Useful Notes / Nancy Pelosi

Madam Speaker.

"The women who did all of this— ... We hold them up as icons. But what we hear people say is, ‘Yes, they were icons. You are troublemakers.’ ... But I can just tell you, a troublemaker with a gavel — that’s the real difference."

— interview with the Washington Post, March 25, 2020

Nancy Patricia Pelosi (nee D'Alesandro, born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who served as speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and again between 2019 to 2023. Pelosi has served as a U.S. representative from California since 1987, whose district encompasses most of San Francisco. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the only woman in U.S. history to serve as speaker and she was the highest-ranking female officeholder in the presidential line of succession until Kamala Harris became vice president in 2021. Her two non-consecutive tenures as speaker also made her the first former speaker to return to the post since Sam Rayburn in 1955. Following the 2022 midterm elections, which saw the Democrats lose the majority to the Republicans but with a smaller than predicted margin for a midterm, Pelosi announced that she would not seek a leadership role in the 118th Congress but would remain a representative. She was succeeded as Democratic Caucus leader by Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and as speaker by Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). She was subsequently granted the honorary title "speaker emerita."

She is married to Paul Pelosi and they have five children.

Media

Live Action Television

• She appeared on an episode of Finding Your Roots.
• Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Chloe Fineman have all impersonated her on Saturday Night Live.
• She appeared As Herself in an episode of 30 Rock.