Women of Influence: Nancy Pelosi
One of the most powerful positions in Washington DC (and in the United States) is Speaker of the House of Representatives. From January 4, 2007 to January 4, 2011, and since January 4, 2019, that position has been held by California Representative Nancy Pelosi, now 82 years of age, thus far in history the only woman to ever hold that post.
The former Nancy D'Alesandro was born in Baltimore to an Italian-American family, the youngest of seven children and the only daughter of of Annunciata M. "Nancy" D'Alesandro (née Lombardi) and Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Her mother was born in Fornelli, Isernia, Molise, in South Italy, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1912 Her father was a Democratic congressman from Maryland. He would later serve as Mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi grew up watching her mother play an active role in politics, organizing Democratic women. She taught her daughter the value of social networking. Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also a Democrat, was Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. Growning up in this family, Pelosi became involved with politics from an early age. She helped her father at his campaign events and was also present at John F. Kennedy's inaugural address when he was sworn in as president in January 1961.
In 1958, Nancy Pelosi graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. In 1962, she graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. She interned for Senator Daniel Brewster, a Democrat from Maryland in the 1960s and one of her fellow interns was future House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Nancy D'Alesandro met Paul Francis Pelosi while she was attending college. They were married in Baltimore at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on September 7, 1963 and moved to New York after they wed. The couple later moved to San Francisco in 1969, where Paul's brother Ronald Pelosi was a member of the City and County of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. Together they have five children: Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra; and nine grandchildren. Their daughter Alexandra, a journalist, covered the Republican presidential campaigns in 2000 and made a film about the experience, Journeys with George. Their daughter Christine is an author who published a book in 2007 called Campaign Boot Camp: Basic Training for Future Leaders.
After moving to San Francisco, Pelosi befriended 5th district congressman Phillip Burton, and became involved in local Democratic politics. In 1976, she was elected as a Democratic National Committee member from California, a position she would hold until 1996. She was elected as party chair for Northern California in January 1977, and four years later was selected to head the California Democratic Party, which she led until 1983. Subsequently, Pelosi served as the San Francisco Democratic National Convention Host Committee chairwoman in 1984, and then as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee finance chair from 1985 to 1986.
When Phillip Burton died in 1983, he was succeeded in Congress by his wife, Sala Burton, who won a special election in 1983. Sala Burton won two more elections (in 1984 and in 1986). In late 1986, Burton became ill with cancer and decided not to run for reelection in 1988. She chose Pelosi as her designated successor, and promised the support of the Burtons' network. Sala Burton died on February 1, 1987, just a month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won the special election to succeed her, narrowly defeating San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt on April 7, 1987. She easily defeated Republican candidate Harriet Ross on June 2, 1987. She has held the seat ever since. It is considered to be one of the safest Democratic districts in the country. Democrats have held the seat since 1949 and Republicans currently make up only 13 percent of registered voters in the district. Nancy Pelosi won reelection in the regular election in 1988 and has been reelected another 16 times with no substantive opposition. On average she has won 80 percent of the vote in her elections and has not participated in candidates' debates since her 1987 race. Her worst showing at the polls was in 2020 when fellow Democrat Shahid Buttar won 22.4% of the vote, and Pelosi won 77.6%. For the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, she led in contributing the most money among members of Congress to other congressional campaigns.
Pelosi represents California's 12th congressional district, which comprises approximately 80% of the city and county of San Francisco. She initially represented the 5th district (1987–1993), and then, when district boundaries were redrawn after the 1990 census, the 8th district (1993–2013).
In 2001, Pelosi was elected the House Minority Whip, second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. She was the first woman in U.S. history to hold that post. In 2002, after Gephardt resigned as Minority Leader to seek the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election, Pelosi was elected to replace him, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in the House. In the 2006 midterm elections, the Democrats took control of the House, picking up 30 seats. As House Minority Leader, Pelosi was the front runner to become Speaker of the House in the next Congress and on November 16, 2006, the Democratic caucus unanimously chose Pelosi as the Democratic candidate for Speaker.
Pelosi lost an early battle in 2006 when she supported her longtime friend, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, for the position of House Majority leader, the second-ranking post in the House Democratic caucus. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland had been Pelosi's second-in-command since 2003. Hoyer was elected as House majority leader over Murtha by a margin of 149–86 within the caucus.
With her election as speaker, Pelosi became the first woman, the first Californian, and the first Italian-American to hold the speakership.
As House Speaker, Pelosi was a major opponent of many of the policies espoused by the Bush administration, most notably the Iraq War. She also opposed President George Bush's 2005 attempt to partially privatize Social Security. After 2008, when Barack Obama became President, Pelosi was instrumental in the passage of many of 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, and the 2010 Tax Relief Act.
Pelosi lost the speakership in 2011 after the Republican Party won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. She kept her role as leader of the House Democratic Caucus and returned to the role of House minority leader. In the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats regained control of the House. When the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Pelosi was again elected Speaker. She faced challenges from some of the members of the Progressive caucus, but is said to have brokered a deal in which she promised not to stay more than four years in the job". 220 House Democrats voted for Pelosi as Speaker.
At the start of the 116th Congress, Pelosi opposed President Donald Trump's attempts to use the 2018–2019 federal government shutdown as leverage to build a substantial wall on the American border. She refused to permit President Trump to give the State of the Union Address in the House of Representatives chamber while the shutdown was ongoing. On January 25, 2019, Trump signed a stopgap bill to reopen the government without any concessions regarding a border wall for three weeks to allow negotiations on an appropriations bill. He reiterated his demand for the border wall funding and said he would shut the government down again or declare a national emergency and use military funding to build the wall if Congress did not appropriate the funds by February 15. On February 15, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to bypass Congress, after being unsatisfied with a bipartisan bill that had passed the House and Senate the day before.
On September 29, 2019, Pelosi announced that an impeachment inquiry against President Trump was being commenced. On December 5, 2019, after the inquiry had taken place, Pelosi authorized the Judiciary Committee to begin drafting articles of impeachment. Hearings were held and two articles of impeachment were announced on December 10. The House of Representatives approved both articles on December 18, thereby formally impeaching Trump. The impeachment trial resulted in an acquittal.
On February 4, 2020, at the conclusion of President Trump's State of the Union address, Pelosi tore up her official copy of it.[86] Her stated reason for doing so was "because it was a courteous thing to do considering the alternatives. It was a such a dirty speech."
Trump was defeated in the 2020 Presidential election, though not without some resistance on his party to acknowledging the election results. On January 6, 2021, when the formal count of the electoral votes was taking place, a mob stormed the United States Capitol, forcing Congress to leave the building and resume the count at an alternate location. The following day, Pelosi demanded that President Trump either resign or be removed from office through the clauses of section four the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, threatening impeachment if this did not happen. On January 10, she issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence, that if he did not invoke the 25th amendment, she would proceed with legislation to impeach Trump. Pence refused to follow Pelosi's demands, and on January 13, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump a second time. He was acquitted at his second trial.
While the Covid-19 pandemic had limited movement for other Americans, Pelosi caused a controversy when footage emerged in early September 2020 of her visiting a hair salon in San Francisco, contrary to regulations enforced at that time preventing such service indoors. She was criticized for her hypocrisy by President Trump and by some in the media. Pelosi did not apologize and described the situation as "clearly a setup".
On January 3, 2021, Pelosi was reelected to a fourth term as speaker of the House, which had been expected to be her last. She had been instrumental in the passage of President Joe Biden's administration's two major bills: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act.
Pelosi has announced in January 2022 that she would seek reelection as a U.S. representative that year, though she had pledged in 2018 to not seek the speakership again.
Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress despite having spent her life in public service. The nonpartisan organization known as OpenSecrets, in 2009 estimated that Pelosi's average net worth was approximately $58 million, ranking her 13th among 25 wealthiest members of Congress. Five years later, in 2014, OpenSecrets had reported Pelosi's average net worth almost doubled to approximately $101 million, ranking her 8th out of the 25 wealthiest members of Congress. Pelosi's husband is reported to have large investments in stocks that include Apple, Disney, Comcast and Facebook. According to an organization known as Roll Call, Pelosi and her husband hold properties "worth at least $14.65 million, including a St. Helena vineyard in Napa Valley worth at least $5 million and commercial real estate in San Francisco". As of 2021, Pelosi's net worth was valued at $120 million, making her the 6th richest person in Congress.
According to journalist Glenn Greenwald, the Pelosis have traded $33 million worth of tech stocks over the past two years, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google stocks. In May and June 2021, Pelosi’s husband purchased stocks in tech companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple, netting a gain of $5.3 million. All of this occurred while Pelosi was working on anti-trust legislation to better regulate the tech industry. Pelosi has met with Apple CEO about his opposition to the new regulations. Pelosi opposes increasing regulations on stock trades by members of congress, stating that "we’re a free market economy."
On April 7, 2022 the New York Times reported the Pelosi had tested positive for the coronavirus. A member of her staff described her as being asymptomatic.
The former Nancy D'Alesandro was born in Baltimore to an Italian-American family, the youngest of seven children and the only daughter of of Annunciata M. "Nancy" D'Alesandro (née Lombardi) and Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Her mother was born in Fornelli, Isernia, Molise, in South Italy, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1912 Her father was a Democratic congressman from Maryland. He would later serve as Mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi grew up watching her mother play an active role in politics, organizing Democratic women. She taught her daughter the value of social networking. Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also a Democrat, was Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. Growning up in this family, Pelosi became involved with politics from an early age. She helped her father at his campaign events and was also present at John F. Kennedy's inaugural address when he was sworn in as president in January 1961.
In 1958, Nancy Pelosi graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. In 1962, she graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. She interned for Senator Daniel Brewster, a Democrat from Maryland in the 1960s and one of her fellow interns was future House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Nancy D'Alesandro met Paul Francis Pelosi while she was attending college. They were married in Baltimore at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on September 7, 1963 and moved to New York after they wed. The couple later moved to San Francisco in 1969, where Paul's brother Ronald Pelosi was a member of the City and County of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. Together they have five children: Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra; and nine grandchildren. Their daughter Alexandra, a journalist, covered the Republican presidential campaigns in 2000 and made a film about the experience, Journeys with George. Their daughter Christine is an author who published a book in 2007 called Campaign Boot Camp: Basic Training for Future Leaders.
After moving to San Francisco, Pelosi befriended 5th district congressman Phillip Burton, and became involved in local Democratic politics. In 1976, she was elected as a Democratic National Committee member from California, a position she would hold until 1996. She was elected as party chair for Northern California in January 1977, and four years later was selected to head the California Democratic Party, which she led until 1983. Subsequently, Pelosi served as the San Francisco Democratic National Convention Host Committee chairwoman in 1984, and then as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee finance chair from 1985 to 1986.
When Phillip Burton died in 1983, he was succeeded in Congress by his wife, Sala Burton, who won a special election in 1983. Sala Burton won two more elections (in 1984 and in 1986). In late 1986, Burton became ill with cancer and decided not to run for reelection in 1988. She chose Pelosi as her designated successor, and promised the support of the Burtons' network. Sala Burton died on February 1, 1987, just a month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won the special election to succeed her, narrowly defeating San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt on April 7, 1987. She easily defeated Republican candidate Harriet Ross on June 2, 1987. She has held the seat ever since. It is considered to be one of the safest Democratic districts in the country. Democrats have held the seat since 1949 and Republicans currently make up only 13 percent of registered voters in the district. Nancy Pelosi won reelection in the regular election in 1988 and has been reelected another 16 times with no substantive opposition. On average she has won 80 percent of the vote in her elections and has not participated in candidates' debates since her 1987 race. Her worst showing at the polls was in 2020 when fellow Democrat Shahid Buttar won 22.4% of the vote, and Pelosi won 77.6%. For the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, she led in contributing the most money among members of Congress to other congressional campaigns.
Pelosi represents California's 12th congressional district, which comprises approximately 80% of the city and county of San Francisco. She initially represented the 5th district (1987–1993), and then, when district boundaries were redrawn after the 1990 census, the 8th district (1993–2013).
In 2001, Pelosi was elected the House Minority Whip, second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. She was the first woman in U.S. history to hold that post. In 2002, after Gephardt resigned as Minority Leader to seek the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election, Pelosi was elected to replace him, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in the House. In the 2006 midterm elections, the Democrats took control of the House, picking up 30 seats. As House Minority Leader, Pelosi was the front runner to become Speaker of the House in the next Congress and on November 16, 2006, the Democratic caucus unanimously chose Pelosi as the Democratic candidate for Speaker.
Pelosi lost an early battle in 2006 when she supported her longtime friend, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, for the position of House Majority leader, the second-ranking post in the House Democratic caucus. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland had been Pelosi's second-in-command since 2003. Hoyer was elected as House majority leader over Murtha by a margin of 149–86 within the caucus.
With her election as speaker, Pelosi became the first woman, the first Californian, and the first Italian-American to hold the speakership.
As House Speaker, Pelosi was a major opponent of many of the policies espoused by the Bush administration, most notably the Iraq War. She also opposed President George Bush's 2005 attempt to partially privatize Social Security. After 2008, when Barack Obama became President, Pelosi was instrumental in the passage of many of 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, and the 2010 Tax Relief Act.
Pelosi lost the speakership in 2011 after the Republican Party won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. She kept her role as leader of the House Democratic Caucus and returned to the role of House minority leader. In the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats regained control of the House. When the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Pelosi was again elected Speaker. She faced challenges from some of the members of the Progressive caucus, but is said to have brokered a deal in which she promised not to stay more than four years in the job". 220 House Democrats voted for Pelosi as Speaker.
At the start of the 116th Congress, Pelosi opposed President Donald Trump's attempts to use the 2018–2019 federal government shutdown as leverage to build a substantial wall on the American border. She refused to permit President Trump to give the State of the Union Address in the House of Representatives chamber while the shutdown was ongoing. On January 25, 2019, Trump signed a stopgap bill to reopen the government without any concessions regarding a border wall for three weeks to allow negotiations on an appropriations bill. He reiterated his demand for the border wall funding and said he would shut the government down again or declare a national emergency and use military funding to build the wall if Congress did not appropriate the funds by February 15. On February 15, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to bypass Congress, after being unsatisfied with a bipartisan bill that had passed the House and Senate the day before.
On September 29, 2019, Pelosi announced that an impeachment inquiry against President Trump was being commenced. On December 5, 2019, after the inquiry had taken place, Pelosi authorized the Judiciary Committee to begin drafting articles of impeachment. Hearings were held and two articles of impeachment were announced on December 10. The House of Representatives approved both articles on December 18, thereby formally impeaching Trump. The impeachment trial resulted in an acquittal.
On February 4, 2020, at the conclusion of President Trump's State of the Union address, Pelosi tore up her official copy of it.[86] Her stated reason for doing so was "because it was a courteous thing to do considering the alternatives. It was a such a dirty speech."
Trump was defeated in the 2020 Presidential election, though not without some resistance on his party to acknowledging the election results. On January 6, 2021, when the formal count of the electoral votes was taking place, a mob stormed the United States Capitol, forcing Congress to leave the building and resume the count at an alternate location. The following day, Pelosi demanded that President Trump either resign or be removed from office through the clauses of section four the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, threatening impeachment if this did not happen. On January 10, she issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence, that if he did not invoke the 25th amendment, she would proceed with legislation to impeach Trump. Pence refused to follow Pelosi's demands, and on January 13, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump a second time. He was acquitted at his second trial.
While the Covid-19 pandemic had limited movement for other Americans, Pelosi caused a controversy when footage emerged in early September 2020 of her visiting a hair salon in San Francisco, contrary to regulations enforced at that time preventing such service indoors. She was criticized for her hypocrisy by President Trump and by some in the media. Pelosi did not apologize and described the situation as "clearly a setup".
On January 3, 2021, Pelosi was reelected to a fourth term as speaker of the House, which had been expected to be her last. She had been instrumental in the passage of President Joe Biden's administration's two major bills: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act.
Pelosi has announced in January 2022 that she would seek reelection as a U.S. representative that year, though she had pledged in 2018 to not seek the speakership again.
Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress despite having spent her life in public service. The nonpartisan organization known as OpenSecrets, in 2009 estimated that Pelosi's average net worth was approximately $58 million, ranking her 13th among 25 wealthiest members of Congress. Five years later, in 2014, OpenSecrets had reported Pelosi's average net worth almost doubled to approximately $101 million, ranking her 8th out of the 25 wealthiest members of Congress. Pelosi's husband is reported to have large investments in stocks that include Apple, Disney, Comcast and Facebook. According to an organization known as Roll Call, Pelosi and her husband hold properties "worth at least $14.65 million, including a St. Helena vineyard in Napa Valley worth at least $5 million and commercial real estate in San Francisco". As of 2021, Pelosi's net worth was valued at $120 million, making her the 6th richest person in Congress.
According to journalist Glenn Greenwald, the Pelosis have traded $33 million worth of tech stocks over the past two years, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google stocks. In May and June 2021, Pelosi’s husband purchased stocks in tech companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple, netting a gain of $5.3 million. All of this occurred while Pelosi was working on anti-trust legislation to better regulate the tech industry. Pelosi has met with Apple CEO about his opposition to the new regulations. Pelosi opposes increasing regulations on stock trades by members of congress, stating that "we’re a free market economy."
On April 7, 2022 the New York Times reported the Pelosi had tested positive for the coronavirus. A member of her staff described her as being asymptomatic.