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The problem with Washington, D.C. is that once people get a taste of real power they are very hesitant to let go, even when Father Time catches up to them.

Nowhere has that been more apparent than with President Biden, who literally had to be forced to step aside at the age of 81, due in large part to cognitive decline. But flying under the radar here has been Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has now clocked 84 trips around the sun — which is coincidentally the same timeframe it takes Uranus to make a complete orbit around the sun.

While Pelosi relinquished her leadership role in the Democratic caucus, at least on the surface, she remained in office representing her California district and has already filed for reelection in 2026, even though she has yet to be sworn in for her 20th term which begins in January.

With President-elect Donald J. Trump set to fulfill a second term, is Pelosi planning to stick around the entire four years? Or is she eager to wash away the humiliation as a central architect in forcing Biden out in favor of failed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, who lost in a landslide to Trump?

On Thursday, Pelosi filed a statement of candidacy for 2026 with the Federal Election Commission, according to the Washington Examiner.

More from the newspaper:

Trump’s reelection could have had a role in persuading her to stay in office, according to reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle. On a House Democratic Caucus call following the election, Pelosi suggested Democrats replicate the work of a group created during the last Trump administration that focused on defending the Affordable Care Act.

In a New York Times interview after the election, Pelosi did not answer directly whether this term would be her last but indicated that she intends to continue to be a fighting force.

“I’m not here to talk about that,” Pelosi told the New York Times. “I’m here to fight the fight so that we win in the next election. I must have thought I had the last term over and over again, but as fate would have it, the mission called.”

Another possibility here, as noted by the Examiner, is that as a prolific fundraiser, Pelosi may simply be meeting FEC rules requiring the “Statement of Candidacy” form when candidates raise or spend $5,000 in an election cycle — she raised more than $8.3 million in her 2024 reelection and it’s likely she has already reached the threshold.

Interestingly, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) threw Pelosi under the bus for both her age and the ouster of Biden, suggesting she should allow the “younger generation” to have a go.

“People like [Nancy] Pelosi, she really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this ‘She’s the godmother, she’s the enforcer.’ And now she’s blaming Biden. Well, you can’t have it both ways. You got what you wanted, and now you’re still blaming Biden,” he told Politico. “I think it’s really ironic that you have a woman at age 84 and she is still hanging on. Why not give a younger generation an opportunity to occupy that seat?”

Pelosi told the New York Times that had Biden “gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race.”

“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she explained, adding that “because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

Tom Tillison
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