American politician, the highest-ranking woman in congressional history. She has served as speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019, and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has served as a U.S. representative from California since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, Pelosi is the only woman in U.S. history to serve as speaker of the House. She is second in the presidential line of succession, after Vice President Kamala Harris.
She was elected House Democratic Whip on 10 October 2001 and became the first woman to become Speaker of the House after the elections of 7 November 2006 swung the balance of power to the Democrats.
The daughter of a Congressman, Pelosi was raised in politics, saying of her childhood, “Our lives were about campaigns.” She was active in the California arena prior to holding public office. Married to investor Paul Pelosi, the slender, attractive brunette is the mother of five and grandmother of five.
Nancy Pelosi was first elected to the House in 1987. She says she has made the economy a central issue of the Whip operation. She is the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. Some of the issues she says she has made top priority in the House are human rights in China, AIDS treatment and prevention, and environmental protection.
In the US elections of 7 November 2006 the Democrats took the majority of seats in both houses of Congress. On 16 November 2006, Pelosi was elected by her party mates to the powerful position of Speaker of the House. In January 2007, when she officially assumes the mantle of office, she becomes the first woman in US history to hold that prestigious and influential position.
Pelosi was a major opponent of the Iraq War as well as the Bush administration’s 2005 attempt to partially privatize Social Security. During her first speakership, she was instrumental in the passage of many 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, and the 2010 Tax Relief Act.
Under Pelosi’s leadership, the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, first on 18 December 2019, and again on 13 January 2021; Trump was acquitted both times by the Senate.
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