Egon behle biography of nancy pelosi

American politician (born )

"Pelosi" redirects here. For other people with this surname, see Pelosi (surname).

Nancy Pelosi
Official portrait,
In office January 3, &#;– January 3,
Preceded by	Paul Ryan
Succeeded by	Kevin McCarthy
In office January 4, &#;– January 3,
Preceded by	Dennis Hastert
Succeeded by	John Boehner
In office January 3, &#;– January 3,
Whip	Steny Hoyer
Preceded by	John Boehner
Succeeded by	Kevin McCarthy
In office January 3, &#;– January 3,
Whip	Steny Hoyer
Preceded by	Dick Gephardt
Succeeded by	John Boehner
In office January 3, &#;– January 3,
Deputy	Steny Hoyer
Preceded by	Dick Gephardt
Succeeded by	Hakeem Jeffries
In office January 15, &#;– January 3,
Leader	Dick Gephardt
Preceded by	David Bonior
Succeeded by	Steny Hoyer
Incumbent
Assumed office June 2,
Preceded by	Sala Burton
Constituency
In office February 27, &#;– April 3,
Preceded by	Richard J. O'Neill
Succeeded by	Peter Kelly
Born	Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro () March 26, (age&#;84) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse
Children	5, including Christine and Alexandra
Parent
Relatives	Thomas D'Alesandro&#;III (brother)
Residence(s)	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Education	Trinity College, Washington (BA)
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom ()
Signature
Website	House website

Nancy Patricia Pelosi (pə-LOH-see; née&#;D'Alesandro; born March 26, ) is an American politician who was the 52ndspeaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from to and again from to A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman elected as U.S.

House Speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, leading the House Democrats from to A member of the House since , Pelosi currently represents California's 11th congressional district, which includes most of San Francisco. She is the dean of California's congressional delegation.

Pelosi was born and raised in Baltimore, and is the daughter of mayor and congressman Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. She graduated from Trinity College, Washington, in and married businessman Paul Pelosi the next year; the two had met while both were students. They moved to New York City before settling down in San Francisco with their children.

Focused on raising her family, Pelosi stepped into politics as a volunteer for the Democratic Party in the s. After years of party work, rising to chair the state party, she was first elected to Congress in a special election and is now in her 20th term. Pelosi steadily rose through the ranks of the House Democratic Caucus to be elected House minority whip in ^[1] and elevated to House minority leader a year later,^[2] becoming the first woman to hold each of those positions in either chamber of Congress.

In the midterm elections, Pelosi led the Democrats to a majority in the House for the first time in 12 years and was subsequently elected Speaker, becoming the first woman to hold the office.^[3] Until Kamala Harris became vice president in , Pelosi was the highest-ranking woman in the presidential line of succession in U.S.

history, as the speaker of the House is second in the line of succession. During her first speakership, Pelosi was a major opponent of the Iraq War as well as the Bush administration's attempts to partially privatize Social Security. She participated in the passage of the Obama administration's landmark bills, including the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of , and the Tax Relief Act.

Pelosi lost the speakership after the Republican Party retook the majority in the midterm elections, but she retained her role as leader of the House Democrats and became House minority leader for a second time.

In the midterm elections, Democrats regained majority control of the House, and Pelosi was again elected Speaker, becoming the first former speaker to reclaim the gavel since Sam Rayburn in During her second speakership, the House twice impeached President Donald Trump, first in December and again in January ; the Senate acquitted Trump both times.

She participated in the passage of the Biden administration's landmark bills, including the American Rescue Plan Act of , the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act of , and the Respect for Marriage Act. In the midterm elections, Republicans narrowly regained control of the House for the new Congress, ending her tenure as speaker.

She subsequently retired as House Democratic leader. On November 29, , the Steering and Policy Committee of the House Democratic Caucus named Pelosi "Speaker Emerita".

Early life and education

Nancy Pelosi was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to an Italian-American family. She was the only daughter and the youngest of six children of Annunciata M.

"Nancy" D'Alesandro (née Lombardi)^[4] and Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.^[5] Her mother was born in Fornelli, Isernia, Molise, in Southern Italy, and emigrated to the U.S. in ;^[6] her father traced his Italian ancestry to Genoa, Venice and Abruzzo.^[5] When Pelosi was born, her father was a Democratic congressman from Maryland.

He became Baltimore mayor seven years later.^[7][5][8] Pelosi's mother was also active in politics, organizing Democratic women and teaching her daughter political skills.^[9] Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also a Democrat, was elected Baltimore City Council president and later served as mayor from to ^[7]

Pelosi helped her father at his campaign events, and she attended President John F.

Kennedy's inaugural address in January ^[5]

In , Pelosi graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. In , she graduated from Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University) in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.^[10] Pelosi interned for Senator Daniel Brewster (D-Maryland) in the s alongside future House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.^[11]

Early career

After moving to San Francisco, Pelosi became friends with 5th district congressman Phillip Burton and began working her way up in Democratic politics.^[12] In , she was elected as a Democratic National Committee member from California, a position she would hold until ^[13] She was elected as party chair for Northern California in , and four years later was selected to head the California Democratic Party, which she led until Subsequently, Pelosi served as the San Francisco Democratic National Convention Host Committee chairwoman in , and then as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee finance chair from to ^[14]

Early House of Representatives tenure

Phillip Burton died in and his wife, Sala Burton, won a special election to fill the remainder of her husband's congressional term.

She was then reelected to two more terms in her own right.

Egon behle biography of nancy pelosi book The couple settled near New York City, where Paul was employed. On , she married Paul Pelosi , a famous American businessman. A year later Pelosi won another important first when House minority leader Richard A. Pelosi's name is associated with a crucial amendment to an important world trade bill, the International Development and Finance Act of

Burton became ill with cancer in late and decided not to run for reelection in She wanted Pelosi to succeed her, guaranteeing Pelosi the support of the Burtons' contacts.^[15] Burton died on February 1, , one month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won the special election to succeed her, defeating Democratic San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt on April 7, , and Republican Harriet Ross in a June 2 runoff.

Pelosi took office a week later.^[16][17] In the primary, Britt, a gay man, had courted San Francisco's sizable homosexual population by arguing that he would be better than Pelosi at addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.^[18] Pelosi had held many campaign events, amassed a large number of campaign volunteers, and fundraised prolifically for her campaign.^[19]

Pelosi has continued to represent approximately the same area of San Francisco for her entire congressional career, despite the boundaries shifting marginally in decennial post-reapportionmentredistrictings.

This area has been represented in the House by Democrats uninterruptedly since , and is strongly Democratic-leaning (as of , 13% of registered voters in the boundaries of Pelosi's district were Republican).

Egon behle biography of nancy pelosi democrat She continues to hold an influential position and has been a vocal critic of George W. Belying the stereotype of cuisine—focused Italian—Americans, Pelosi stays out of the kitchen. Pelosi's family were dedicated Democrats , and her parents were strict Roman Catholics as well. Despite her liberalism, Pelosi appealed to all wings of the party, working closely with moderate party whip Steny Hoyer and filling a new position of assistant to the leader with another centrist, John Spratt.

It has not seen a serious Republican congressional contender since the early s.^[20] Pelosi has been reelected to the House 18 times^[21] without any substantive opposition. Unlike in her campaign, Pelosi has not participated in candidates' debates in her reelection campaigns. In her first seven reelection campaigns (from through ), she won an average of 80% of the vote.^[20]

At the time that Pelosi entered office, there were only 23 women in the House.^[22]

When Pelosi entered office, the AIDS epidemic was at a dire point.^[23] San Francisco was greatly affected; its large population of gay men was the epidemic's initial epicenter.^[24] Beginning in her first term, Pelosi became a prominent congressional advocate on behalf of those impacted by HIV/AIDS.^[23] Shortly after she took office, she hired a gay man as her congressional office's director of AIDS policy.

In her first floor speech, Pelosi promised that she would be an advocate in the fight against what she called "the crisis of AIDS." With great stigma around the subject, some in her party privately chastised her for publicly associating herself with it.^[18] Pelosi co-authored the Ryan White CARE Act, which allocated funding dedicated to providing treatment and services for those impacted by HIV/AIDS.^[23] President George H.

W. Bush signed the bill into law in December ^[25]

In March , Pelosi voted for the Civil Rights Restoration Act of (as well as to override President Ronald Reagan's veto).^[26][27][28]

Pelosi helped shape the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, working with California Senator Dianne Feinstein and New York Congressman Chuck Schumer.

It became law in ^[19] Pelosi also held chairs on important committees, such as the House Appropriations Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.^[19]

In , Pelosi was elected the House minority whip, second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. She was the first woman in U.S. history to hold that post.^[29] Pelosi defeated John Lewis and Steny Hoyer for the position.

A strong fundraiser, she used campaign contributions to help persuade other members of Congress to support her candidacy.^[30]

In , Pelosi opposed the Iraq Resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, which passed the House on a – vote.^[31][32] She said, "unilateral use of force without first exhausting every diplomatic remedy and other remedies and making a case to the American people will be harmful to our war on terrorism."^[33]

First tenure as minority leader (–)

In November , after Gephardt resigned as House minority leader to seek the Democratic nomination in the presidential election, Pelosi was elected to replace him, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in either chamber of Congress.^[34] In the campaign to succeed Gephardt as the House Democratic Caucus's leader, Pelosi was challenged by Harold Ford Jr.

and Marcy Kaptur. Kaptur withdrew her candidacy for the position before the November 15, , caucus vote, and Pelosi defeated Ford –29 in the closed-door vote of caucus members.^[35] Critics of Pelosi characterized her as too liberal to be a successful House leader.^[36][37]

As minority leader, Pelosi sharply criticized the handling of the Iraq War by President Bush and his administration, in saying Bush had demonstrated areas of "incompetence".^[38]

In a relative surprise, the Democratic Party lost three seats in the House elections, which coincided with Bush's reelection as president.^[39] Focused on retaking the House majority in , in her second term as minority leader Pelosi worked to criticize the Bush administration more effectively and to contrast the Democratic Party with it.^[39][40] As part of this, Pelosi voiced even harsher criticism of Bush's handling of the Iraq War.^[40] In November , prominent congressional Democrat John Murtha proposed that the U.S.

begin a withdrawal of troops from Iraq at the "earliest predictable date". Pelosi initially declined to commit to supporting Murtha's proposal.^[41] Speaker Dennis Hastert soon brought to the floor a vote on a non-binding resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops, seeking to trap Democrats into taking a more radical stance.

Pelosi led Democrats in voting against the resolution, which failed in a –3 floor vote.^[42] Roughly two weeks later, Pelosi held a press conference in which she endorsed Murtha's proposal.^[43] Some critics believed that Pelosi's support for a troop withdrawal would prevent the Democrats from winning a House majority in the elections.^[40]

During her time as minority leader, Pelosi was not well known to much of the American public.

Before the elections, Republicans made a concerted effort to taint public perception of her, running advertisements assailing her.^[44] Advertisements demonizing Pelosi became a routine part of Republican advertising in subsequent elections.^[45] For instance, during the election cycle, Republicans ran more than $50 million in ads that negatively characterized or invoked Pelosi, and in the cycle, they spent more than $65 million on such ads.^[45][46]

First speakership (–)

speakership election

See also: Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election

In the elections, the Democrats took control of the House, picking up 30 seats,^[47] the party's largest House seat gain since the elections held in the wake of the Watergate scandal.^[40] The party's House majority meant that as the party's incumbent House leader, Pelosi was widely expected to become speaker in the next Congress.^[48][49] On November 16, , the Democratic caucus unanimously nominated her for speaker.^[50]

Pelosi supported her longtime friend John Murtha for House majority leader, the second-ranking post in the House.

His competitor was House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, who had been Pelosi's second-in-command since ^[51] Hoyer was elected House majority leader over Murtha by a margin of –^[52]

On January 4, , Pelosi defeated Republican John Boehner of Ohio, votes to , in the election for speaker of the House.^[53][54][55]

Rahm Emanuel, the incoming chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, nominated Pelosi, and her longtime friend John Dingell swore her in, as the dean of the House of Representatives traditionally does.^[56][57]

Pelosi was the first woman, the first Californian, and the first Italian-American to hold the speakership.

She was also the second speaker from a state west of the Rocky Mountains. The first was Washington's Tom Foley, the last Democrat to hold the post before Pelosi.

During her speech, she discussed the historical importance of being the first woman to hold the position of Speaker:

This is a historic moment—for the Congress, and for the women of this country.

It is a moment for which we have waited more than years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. But women weren't just waiting; women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and granddaughters, today, we have broken the marble ceiling.

For our daughters and our granddaughters, the sky is the limit, anything is possible for them.^[59]

She also said Iraq was the major issue facing the th Congress while incorporating some Democratic Party beliefs:

The election of was a call to change—not merely to change the control of Congress, but for a new direction for our country.

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Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in Iraq. The American people rejected an open-ended obligation to a war without end.^[59]

As speaker, Pelosi remained the leader of the House Democrats, as the speaker is considered the leader of the majority caucus.

But by tradition, she did not normally participate in debate and almost never voted on the floor, though she had the right to do so as a member of the House. She was also not a member of any House committees, also in keeping with tradition.

Pelosi was reelected speaker in

Public perception

During and after her first tenure as speaker, Pelosi was widely characterized as a polarizing political figure.

Republican candidates often associated their Democratic opponents with her.^[60][61] Pelosi became the focus of heavy disdain by "mainstream" Republicans and Tea Party Republicans alike,^[62] as well as from the left.^[63]

As they had in , Republicans continued to run advertisements that demonized Pelosi.^[64] Before the House elections, the Republican National Committee prominently used a "Fire Pelosi" slogan in its efforts to recapture the House majority.^[65][66] This slogan was rolled out hours after the House passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.^[67] Republicans spent $65 million ahead of the elections on anti-Pelosi advertisements.^[46] Pelosi has continued to be a fixture of Republican attack.^[68] Ads demonizing her have been credited with fostering intense right-wing ire toward her,^[69] and have been seen as one of the top factors in her unpopularity with the public.^[30]

Social Security

Shortly after being reelected in , President Bush claimed a mandate for an ambitious second-term agenda and proposed reforming Social Security by allowing workers to redirect a portion of their Social Security withholding into stock and bond investments.^[70] Pelosi strongly opposed the plan, saying there was no crisis, and as minority leader she imposed intense party discipline on her caucus, leading them to near-unanimous opposition to the proposal, which was defeated.^[71]

In the wake of Bush's reelection, several leading House Democrats believed they should pursue impeachment proceedings against him, asserting that he had misled Congress about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and violated Americans' civil liberties by authorizing warrantless wiretaps.

In May , with an eye on the upcoming midterm elections—which offered the possibility of Democrats taking back control of the House for the first time since —Pelosi told colleagues that, while the Democrats would conduct vigorous oversight of Bush administration policy, an impeachment investigation was "off the table". A week earlier, she had told The Washington Post that although Democrats would not set out to impeach Bush, "you never know where" investigations might lead.^[72]

After becoming speaker in , Pelosi held firm against impeachment, notwithstanding strong support for it among her constituents.

In the election, she withstood a challenge for her seat by antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who ran as an independent primarily because of Pelosi's refusal to pursue impeachment.^[73]

The "Hundred Hours"

Main article: Hour Plan

Before the midterm elections, Pelosi announced that if Democrats gained a House majority, they would push through most of their agenda during the first hours of the th Congress.^[74][75]

The "first hundred hours" was a play on President Franklin D.

Roosevelt's promise for quick action to combat the Great Depression during his "first hundred days" in office. Newt Gingrich, who became speaker of the House in , had a similar day agenda to implement his Contract with America.

Egon behle biography of nancy pelosi Pelosi won a special election in and was re—elected every two years after that from California's Eighth District. Pelosi was the first woman to hold the minority leader job in either chamber of Congress, and the rank made her, in effect, the highest—ranking politician of her gender in United States history. She orchestrated an overwhelmingly bipartisan and bicameral effort to impose swift and severe consequences on Russia, including a ban on the import of Russian energy and the revocation of normal trade relations. Nance, Cynthia.

Opposition to Iraq War troop surge of

Main article: Iraq War troop surge of

On January 5, , reacting to suggestions from Bush's confidants that he would increase troop levels in Iraq (which he announced in a speech a few days later), Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid condemned the plan.

They sent Bush a letter reading:

[T]here is no purely military solution in Iraq. There is only a political solution. Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.&#; Rather than deploy additional forces to Iraq, we believe the way forward is to begin the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four to six months while shifting the principal mission of our forces there from combat to training, logistics, force protection, and counter-terror.^[76]

Democratic National Convention

Pelosi was named Permanent Chair of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.^[77]

Healthcare reform

Pelosi has been credited for spearheading Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act,^[78] when it seemed doomed to defeat.

After Republican Scott Brown won Democrat Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat in the January Massachusetts special election, costing Democrats their seat filibuster-proof majority, Obama agreed with his then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's idea to do smaller initiatives that could pass easily.

Egon behle biography of nancy pelosi s dad Gephardt, and the first woman ever of either party ever to hold the title. She later described her presence at a meeting of top congressional leaders with the president at the White House , saying: "For an instant, I felt as though Susan B. American Prospect, June Her leadership in enshrining the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law helped restore the ability of women to fight pay discrimination in the courts and ensure they too could participate in the economic recovery.

But Pelosi dismissed Obama's compunction, mocking his scaled-back ideas as "kiddie care".^[79] After convincing him that this was their only shot at health care reform because of the large Democratic majorities in Congress, she rallied her caucus as she began an "unbelievable marathon" of a two-month session to craft the bill, which passed the House – In Obama's remarks before signing the bill into law, he called Pelosi "one of the best speakers the House of Representatives has ever had."^{[80][81][82][83]}

Assessments of first speakership

By early , analysts were assessing Pelosi as possibly the most powerful woman in U.S.

history and among the most powerful speakers of the previous years.^[84] In March , Mark Shields wrote,

In the last four months, [Pelosi] has not once, not twice but on three separate occasions done what none of her predecessors—including legendary giants [Tip O'Neill and Sam Rayburn]—could ever do: persuade the House of Representatives to pass national health-care reform.

Pelosi has proved herself to be the most powerful woman in U.S. political history.^[85]

Later in , Gail Russell Chaddock of The Christian Science Monitor opined that Pelosi was the "most powerful House speaker since Sam Rayburn a half century ago", adding that she had also been "one of the most partisan".^[62] Scholars favorably assessed Pelosi's first speakership.

In late , Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, opined that despite polarized public opinion of Pelosi, "she's going to rank quite high in the pantheon of modern speakers", declaring that the only speaker of the previous years he would rank higher than Pelosi was Sam Rayburn.

Catholic University of America political scientist Matthew Green opined that the th Congress had "been remarkable in its productivity—in both the number of bills enacted and their scope—and Pelosi shares much of the credit."^[86] Green considered Pelosi's tenure as speaker to be among the greatest in U.S.

history, highlighting the passage of the Affordable Care Act ("a measure with far-reaching implications for our nation's health care policy"). He also praised Pelosi for occasionally allowing House passage of measures that had majority overall House support but were opposed by the majority of the Democratic House Caucus.

Biography of nancy pelosi democrat

Nancy Pelosi Biography - life, family, childhood, children ...

He noted that she had occasionally allowed bills to move forward in such fashion despite a high level of political polarization in the United States.^[87]

In November , Brian Naylor of NPR opined that:

During Nancy Pelosi's four years as speaker of the House, Congress approved the health care overhaul—widely considered the most significant piece of domestic legislation since Medicare—along with an $ billion measure to stimulate the economy and a multi-billion-dollar rescue of the banks.

It is a legislative legacy that rivals the accomplishments of any speaker in modern times.^[88]

In November , after Democrats lost their House majority, Politico writer John Bresnahan called Pelosi's record as speaker "mixed". He opined that Pelosi had been a powerful speaker, describing her as wielding "an iron fist in a Gucci glove" and having held "enormous power within the House Democratic Caucus", but noting that she had a "horrible approval rating with the rest of America".

Bresnahan wrote that Pelosi's leadership and the legislative agenda she advanced had significantly contributed to the party's loss of its House majority, citing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as an example of legislation that hurt the Democrats electorally in Bresnahan also believed that, ahead of the elections, Pelosi had "disastrously" misread public opinion, and that Pelosi had been a poor orator.^[89]

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution opined in that Pelosi had been the "strongest and most effective speaker of modern times" during her first speakership.^[90]

In , Robert Draper wrote for