Christine Pelosi will pursue elected office, but not her lawmaker mother’s seat in the House of Representatives.
The daughter of one of America’s most prominent politicians, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has declined to seek her mother’s seat, opting instead for a California State Senate run. When Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement earlier this month, rumors swirled that Christine could run to take her mother’s place. On Monday, however, Christine put those rumors to rest, announcing that she preferred the idea “of forging my own path.”
Christine Pelosi will instead pursue a spot in the upper chamber of the California State Legislature, representing San Francisco. “I’m running to represent you, San Francisco, in Sacramento. What do we do when our freedoms are under attack? We speak up, we fight back, and we organize. Power for the people,” the younger Pelosi said in a campaign video announcing her run for the state office.
Pelosi is running for a seat currently occupied by Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener, who has announced that he will be running for the former House speaker’s deep blue district.
The younger Pelosi was chief of staff to Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass., and has served as a prosecutor in San Francisco. She has also had a variety of roles in Democrat party organizing, including as a co-founder of the DNC Veterans and Military Families Council and Disability Caucus.
Pelosi has not had a career free of controversy. In March 2020, she received criticism for tweeting, “Rand Paul’s neighbor was right,” referencing the attack on the Kentucky senator that sent him to the hospital with five broken ribs and eventually required part of his lung to be removed. Twitter removed Pelosi’s post for violating its rules, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., referenced Pelosi’s comment after her father was attacked in his home with a hammer.
“No one deserves to be assaulted. Unlike Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who celebrated my assault, I condemn this attack and wish Mr. Pelosi a speedy recovery,” the Kentucky senator wrote in 2022.
For her part, the younger Pelosi has celebrated her mother’s legacy, writing a book called “The Nancy Pelosi Way,” and has been a fierce advocate for her mother’s government service.
“I don’t think that there is a better representative or a better speaker in Washington, D.C., for San Francisco than Nancy Pelosi. And I wish everybody luck as they attempt to follow in those stilettos,” she asserted in a recent interview with The New York Times.
Christine, whose parents had an estimated net worth in 2024 in excess of $200 million, and have been criticized for their stock trading practice, also gave a nod to populism, emphasizing, “The people are your bosses,” adding “They are very anxious and very concerned about their lives, about affordability, about the San Francisco that they want.”
Christine did eventually end up in Congress, she would be the third member of her family to do so following her mother and maternal grandfather, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., who represented Maryland in the House of Representatives from 1939 to 1947.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., posted about Pelosi’s comment.
