Washington, US: Ms. Nancy Pelosi, who has served as the leader of Democrats in the US House of Representatives for over 20 years, has announced her resignation. Ms. Pelosi is the most influential Democrat in Congress and the first woman to serve as speaker of the House.
The senior politician will continue representing California district in the lower chamber of Congress. Mr. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, who has won the party’s nomination to be speaker in the new Congress, is likely to succeed Ms. Pelosi.
I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress. The hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus.
Ms. Pelosi shared in an emotional speech.
Praising Democrats’ performance in the midterm elections, Ms. Pelosi added that, “Last week, the American people spoke and their voices were raised in defense of liberty, of the rule of law and of democracy itself. The people stood in the breach and repelled the assault on democracy.”
Mr. Joe Biden remarked in a statement that, “because of Nancy Pelosi, the lives of millions and millions of Americans are better, even in districts represented by Republicans who voted against her bills and too often vilify her.”
Ms. Pelosi was named as the minority leader, a position that denotes the person in charge of the House opposition in 2003 and subsequently became the first woman to head a major party in either chamber of Congress in 2006, when the Democrats regained control of the House for the first time in more than ten years.
Ms. Pelosi became minority leader again four years later but returned to the speaker’s chair in 2019.