Nancy Pelosi’s retirement will open the door to a progressive shift
During the years that I lived in the US, I brushed shoulders with power – real political power – twice. The first was meeting Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, at the White House. The second was sitting down in the Capitol office of then House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, a few years before she would become speaker for a second time. Pelosi wasn’t (and isn’t) a natural orator and seemed socially awkward. And yet it was obvious that she carried political clout – something that radiates from those politicians who possess it. This is why the recent announcement that the 85-year-old Democrat will retire when her current mandate ends in January 2027 is such big news, even if it didn’t grab as many headlines as the recent victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral election. In truth, it says more about the future of the Democratic Party than a New York upstart who, until recently, had a paid staff of just five.
Due to the odd way party politics works in the US – meaning the opposition is often leaderless – Nancy Pelosi has on occasion been the Democrats’ most senior politician. Hailing from Baltimore but representing her long-time home of California, she has been in Congress for almost 40 years. A tough negotiator who is not scared to use her elbows, she has spoken her mind about Donald Trump (he, in turn, called her an “evil woman” on learning of her retirement) and proved quite impossible to topple – even now, she is going out on her own terms. One reason for her staying power has been her spectacular fundraising efforts. According to one estimate, she has raked in $1.3bn (€1.12bn) for the party during her career.
Pelosi’s departure, when it does eventually come, is a sign that the guard might finally be changing. Friend and fellow Californian political juggernaut senator Dianne Feinstein died in office in 2023 at the age of 90. Even the party’s current Senate minority leader, New York’s Chuck Schumer, is no spring chicken at 74. Pelosi calling time on her career – a bold move given that she is choosing to relinquish power voluntarily – could help put an end to tensions between the party’s old guard and the younger, progressive types agitating to move it further to the left. The lack of a unified identity and direction – opposite Trump’s steamrollering of the GOP – has arguably contributed to the situation in which the party finds itself now.
The progressive wing, represented by Mamdani, isn’t new. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, also calls himself a democratic socialist. And who can forget the young Democratic crop first elected to Congress in 2018 – the so-called “Squad” – including Mamdani’s fellow New Yorker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, better known as AOC. Could Pelosi’s passing of the torch mean a new generation is a step closer to power? The 2028 presidential election will make for interesting viewing, even if telegenic Californian governor Gavin Newsom – at 58, something of a bridge between the oldest and youngest Democrats – is jockeying for the nomination already.
Pelosi was rumoured at one point to have had a complicated relationship with AOC. It wasn’t so much her ideas but apparently her inexperience about how politics really works. Mamdami, a 34-year-old with a background in the state assembly, might be equally naïve. Whether a relative lack of experience matters any more is questionable (just look at Trump) – and clearly Pelosi’s departure will give the Democrats more opportunity to think about the sort of party that they want to be. But Pelosi’s real quality has been, for better or for worse, a world-weary realisation that politics is a tough and transactional game.
Ed Stocker is Monocle’s Europe editor at large. He was formerly Americas editor at large, based in New York.
