Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she will not seek reelection to Congress in 2026, having pocketed over a hundred-million-dollar fortune over a nearly 40-year career in Washington.
But the Pelosi family isn’t ready to give up their grip on power yet.
Days later, her daughter Christine Pelosi formally announced her own political ambitions, and declared her election campaign for Senate in California.
The 85-year-old former House Speaker made her retirement announcement in a video message last week. “I will not be seeking reelection to Congress,” Pelosi said in the nearly six-minute video. “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”
On Monday, Christine Pelosi announced she would run for California state Senate in the upcoming 2028 election. The 59-year-old Democratic Party insider passed on running for her mother’s congressional seat, and chose instead to pursue the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener.
“I’m running to represent you, San Francisco, in Sacramento, fighting for consumer rights, women’s rights, gun violence survivors, immigrants and our most vulnerable communities against the threat we face,” Christine Pelosi said in a social media announcement Monday.
Christine Pelosi told local station KQED that she was running “because our rights are under attack, because having just come out [of] Prop. 50, organizing around the state with working families and swing voters and swing districts and reaching out across every corner of San Francisco, I know how excited and enthused people are to participate — and at the same time, how concerned they are. And I believe that my experience as an attorney, author, advocate, wife and mom prepares me to be a representative for our community.”
NEW: Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s daughter (D-CA), Christine Pelosi, announces she is running to be a California State Senator.
“In courtrooms, campaigns and corridors of power, I’ve fought to build Power For The People. And that’s why I’m running for California Senate.”
Ahh yes,… pic.twitter.com/tuumB5NJu6
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) November 10, 2025
Pelosi first won her House seat in 1987 and became the first woman to serve as House Speaker in 2007. She wielded significant power over the Democratic caucus and led two impeachment proceedings against President Trump. The announcement came two days after California voters passed Proposition 50, a redistricting measure that favors Democrats. Pelosi personally raised tens of millions of dollars for the ballot initiative.
President Donald Trump celebrated the retirement announcement by calling Pelosi “terrible,” “an evil woman [and] a tremendous liability for the country.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took aim at Pelosi’s remarkable ability to enrich her family while in office.
“With Pelosi’s announced retirement, Congress is losing one of its longest-serving members – and its top hedge fund manager,” DeSantis said. According to Quiver Quantitative, Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi have an estimated net worth of more than $230 million.
Christine Pelosi has held insider positions with the Democratic National Committee and served as chair of the California Democratic Party’s Women’s Caucus for a decade, but she has never held elected office. Political consultant Jim Ross told the San Francisco Chronicle that Christine Pelosi’s candidacy “clears the field of the establishment left.”
The younger Pelosi praised her mother as the “greatest speaker” and “most powerful representative” San Francisco has ever had. “Those are amazing stilettos that no one can fill. And I wish everybody luck in that race for Congress,” she said.