Pelosi decides to run again for House leader post

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she will run to keep her job as the Democratic leader in the House after a pair of elections that kept the party in the minority there even as Democrats gained seats in the Senate and a second term for President Barack Obama.

“My colleagues made it very clear: ‘Don’t even think of leaving,’ “ she recalled at a news conference, surrounded by women lawmakers. “I have made a decision to submit my name to my colleagues to once again serve as the House Democratic leader.”

The announcement was one of several throughout the day that would give more clarity to the leadership and direction of the next Congress, led by majority Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate. Voters in last week’s elections gave Obama a second term, added two seats to the Senate Democratic majority and as many as eight to Pelosi’s caucus in the House.
Pelosi put off her caucus’ leadership elections until after Thanksgiving.

Pelosi, 72, has represented a San Francisco area district in the House for a quarter century, including a stint as the first woman in history to serve as speaker. The tea party-fueled political wave of 2010 forced the gavel from her hand to Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner’s.

Holding a news conference Wednesday morning, Pelosi said “we’re very, very proud” of how large a role women played in the Nov. 6 election.

“We don’t have the gavel” of majority status in the House, she said, “but we have unity.”

Pelosi was a major force behind the passage of Obama’s health care overhaul and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Even after the 2010 elections, when her party lost 63 seats, Pelosi was reelected Democratic leader by her caucus.