Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a towering figure in American politics with a storied legacy of shattering glass ceilings as the first and so far only woman to serve as speaker of the US House of Representatives. He was first elected speaker in 2007 and served in the role until 2011, when Democrats lost control of the House. In 2019, he was re-elected president after the Democrats won the House from the Republicans. A small, but vocal, faction of Democrats initially worked to derail Pelosi’s bid to become the next speaker after the 2018 midterm elections, but she eventually secured the votes needed to reclaim the title. Before the final vote, Pelosi used her deal-making skills and negotiated a deal with some of the Democrats who were lobbying to exclude her from the speech. As part of the deal, Pelosi supported a proposal to establish term limits for the party’s top three leaders. However, the 2018 deal was an informal agreement and the caucus’s rules were never changed, imposing time limits on its term. Nancy Pelosi celebrates on election night in San Francisco, California in 1987. (Eric Luse/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images) Pelosi was first elected to the House in 1987, when she won a special election to fill a seat representing California’s 5th Congressional District. Over the years, she has earned a reputation as a powerful and formidable leader of House Democrats who has wielded considerable influence and tight control over members of her caucus. She has also been a fierce opponent of Republicans in Congress and the White House, and Republicans have made her a high-profile target of criticism from within their own party. When she was first elected speaker, Pelosi reflected on the significance of the event and what it meant for women in the United States. “This is a historic moment,” she said in a speech after accepting the speaker’s gavel. “This is a historic moment for the Congress. This is a historic moment for American women.” Read more about Pelosi and her political career here.
