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Ericka Cruz Guevarra: On Friday, Pelosi announced plans to run to represent San Francisco in Congress for a 20th term. And it’s coming at a time when lots of people want to see some fresh, new leadership in politics. Today, the local and national impact of Pelosi’s decision to run again.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Marisa, I know people have been speculating about whether Nancy Pelosi would retire, as we were just talking about. She’s 83 years old. What did she say about why she’s staying in the game?
Marisa Lagos: I would say she sort of couched this in both local and kind of national terms.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Marisa Lagos is a political correspondent for KQED and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast.
Marisa Lagos: She talked about San Francisco values and her desire to kind of help the city with the big challenges it’s facing around the fentanyl crisis, around homelessness and housing. But then she also gave a nod to the kind of bigger forces at play here, democracy being at risk, really wanting to, I think, help, you know, Democrats win not just the House back, but keep the White House in 2024. You know, she spoke on MSNBC pretty soon after making this announcement.
Marisa Lagos: So I am motivated to do everything I can to win this election. I think it’s urgent for our democracy, for our relationships worldwide, and more importantly, for every kitchen table discussion in our country about America’s working families.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So that’s sort of what she says officially. But what’s your sort of take on it? Why is she really running again right now?
Marisa Lagos: You know, Ericka, I’ve tried to get inside Nancy Pelosi’s head, and I think I have some ideas just from talking to folks around her. I think one is that she is still on top of her game.
Marisa Lagos: When you compare the way she’s operating to somebody, you know, like Dianne Feinstein, who’s had so much attention on her health, Pelosi has had, as far as we know, zero health problems. She’s super sharp. I think she’s kind of enjoying herself. She’s been a little bit unshackled. Now that she’s not the leader of the Democratic caucus. She can kind of speak her mind. And and I think probably it’s an easier and more fun job. It’s probably also really hard to step back and take yourself out of being in the mix and being so relevant. Right. She’s been doing this for basically most of my lifetime, and I think that that’s a hard thing to give up. And then I do think that there’s a lot of truth to this idea that she feels like this is a moment where she’s needed.
Marisa Lagos: If you see the actions of the Republicans in Congress, you know that we have to win the election.
Marisa Lagos: You see this kind of similar vibe between her and Joe Biden, which is I think they see Donald Trump and the current Republican Party as such a threat. I think they feel like this is not the time for somebody with that level of experience, fundraising, prowess, all those things to kind of disappear.
Marisa Lagos: I don’t want to see any underutilized resources, any wasted time or any regrets the day after the election that we all didn’t do everything in our power to protect and defend, to make sure that our flag is still there.
Marisa Lagos: I also think that to some extent, the attack on her husband, that horrible attack on Paul Pelosi, kind of strengthened her resolve as well and made her want to stay in the game.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Yeah. I mean, I was going to ask you about that because I remember seeing that and thinking like, geez, like why would anyone of her stature want to remain in the spotlight after something like that?
Marisa Lagos: Right. I mean, any attack would have been horrific. But this man broke into their home in the middle of the night looking for her. And I agree with you. I think normal people would say, oh, maybe I’m done. Politicians aren’t normal people. Let’s be real. Right. And I think and I do think for her, she has this history of being this punching bag for the right. And the way she’s always handled it is not to kind of shrink back from that. It’s to kind of rise to that occasion. It made her feel like, no, I’m not going to back down. Like, I’m not going to be bullied. I think as a woman of her age and generation and all the barriers she’s broken, like you can see how she’s often sort of run towards a challenge. And I think that this sort of tracks with that.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And I mean, she’s probably going to win again, right?
Marisa Lagos: I mean, she won with 84% of the vote last time, so I’m guessing it’ll be a walk in the park.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, let’s talk about the local reaction to this news, Marisa. How would you characterize the general mood around Nancy Pelosi’s decision to run for Congress again?
Marisa Lagos: I think among the general public, it’s a kind of mixed bag. I do think people are seeing her in the context of the Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell’s and Joe Biden’s of the world, who, you know, polls show people feel like it’s time for them to move on. And so when you talk about a new generation of leadership, even if Pelosi is super energetic, I think it’s hard for a lot of people, especially on the younger side, to not see this as just another delay of this long, drawn out changing of the guard. She promised in 2018 that she would step aside as leader. So this is not like a new conversation. So I think what I’m hearing kind of in the more general public is some frustration. That said, again, I think most of those people will still vote for her come next November.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, what about the political class? How are people reacting locally to Pelosi’s decision to run again?
Marisa Lagos: So publicly, almost universally positive. I actually went on Friday to an Emily’s List lunch. This is a progressive women’s group that helps fund, raise and kind of seed campaigns. And I talked to Lateefah Simon, who is currently a bar board member and is running for Barbara Lee’s seat in Congress.
Marisa Lagos: You know, I’m going to be in Congress soon, and I need the Maxine Waters, the Representative Clyburn, the Nancy Pelosi. It’s going to lead us to this next stage of battling to get some of the most basic rights for women back to security is on the line. The attack on trans kids. I mean.
Marisa Lagos: Lateefah is, you know, in her forties, young black woman, I think sort of part of this new generation of leadership and super progressive. And she, I think it’s fair to say, seemed pretty stoked.
Marisa Lagos: About what a thrill to be able to be a phone call away, a couple of desks away from women who have fought and won huge victories for families. It’s exciting and it would be an honor.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Did anyone voice concern publicly about Pelosi’s decision to run again?
Marisa Lagos: So I think, again, a lot of people are not eager to kind of say anything very publicly negative about Pelosi. I did, however, talk to Aimee Allison. She runs she the People, which is really dedicated to get women of color specifically into public office.
Marisa Lagos: For those of us who want to see a new generation of leaders, it’s hard. 2024.
Marisa Lagos: Amy was circumspect. It’s not as if she was negative per se, but she did call it kind of disappointing. You know, talking about the desire to see this handing of the baton.
Marisa Lagos: We do need a new generation of leadership that looks like who lives in California, in the country. And that’s going to require people in their eighties to make space. And I’m not saying anything.
Marisa Lagos: She probably speaks for a lot of people who, again, are not mad at Pelosi specifically, but are just frustrated by the broader political landscape right now.
Marisa Lagos: We can’t have in San Francisco or the Bay Area or anywhere in California, frankly, we can’t have the kind of generational leadership that continues on and on. Not only is it not possible, but it’s not a winning formula. So what I hope is that next.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, I know that in the meantime, there are some people who are sort of left waiting in the wings, maybe waiting for Pelosi to retire so that they could get their chance. So who are some of the younger folks locally who have been eyeing her seat?
Marisa Lagos: Yeah, I would say the two names that come up are State Senator Scott Wiener from San Francisco. Previous member of the Board of Supervisors has been a big leader on transit and transportation and housing and LGBT issues in Sacramento. He has made very clear that he does intend to run when Pelosi steps down and did say immediately on Friday that since she is running again, he’ll run for his seat again in the state Senate. The other big name is one that you might find familiar, Christine Pelosi, one of Nancy Pelosi’s children. She’s an activist in local Democratic politics, has been really out there on the MeToo movement. And she’s served on the Democratic Party here locally for many years as a lawyer and I think obviously is hopeful that her name might give her a little bit of a leg up. What’s fascinating to me is the kind of political dominoes, Game of Thrones, however you want to call it, that any sort of seat like this would create. So if Scott Weiner ran for Congress, Assembly member Matt Haney is thought to want to run for his Senate seat. San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandel man is thought to want to run for Haney’s seat. So you have, I think, her decision impacting not just the folks that are eyeing that congressional district, but everybody else who’s kind of waiting to see this stuff open up. And I think that that’s why we’ve seen in San Francisco in recent years some really brutal kind of Democrat on Democrat races. It’s because in some ways, a lot of these seats have not opened open in so long. These folks have been waiting already and this just delays it even further.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, this question of whether it’s time. Pelosi has been in office for more than 35 years. I mean, is that too long for someone to be in office?
Marisa Lagos: It’s a good question. I was six when she was first elected to Congress, so I now have two children older than that. So, you know, it’s it’s been a minute. It’s a long time. And I think that this is why you do hear some conversations about the question of, you know, age limits or some sort of term limits in Congress. But I do think that it’s an open question. And I think a lot of people are looking at somebody like her and wondering that same thing and kind of asking not just is it time for a new leadership, but like can people be effective after that long in office? But I have never seen a legitimate attempt in my time covering politics the last couple of decades to actually rein that in or do anything about it. Right. I feel like we’re talking about it now, but I haven’t seen anything concrete to actually sort of start that process and.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Marisa, Nancy Pelosi is this very national figure, but she has also represented San Francisco all this time. What are some of the big political winds of her career that have been felt here in the bay and in San Francisco in particular? Like what’s her local impact been over the years?
Marisa Lagos: I mean, I will start with one that’s national but impacts all of us, which is the Affordable Care Act. That really was her crowning legislative achievement. Obviously, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden deserve a lot of credit for that, but she really shepherded that through the Congress. But on the local level, I would say it’s the cheddar, baby. I mean, she brings home the money for the Bay Area. You know, if you look at our big infrastructure projects, transit, all of that sort of thing has been a big player. I think the most visible and sort of concrete thing you can look at is the Presidio. That would not exist as a national park if it were not for Nancy Pelosi. The federal government wanted to essentially sell it off to developers, and she stepped in and brokered this deal that said, look, it’ll become a national park, but it has to become self-sufficient. As you probably know, if you’ve been to the tunnel, top parks like it is continued to grow and really is one of the city’s crown jewels. And I’m looking back in time and I think this is something people in our generation might not even know or have forgotten is what a leader she was around the AIDS HIV crisis when she got to Congress. This was not an issue that most people in Washington, D.C. wanted to talk about. And despite her kind of Catholic background and the fact that she’s this like comes off to some people is so like establishment. She was a real leader in that and was very vocal from the minute she got to D.C. And so I do think that the LGBT community still really looks at her as a trailblazer.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, I do think it is interesting that she was sort of this trailblazer when she first entered Congress, but now she really is sort of seen as someone who is very much part of the establishment.
Marisa Lagos: She is part of the establishment. Like you can’t deny that regardless of whether she’s a pretty progressive member of the establishment or not. So I do think there’s times that she is not always in lockstep with the pulse of the city, per se. I mean, clearly, she is part of the establishment that has presided over the city for the past few decades as a lot of the problems she’s talking about trying to solve have gotten worse. That said, I think until this term, she’s kind of had the luxury of staying out of a lot of local issues, not that she hasn’t been involved again, behind closed doors, but you have not seen her out there being a pundit on a lot of the San Francisco debates over the past couple of decades. I think that’s probably largely because of her role as speaker and minority leader. You know, when you are representing a caucus of over 200 people from very diverse districts. You don’t get to be the San Francisco liberal all the time. Right? Like, you have to kind of look at things through the lens of how do I keep this group together? How do we win? It’s been kind of interesting to see her over the past year, get a little more involved, be a little more willing to weigh in on some of the local stuff. I mean, there’s certainly critics of her and her wealth and the money her husband has made and questions about that. But I do think a lot of those questions have been raised by people who already don’t agree with her politically.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How do you think having a representative who is this like big national figure, how how do you think that’s different from having a congressperson to represent you who’s maybe like not as well known? I mean, I feel like no one really thinks of her as like just this representative from San Francisco. Right. Like, she’s Nancy Pelosi. Like not everyone has a congressperson to represent them who’s as famous as her.
Marisa Lagos: No. Thank God, because there’s 435 of them. Right. We don’t have time to talk, I think in ways probably unseen to most of us. It matters even when Pelosi is not in the majority. I mean, Joe Biden’s going to take her phone call. She has a lot of power and just the longevity that exist when you’re in Washington for that long and, you know the people at the agencies and you know who to call and you have seniority within your caucus. Certainly when Nancy Pelosi steps down, it’s going to change the dynamic for San Francisco. There is a changing of the guard happening, and there’s going to be ways that that’s probably super great and exciting for people. And there might be ways that it makes things a little more challenging to advocate for resources or for power on committees. We are going to be in the next, let’s say, five years entering a place where we have two fairly junior senators from California and a lot of turnover within the congressional delegation. So it’ll be fascinating to watch.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Marisa, thank you.
Marisa Lagos: My pleasure.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: That was Marisa Lagos, a political correspondent for KQED and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast, which you can find wherever you are listening to the Bay. This 25 minute conversation with Marisa was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. I produced this one, scored it and added all the tape. If you liked this episode, consider sharing it with a friend. Word of mouth is one of the best ways that you can help our show grow. Thank you so much for listening to The Bay, a production of KQED in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Peace.
