Nancy Pelosi Understood What Mattered

After her success shepherding the landmark Affordable Care Act through the House in 2009, Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Seattle. Her agenda included a visit to Swedish Medical Center, to see how that hospital was already delivering care in much the way the health care bill encouraged.

While in Seattle, Pelosi took time to schedule a meeting at Seattle City Hall. Her message, a perennial one, was to encourage women to run for office. Following her speech at City Hall, she used the occasion to meet Seattle’s women councilmembers. I still treasure a photo taken of Speaker Pelosi talking with Jan Drago, Sally Clark, and me.

Just this week, Pelosi announced that — after nearly 40 years in the House – she will complete her term and retire at year’s end. Once again, she showed that she knows what matters. Like so much that she accomplished, this decision does her proud.

During Donald Trump’s first term, she proved skilled at getting under his skin, goading him to lash out like an ill-tempered child. One unforgettable instance was when, as Speaker, she presided over Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech, marking each page where he told a lie. Finding the speech riddled with lies, she finally gave up and tore her paper copy in two, an image that dominated news coverage.

In her book The Art of Power, Pelosi talks of witnessing Trump’s irrational behavior up close: his penchant for repeatedly stomping out of meetings, his foul mouth, his temper tantrums, and his disrespect for the nation’s norms. She reports having to take his midnight phone calls.

By the time Joe Biden took over in 2021, the nation’s post-pandemic situation was dire: 18 million Americans were unemployed, 24 million were going hungry and 40 million could not pay their rent. Once again Pelosi went to work. Then serving a second term as Speaker, she shepherded through Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act that lowered prescription drug costs for seniors.

As the first and only woman elected Speaker, Pelosi wrote herself into the history books by enacting significant reforms in health care, climate control, and Wall Street practices. Through it all, she proved her mastery at holding a slim, sometimes fractious Democratic coalition together.

In 2022, Pelosi provided a role model for the party by relinquishing her leadership position. She was making way for a new generation, even if Hakeem Jeffries, her successor, hasn’t proved nearly as impressive. Pelosi believes it’s essential for other aging leaders also to step aside, addressing the party’s gerontocracy problem.

It’s a problem that Pelosi is right in heralding. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is now 74, and other Senate lions like 76-year-old Elizabeth Warren and 80-year-old Dick Durbin are well into their senior years. This at a time when newcomers like 35-year-old Zohran Mamdani are voter favorites.

Most commentators say that, after four decades, now is the right time for Pelosi to retire. Her leadership example will remain with us while she leaves the scene. We can still extoll her skills, remembering how words were important for Pelosi. As speaker, one of the words she lived by was “credit.” She was quick to share victories with colleagues who helped make them happen.