Nancy Patricia Pelosi ( pə-LOH-see; née D'Alesandro; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who was the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first female elected speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, heading the House Democrats from 2003 to 2023. Her 20 years as a House party leader are tied with Joe Martin's as the second-longest after Sam Rayburn. Pelosi is in her 20th term, having served in the House since 1987, representing California's 11th congressional district, which includes most of San Francisco. She is the dean of California's congressional delegation.
The daughter of Representative Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., Pelosi was born and raised in Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College, Washington, in 1962 and married businessman Paul Pelosi the next year. They moved to New York City before settling down in San Francisco with their children. Focused on raising her family, Pelosi entered politics in the 1960s as a volunteer for the Democratic Party. After years of party work, rising to chair the state party, she was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election. Pelosi steadily rose through the ranks of the House Democratic Caucus to be elected House minority whip in 2001 and elevated to House minority leader a year later.
In the 2006 midterm elections, Pelosi led the Democrats to a majority in the House for the first time in 12 years and was subsequently elected Speaker. She was the first woman to hold the office. Until 2021, Pelosi was the highest-ranking woman in the presidential line of succession in U.S. history. During her first speakership, Pelosi was a major opponent of the Iraq War as well as the Bush administration's attempts to partially privatize Social Security. She then helped pass the Obama administration's landmark bills, including the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the 2010 Tax Relief Act. Pelosi lost the speakership after the Republican Party retook the majority in the 2010 midterm elections, but retained her role as leader of the House Democrats.
In the 2018 midterms, Democrats regained majority control of the House, and Pelosi was again elected speaker. This made her the first former speaker to reclaim the gavel since Sam Rayburn in 1955. During her second speakership, the House impeached President Donald Trump twice, first in December 2019 and again in January 2021; the Senate, unable to reach the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction, acquitted Trump both times. She contributed to the passage of the Biden administration's principal bills, such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. In the 2022 midterms, Republicans narrowly retook control of the House, ending her tenure as speaker. She subsequently retired as House Democratic leader, and was succeeded by Hakeem Jeffries. In November 2025, she announced she would not seek reelection in 2026 and would retire in January 2027. Considered an influential power broker in modern American politics, Pelosi has been regarded as a polarizing figure, drawing criticism from both conservatives and progressives for her policy positions, anti-populist rhetoric, and leadership style, and has faced scrutiny over issues such as the Trump impeachments, insider trading allegations, and moments seen by critics as emblematic of liberal elitism.
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to an Italian-American family. She was the only daughter and the youngest of six children of Annunciata M. "Nancy" D'Alesandro (née Lombardi) and Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Her mother, originating from Fornelli in Southern Italy, emigrated to the U.S. in 1912; her father traced his Italian ancestry to Genoa, Venice and Abruzzo.
At the time of Pelosi's birth, her father was a Democratic congressman representing Maryland. He became mayor of Baltimore seven years later. Pelosi's mother was also active in politics, organizing Democratic women and teaching her daughter political skills. Her brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, a Democrat, was elected Baltimore City Council president and later mayor, serving from 1967 to 1971. As a child, Pelosi helped her father at his campaign events. Her affiliation with liberalism sprouted in the 1960s; she was particularly impressed by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address.
In 1958, Pelosi graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College four years later with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Pelosi interned for Maryland senator Daniel Brewster in the 1960s alongside future House majority leader Steny Hoyer.
After moving to San Francisco, Pelosi became friends with 5th district congressman Phillip Burton. In 1976, she was elected as a Democratic National Committee member from California, a position she would hold until 1996. She was elected party chair for Northern California in 1977 and four years later was selected to head the California Democratic Party, which she led until 1983. Pelosi served as the San Francisco Democratic National Convention Host Committee chairwoman in 1984 and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee finance chair from 1985 to 1986.
Early U.S. House of Representatives career
Phillip Burton died in 1983 and his wife, Sala Burton, won a special election to fill the remainder of her husband's congressional term and was reelected to two more terms. Burton decided not to run for reelection in 1988 and wanted Pelosi to succeed her, guaranteeing Pelosi the support of the Burtons' contacts. After Sala Burton's death, Pelosi won the special election to succeed her.
Pelosi has continued to represent approximately the same area of San Francisco for her entire congressional career, despite the boundaries shifting marginally in decennial post-reapportionment redistrictings. This area has been represented in the House by Democrats uninterruptedly since 1949, and is strongly Democratic-leaning (as of 2006, 13% of registered voters in the boundaries of Pelosi's district were Republican). It has not seen a serious Republican congressional contender since the early 1960s. Pelosi has been reelected to the House 18 times without any substantive opposition. Unlike in her 1987 campaign, Pelosi has not participated in candidates' debates in her reelection campaigns. In her first seven reelection campaigns (from 1988 through 2004), she won an average of 80% of the vote.
When Pelosi took office, there were only 23 women in the House. The AIDS epidemic was at a dire point. San Francisco was greatly affected; its large population of gay men was the epidemic's initial epicenter. Beginning in her first term, Pelosi became a prominent congressional advocate on behalf of those impacted by HIV/AIDS. Shortly after she took office, she hired a gay man as her congressional office's director of AIDS policy. In her first floor speech, Pelosi promised that she would be an advocate in the fight against what she called "the crisis of AIDS". With great stigma around the subject, some in her party privately chastised her for associating herself with it. Pelosi co-authored the Ryan White CARE Act, which allocated funding dedicated to providing treatment and services for those impacted by HIV/AIDS. President George H. W. Bush signed the bill into law in December 1990.
Pelosi voted for the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987. The Act asserts United States title to certain abandoned shipwrecks on or embedded in submerged lands under state jurisdiction, and transfers title to the respective state, thereby empowering states to manage these cultural and historical resources more efficiently, with the goal of preventing treasure hunters and salvagers from damaging them. President Ronald Reagan signed it into law on April 28, 1988.