Dem
51
GOP
49
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will be nearly 87 at the end of her next term and nobody is telling her she is too old to run again, so... she is going to run again. Her district, CA-11, which covers most of San Francisco, is D+37, so there isn't a lot of suspense about whether she will win, even if she was 107. Is she running because she needs the $174,000 salary? Not really. She and her husband are worth north of $100 million. She has been a loyal Democrat basically since she was born. Her father was a Democratic congressman from Maryland and later mayor of Baltimore. Her brother was also mayor of Baltimore. She knows that even though she is not Speaker of the House anymore, she is enormously valuable to the Democratic Party, both as a strategist and as a prodigious fundraiser. She has raised $1.6 billion since she joined the Party leadership 20 years ago. She knows that even as a backbencher (but a speaker emerita is never really a backbencher) she can help the Democrats in many ways. Besides, she is in good health and has politics in her blood. So, she is going for another term.
Just before announcing her run, she sat for an interview with Politico. She is worried about democracy in America and wants to help the Democrats win the trifecta in 2024. But another concern is more local than national. California's power in Congress is receding, with both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries being New Yorkers and not at all shy about it. She is also concerned with the power balance within California. The Bay Area's influence within California is waning, what with former San Francisco mayor and current senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) being only semi-functional and her successor almost certainly being someone from Southern California (either Rep. Adam Schiff or Rep Katie Porter). Other Bay Area heavyweights now gone from the scene are former senator Barbara Boxer; former governor Jerry Brown; former Reps. Phil, John, and Sala Burton; and former assembly speaker Willie Brown. Pelosi is the only one left, other than VP Kamala Harris, so she is hanging in there as long as she can. (V)