Mark Z. Barabak: Nancy Pelosi prided herself on cold calculation. She knew it was time

When Nancy Pelosi first ran for Congress, she was one of 14 candidates, the front-runner and a target.

At the time, Pelosi was little known to San Francisco voters. But she was already a fixture in national politics. She was a major Democratic fundraiser who helped lure the party's 1984 national convention to her adopted home town. She served as head of California's Democratic Party and hosted a salon that was a must-stop for any politician passing through.

She was the chosen successor of Rep. Sala Burton, a short-timer who took over the House seat held for decades by her late husband, Philip, and who delivered a personal benediction from her deathbed.

But at age 47, Pelosi had never held public office — she was too busy raising five kids, on top of all that political moving and shaking — and opponents made light of her role as hostess. "The party girl for the party," they dubbed her, a taunt that blared from billboards around town.

She obviously showed them.

Pelosi not only made history, becoming the first female speaker of the House. She became the party's spine and its sinew, holding together the Democrats' many warring factions and standing firm at times the more timorous were prepared to back down.

The Affordable Care Act — President Barack Obama's signature achievement — would never have passed if Pelosi had not insisted on pressing on when many, including some in the White House, wished to surrender.

She played a significant role in twice helping rescue the country from economic collapse — the first time in 2009 amid the Great Recession, then in 2020 during the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — mustering recalcitrant Democrats to ensure House passage.

"She will go down in history as one of the most important speakers," James Thurber, a congressional expert at Washington's American University, said. "She knew the rules, she knew the process, she knew the personalities of the key players, and she knew how to work the system."

Pelosi's announcement Thursday that she will not seek reelection — at age 85, after 38 years in Congress — came as no surprise. She saw firsthand the ravages that consumed her friend and former neighbor, Dianne Feinstein. (Pelosi's eldest daughter, Nancy, was a last caretaker for the late senator.)

She was not about to repeat that final, sad act.

Pelosi, who was first elected in 1987, once said she never expected to serve in Congress more than 10 years. She recalled seeing a geriatric House member hobbling on a cane and telling a colleague, "It's never going to be me. I'm not staying around that long."

(She never used a cane, but did give up her trademark stiletto heels for a time after suffering a fall last December and undergoing hip replacement surgery.)

Pelosi had intended to retire sooner, anticipating Hillary Clinton would be elected president in 2016 and seeing that as a logical, and fitting, end point to her trailblazing political career. "I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love," she said in a 2018 interview.

However, she was determined to stymie President Trump in his first term and stuck around, emerging as one of his chief nemeses. After Joe Biden was elected, Pelosi finally yielded the speaker's gavel in November 2022.

But she remained a substantive figure, still wielding enormous power behind the scenes. Among other quiet maneuvers, she was instrumental in helping ease aside Biden after his disastrous debate performance sent Democrats into a panic. He was a personal friend, and long-ago guest at her political salon, but Pelosi anticipated a down-ticket disaster if Biden remained the party's nominee. So, in her estimation, he had to go.

It was the kind of ruthlessness that gave Pelosi great pride; she boasted of a reptilian cold-bloodedness and, indeed, though she shared the liberal leanings of her hometown, Pelosi was no ideologue. That's what made her a superb dealmaker and legislative tactician, along with the personal touch she brought to her leadership.

"She had a will of steel, but she also had a lot of grace and warmth," said Thurber, "and that's not always the case with speakers."

History-making aside, Pelosi left an enduring mark on San Francisco, the place she moved to from Baltimore as a young mother with her husband, Paul, a financier and real estate investor. She brought home billions of dollars for earthquake safety, repurposing old military facilities — the former Presidio Army base is a spectacular park — funding AIDS research and treatment, expanding public transit and countless other programs.

Her work in the 1980s and 1990s on AIDS funding was crucial in helping move discussion of the disease from the shadows — where it was viewed as a plague that mainly struck gay men and drug users — to a pressing national concern.

In the process, she became a San Francisco institution, as venerated as the Golden Gate Bridge and as beloved as the city's tangy sourdough bread.

"She's an icon," said Aaron Peskin, a former San Francisco County supervisor and 2024 candidate for mayor. "She walks into a room, people left, right and center, old, young, white, Black, Chinese stand on their feet. She's one of the greatest speakers we have ever had and this town understands that."

Pelosi grew up in Baltimore in a political family. He father, Tommy D'Alesandro, was a Democratic New Deal congressman, who went on to serve three terms as mayor. "Little Nancy" stuffed envelopes — as her own children would — passed out ballots and often traveled by her father's side to campaign events. (D'Alesandro went on to serve three terms as mayor; Pelosi's brother, Tommy III, held the job for a single term.)

David Axelrod, who saw Pelosi up close while serving as a top aide in the Obama White House, said he once asked her what she learned growing up in such a political household. "She didn't skip a beat," Axelrod said. "She said, 'I learned how to count.'"

Meaning when to call the roll on a key legislative vote and when to cut her losses in the face of inevitable defeat.

Pelosi is still so popular in San Francisco she could well have eked out yet another reelection victory in 2026, despite facing the first serious challenge since that first run for Congress. But the campaign would have been brutal and potentially quite ugly.

More than just about anyone, Pelosi knows how to read a political situation with dispassion, detachment and clear-eyed calculation.

She knew it was time.

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