U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress as part of a key reorganization that will make way for a new generation of leaders after Democrats ceded control of the House of Representatives to Republicans in the midterm congressional elections. .
Pelosi, 82, announced in her speech in the House of Representatives that she will step down after leading the Democrats in Congress for almost 20 years and following the attack on her husband Paul last month at their San Francisco home.
The Democratic representative, who became the first woman in the United States to serve as speaker of the House of Representatives, added that she intends to remain in Congress as the representative of San Francisco – a position she has held for 35 years – when the new Congress meets next January.
It’s unusual for a party leader to remain in office after leaving Congress, but it’s an option for Pelosi, who has long defied tradition in her quest for power in Washington.
Pelosi also noted that Democrats in the House of Representatives will have “strong sway over the slim Republican majority.”
Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives and the only person to be elected twice in decades, has led Congressional Democrats through pivotal moments, including the passage of the health care bill under former President Barack Obama and the impeachment of former President Donald Trump. .
For his part, U.S. President Joe Biden praised Pelosi, stressing in a statement that she is “an ardent defender of democracy.”
Biden said she “protected our democracy from the brutal and bloody uprising of January 6, 2021” in reference to the attack on the Capitol building, stressing that Pelosi is “the most important speaker of the House of Representatives in our history.”
