Washington — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to address her “future plans” on Thursday after Republicans were projected to win narrow control of the House, bringing an end to her four-year hold on the speaker’s gavel and relegating Democrats to the minority.
The announcement on whether Pelosi will seek another term in House Democratic leadership or clear the way for a new generation of lawmakers to run the caucus will put to end months of speculation about her political future. It also follows the violent attack on her husband Paul Pelosi at their San Francisco home last month, which the speaker told CNN would influence whether she would step aside.
“[Pelosi] has been overwhelmed by calls from colleagues, friends and supporters. This evening, the Speaker monitored returns in the three remaining critical states. The Speaker plans to address her future plans tomorrow to her colleagues. Stay tuned,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesman, said on Twitter.
A source familiar told CBS News that Pelosi is expected to announce her future plans on the House floor. She took two versions of her speech home with her Wednesday night, the source said. The speaker declined to answer questions about her plans when arriving at the Capitol Thursday morning.
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Pelosi has been the House Democratic leader since 2003. In 2007, she made history as the first woman to be elected speaker of the House when Democrats took the majority, and she has served four nonconsecutive terms as speaker since. For the Democratic presidents she worked alongside as leader of the House Democratic caucus, including former President Barack Obama and President Biden, Pelosi was pivotal for ushering some of their most significant legislative achievements through Congress and raking in cash for her party.
But for Republicans, she has served as a convenient foil on the campaign trail, and she was a target of frequent attacks from former President Donald Trump. Their fractured relationship was particularly on display after Trump’s State of the Union address in 2020, after which Pelosi tore a copy of his remarks.
While Pelosi said in 2018 that she intended not to seek another term as speaker in 2022 if the party lost control of the House this midterm election cycle, she has been pushed to reconsider after the “red wave” expected for Republicans did not happen.
The speaker told CNN on Sunday that her Democratic colleagues had asked her to “consider” running in the caucus’ leadership elections, set to begin at the end of the month, but she said any decision on whether to do so will be “rooted in the wishes of my family and the wishes of my caucus.”
Mr. Biden also asked Pelosi to stay in office, telling the California Democrat after she won her own reelection bid that “I hope you stick,” according to Politico.
