Nancy Pelosi
California congresswoman who in 2007 became the first woman Speaker of the House.
Overview
Daughter of a Baltimore congressman-mayor, Pelosi won a San Francisco seat in 1987 and rose through the Appropriations and Intelligence committees to party leadership, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in Congress in 2002 and Speaker in 2007. Her speakerships, 2007 to 2011 and 2019 to 2023, produced the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank financial law, climate and pandemic packages, and the second impeachment of Donald Trump. A target of attacks including a 2022 assault on her husband, she stepped back from leadership in 2023, remaining the most legislatively consequential Speaker since Rayburn.
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