Former House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has announced she will not seek re-election after serving nearly 40 years in Congress.

“I will not be seeking reelection to Congress,” she told her supporters in San Francisco in a video Thursday morning, The Associated Press reported.

She said she will finish out her term in office while at the same time challenging her constituents to further her legacy.

“My message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” she said. “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,” she continued.

The move came after the passage of the redistricting initiative in California that gave the state the approval to redraw its 52 House districts in Democrats’ favor, and in response to Republicans’ redistricting of Texas, The Washington Post reported. The plan was backed by Pelosi, and for which she helped raise “tens of millions of dollars.”

Pelosi’s history

She was the youngest of seven children, whose father was Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alessandro, the newspaper reported.

Pelosi won a special election to the House in 1987 and after raising five children. In 2002, she became the Democratic minority leader and became the first female Speaker of the House in 2006, spearheading the passage of the Affordable Care Act. She had a second stint as speaker in 2021, during which she cemented her position of power, despite not having a large majority in the House.

“You could argue she’s been the strongest speaker in history,” former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said in 2021, the Post reported.

She clashed frequently with President Donald Trump during his first term, and saw his impeachment not once, but twice. She created the investigative committee to look for a connection between Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection, picking the bipartisan panel that oversaw the case, the Post said.

When Democrats lost the 2022 midterms, she stepped down from leadership, saying that the next generation should lead. But she did not resign from her seat. She remained in Washington, but as a member of the rank-and-file of the House and no committee assignments, and rather advising the current Democratic leadership as “speaker emeritus.”

Despite being a long supporter of former President Joe Biden, she spearheaded an effort behind the scenes to get him to withdraw from his reelection bid, the Post reported.

She has also had some personal challenges in recent years: falling while on a congressional visit to Europe that resulted in a fractured hip and surgery at a military hospital, as well as the attack on her husband in their home by a man with a hammer who asked, “Where is Nancy?”

Who could replace her?

Two people have already made the short list to run for Pelosi’s seat, according to the AP.

One of the powerhouses behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s political stardom, Saikat Chakrabarti, has started a campaign.

State Sen. Scott Wiener is considering running, the AP reported.

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