Nancy Pelosi will be the first person in more than six decades to return to the speaker’s chair after losing it. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Congress The survivor: Nancy Pelosi makes history — again She will reclaim the speaker’s gavel in a stunning display of her power in the Democratic Caucus.

The past seven speakers of the House have lost their majority, been forced out by their own colleagues, or stepped down amid personal scandal. One of them — Nancy Pelosi — now has a second chance to rewrite her legacy.

On Thursday, the 78-year-old Pelosi will be the first person in more than six decades, since the legendary Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn, to return to the speaker’s chair after losing it. She will be surrounded by children as she does so, a replay of an iconic moment from her January 2007 swearing-in ceremony as the first female speaker in history.


But Pelosi will also tie Rayburn on another front by becoming the oldest person ever elected speaker and the oldest to hold the post, a testament to both her staying power and the fact that her return engagement to the speakership will be limited.

Unlike her original go-round as speaker from 2007 to 2011, when the California Democrat was at her most powerful, Pelosi will face a whole new set of challenges during the 116th Congress — a fractious caucus full of upstart progressives who want to move an ambitious agenda; the unpredictable President Donald Trump, who has greeted Pelosi’s return to power with an ongoing government shutdown; a determined, experienced foe in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who runs his own chamber with a tight grip; and self-imposed term limits on her speakership of four years.

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All that, however, shouldn’t diminish the scale of what Pelosi has done. She survived a challenge to her leadership after a 63-seat wipeout in the 2010 tea party wave. She faced more Democratic complaints in 2014 and 2016 — the latter heightened by the Democratic despair over Trump’s victory. Throughout this latest election cycle, moderate Democratic incumbents and candidates warned they wouldn’t vote for Pelosi for speaker and a band of rebels sought to derail her return to the speaker’s chair.

In the end, Pelosi overcame it all.

“I’m telling you what I know and what I have seen. … Nancy Pelosi is in charge of the Democratic Caucus, and to believe otherwise is perilous for an opponent,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, who has occasionally differed with Pelosi.

“She understands legislation down to the minute details and can flip you back and forth in a negotiation session based on her knowledge, skill and experience,” Cleaver noted. “And I’m kind of an independent person, so I’m not necessarily in her camp.”

“She’ll cut your head off, and you won’t even know you’re bleeding,” Alexandra Pelosi declared about her mother during a CNN interview on Wednesday.

The senior Pelosi, though, won’t have any breathing room as she takes over the House. And she can’t ease into the job even if she wanted to: The partial government shutdown caused by the bitter struggle over Trump’s border wall is now entering its 13th day, leaving 800,000 federal workers without pay. Some leaders in both parties fear it could drag on for weeks.

In a bid to end the stalemate, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are offering Trump, McConnell and GOP leaders a two-part plan to fund all federal agencies except the Homeland Security Department through Sept. 30. DHS would get a short-term funding bill through Feb. 8. Trump has already said no to the Democratic plan, despite the fact that these are Republican-drafted spending bills. But Pelosi will push through a House vote on the measures shortly after she is sworn in as speaker to demonstrate Democrats are the ones taking action to end the crisis.

“We want the president to open up the government,” Pelosi told reporters after an unproductive meeting with Trump Wednesday. “We are giving him a Republican path to do that, why would he not do it?”

The clashes with Trump over the wall — including the famous Dec. 11 Oval Office session Pelosi had with Trump and Schumer — actually helped solidify Pelosi’s bid to return to the speakership, a weekslong effort that demonstrated the California Democrat’s full bag of tricks. She bought off some Democrats with committee assignments, others with promises to move favored legislation. Pelosi used her allies on the outside to pressure Democratic holdouts, using everyone from governors to union leaders to former Vice President Joe Biden to nail down support.

To lock down the final votes, Pelosi cut a deal with her critics that term-limited her tenure. Under the rule, Pelosi can serve only until 2022 at the latest. And if Pelosi wants to be speaker again next Congress, she would face a higher threshold for reclaiming the gavel: a two-thirds vote in the caucus rather than a simple majority.

“Every aspect of it — the outside Democratic support groups that really came through for her, her corralling votes one by one, her taking on her critics and disarming them, cutting deals here and there where she had to — I just think it’s a modern case study on internal congressional politics,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).

But that same agreement has led some political commentators to question whether Pelosi has made herself a lame duck and will no longer be as effective as she once was. When outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced his retirement in the spring of 2018, some of his fundraising dried up. A rising number of his GOP colleagues also started ignoring him, undercutting his ability to lead.

But when asked whether Pelosi would face the same struggles, the universal reply from House Democrats, both those who love her and those who hate her was a resounding no.



New York Rep.-elect Max Rose, one of several Democratic freshmen who opposed Pelosi on the campaign trail, said he still plans to vote against her on the floor. But Rose also said it’s time for Democrats to move on and embrace the power and privilege that come with being in the majority.

“Am I disappointed she’s going to be our speaker?” Rose told Politico. “I’ve had much bigger disappointments in my life than just that. I’m excited to get to work.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who will return as majority whip in the next Congress, said he often doubted that he’d ever serve in another Democratic majority, but he never doubted Pelosi.

“I think she is going to be not just different, but much more effective as a speaker,” said Clyburn. He noted that he, Pelosi and incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) — the same triumvirate that ran the House during the 2010 wipeout — all bring something to the table that no one else can: experience.

“I think we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Clyburn said. “The second time around, I think it will be better.”

