting.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated Nancy Pelosi served in Congress for 35 years.