The former Speaker of the House and one of the most visible Democrats in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, says she will not seek another term next year, marking the end of an historic 40-year career that saw her rise to become the first woman to hold the speaker’s gavel. She will be 86 on election day next year. 

Ms. Pelosi has been one of the most important political figures of the last two decades, having led Democrats to a House majority in 2006 for the first time in a dozen years, landing her at the top of the House rostrum. After shepherding President Obama’s legislative agenda through the chamber, her party would go on to lose the majority in 2010, though she stayed on as leader and served a second stint with the gavel from 2019 to 2023. 

“With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Ms. Pelosi said in a video message posted online Thursday. “As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this — San Francisco, know your power.”

There had been speculation that Ms. Pelosi would step aside, simply given her age. Unlike some other lawmakers in Congress who have clearly lost a step, Ms. Pelosi has no problem engaging with colleagues, doing her work day-to-day, or engaging with the press in the halls of the Capitol. 

Still, she says it is time for new leadership in the party, and for her hometown of San Francisco. 

“I say to my colleagues in the House all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader, whip — there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, ‘I speak for the people of San Francisco,” she said in the video. 

Ms. Pelosi is widely considered to be one of the most effective and powerful House speakers in American history, with some saying that her prowess is second only to Speaker Sam Rayburn, if not more impressive. 

Ms. Pelosi even won some plaudits from conservative opponents. Mike Davis, who runs the conservative Article III Project, wrote on X that Republicans could learn a thing or two from the former speaker. 

“Love her or hate her: Nancy Pelosi is one of the most effective legislative leaders in decades,” Mr. Davis wrote on X after her retirement was announced. “She’s a savage, who understands how to earn and use power. Republicans should take notes.”

Ms. Pelosi leaves Congress at a time of generation upheaval for her party, where several Democrats in the House and Senate are facing primary challenges not only due to policy disputes, but because of lawmakers’ vitality and perceived lack of ability to fight. 

Ms. Pelosi was one of those lawmakers facing opponents in the Democratic primary, though she insists that those challengers have nothing to do with her departure. Now that she is leaving, the frontrunners are likely state senator Scott Wiener and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti. Ms. Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, has long been considered a potential successor to her mother, though she has made no announcements as of Thursday.

What inspired the revolt against Democratic lawmakers of retirement age was, in part, President Biden’s decision to seek another term despite his obvious frailties. It was Ms. Pelosi who successfully led the effort to nudge Mr. Biden from the race last year in the hopes that Democrats could rally to defeat President Trump — whom Ms. Pelosi has called “a vile creature.”