Nancy Pelosi, who has led the Democrats in the US House of Representatives for nearly two decades, has announced that she is stepping down.
The 82-year-old is the most powerful Democrat in Congress and the first woman to serve as speaker of the House.
She will continue to represent her California district in the lower house of Congress.
It comes as Republicans are expected to take back control of the House after the midterm elections.
Republican Kevin McCarthy has won the party’s nomination for speaker in the new Congress and is expected to replace Mrs. Pelosi.
“I never imagined that one day I would go from homemaker to House speaker,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a statement to the chamber on Thursday.
“I will not seek re-election to the Democratic leadership in the next Congress. It is time for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus,” he said.
Mrs. Pelosi will serve as speaker until January when the new Congress takes office, and will hold the seat she first held in 1987 until January 2025.
New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is widely expected to take over the top Democratic leadership post in the House, making him the first black congressional leader in US history.
Speaker of the House is the only congressional function detailed in the US Constitution. After the vice president, it is next in line to the presidency.
The Speaker and the Deputy and Committee Chair determine which bills are considered and voted on. They set the agenda and set the rules governing the debate.
Mrs. Pelosi became minority leader, a title held by the person who led the opposition in the House in 2003. Democrats then took control of the House for the first time in more than a decade in 2006, and she became the first woman to lead the House. A major party in both houses of Congress.
Mrs. Pelosi became minority leader again four years later, but returned to the speaker’s chair in 2019.
