Nancy Pelosi announces retirement from Congress
Representative Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement from Congress after serving for decades.
The reverberations of Nancy Pelosi’s impending retirement continue to echo in California, as her daughter Christine Pelosi announces her intentions to run for office.
But the younger Pelosi isn’t aiming for her mother’s congressional district in San Francisco. Instead, she is setting her sights on state Sen. Scott Wiener’s seat, after he entered the 2026 race to fill the former House speaker’s seat.
Christine Pelosi, 59, is an attorney and women’s rights advocate who has long been connected with California Democrats. Four days after the Speaker Emerita said she would retire in 2026 after more than 38 years in Congress, the daughter put to rest speculation she would run for her mother’s 11th Congressional District seat.
“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 campaign video posted on social media.
On her campaign website, she also listed affordability and the impact of AI as top issues she wants to tackle for San Franciscans, and touted her previous work limiting corporate influence in campaigns and fighting against various forms of harassment.
Christine Pelosi jumped into the fray after the elder Pelosi confirmed she would not run for re-election in 2026, opening up her influential San Francisco seat to an open primary for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Wiener, a 55-year-old state lawmaker, announced late October that he would be running for Nancy Pelosi’s seat, pitting him against Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, a former chief of staff for progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
That has opened up his state Senate seat for Christine Pelosi to run for, setting up a domino-like scenario. California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta endorsed Wiener in the race on Nov. 6.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
