There has been plenty of speculation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) may soon resign from her leadership position and retire from Congress altogether, particularly if Republicans regain control of the House in the midterm elections.
Pelosi has been tight-lipped about the imminent future of her career, but she did reveal in a recent interview that the violent attack on her husband Paul will be a factor in her ultimate decision, the Conservative Brief reported.
However, Pelosi declined to specify whether the assault of her husband would compel her to defiantly stick around for another term or persuade her that it was time to head home to be with her family for good.
Attack on husband will be factor in retirement decision
Speaker Pelosi sat for an interview this week with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper and rehashed how she had first been informed by Capitol Police of the break-in and assault on Paul at their San Francisco home while she was in Washington D.C.
She also spoke of her spouse’s current condition and recovery from surgery to repair the damage done in the violent assault with a hammer, and quite predictably criticized Republicans as not being sympathetic enough or somehow responsible for the attack, which she also linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot of 2021.
At one point in the Monday interview, Cooper noted that there has “been a lot of discussion about whether you’d retire if Democrats lose the House,” and he asked directly if she had decided one way or the other whether to retire from Congress in the near future.
Pelosi said her “decision will be affected about what happened the last week or two,” but when Cooper pressed whether “your decision be impacted by the attack in any way,” the speaker only replied “Yes” without any further elaboration.
Who will replace Pelosi when she’s gone?
As noted, it has been widely speculated for some time that this current term of Congress would likely be the last for Pelosi, and multiple reports have indicated that there are ongoing if quiet battles behind-the-scenes with regard to who will replace her, both as a member of Congress and as the top leader of House Democrats.
The Washington Examiner reported that the top two contenders to replace Pelosi as the representative of the congressional district that includes San Francisco are her daughter Alexandria, a leftist political activist who already serves as a top surrogate for her mother, and state Sen. Scott Weiner (D), who represents the city of San Francisco in California’s legislature.
There may be others seeking Pelosi’s seat as well, but there has been virtually no public campaigning in that regard as of yet, undoubtedly due to the fact that Pelosi herself has yet to announce whether she will retire or not.
Meanwhile, even if she doesn’t fully retire from Congress, it seems likely that Pelosi won’t be the House Speaker or even a member of Democratic leadership in the next term, and Politico has reported on the quiet efforts of some prominent House Democrats to replace her in that leadership role.
It currently looks like Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is the frontrunner in that regard, though Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is reportedly making a play, and other elder Democratic leaders — such as Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) — could make claims of their own to be named as Pelosi’s successor in the next congressional term.
