Pelosi to Step Down from House Leadership
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress after Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections.
In a speech on the House floor on Thursday, Pelosi announced that she will step aside after leading Democrats for nearly 20 years and in the aftermath of the brutal attack on her husband, Paul, last month in their San Francisco home, AP reported.
The California Democrat said she would remain in Congress as the representative from San Francisco, a position she has held for 35 years, when the new Congress convenes in January.
“I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” she said. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.”
Now, she said, “we must move boldly into the future.”
It’s an unusual choice for a party leader to stay on after withdrawing from congressional leadership, but not without precedent and Pelosi has long defied convention in pursuing power in Washington.