- By Adam Shanks | Examiner staff writer
- Oct 18, 2025 (SFExaminer.com)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives, refuses to be distracted.
As questions about Pelosi’s political future ceaselessly circle her, she’s adamant that her mind remains first and foremost fixated on one election — and it isn’t in 2026.
Pelosi joined labor leaders Saturday to put her political muscle behind the campaign for Proposition 50 — a statewide redistricting measure that its Democratic proponents say is a counter to Republican gerrymandering in states such as Texas — which will be decided by voters on Nov. 4.
Saturday’s get-out-the-vote effort for Prop. 50 coincided with the No Kings protests, in which millions of Americans were expected to demonstrate in cities throughout the nation — including San Francisco — against President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies.
Pelosi told The Examiner on Saturday that she won’t announce whether she’ll seek another term in 2026 until Prop. 50 is settled.
Her advocacy for Prop. 50 — a measure framed by Democrats as a fight to protect democracy — comes days after Trump floated the idea of sending the National Guard into San Francisco. She’s opting not to engage with the threat beyond a terse statement in opposition. Instead, she is calling out Republican-led cuts to health care and the Democratic Party’s efforts to retake control of the House of Representatives in 2026.
The Examiner sat down with Pelosi on Saturday to discuss Prop. 50, Trump and her own 2026 plans. This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Have you decided whether or not you’re going to run in 2026? And if you haven’t decided yet, when will you make an announcement? I won’t make any announcement until we get through November 4th. That is everything to us.
Here’s the thing. We must win the House. If you talk about ‘no kings,’ we must win the House to put a stop to this. We won’t be able to get many things done, but we’ll be able to stop a lot of the poison that he’s putting there, and the best antidote to poison is to win the election.
There’s a lot riding on this because this is the path to our winning the House. We will win the House regardless, but winning it big, and we want to win Nov. 4 big.
Even if the Voting Rights Act is gutted? [The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that challenges the constitutionality of Section 2 of the act.] If that happens, that would be so shameful for our country, and it’s such a departure.
[In 2006] we wrote the Voting Rights Act [extension] in our office, minority leader with the Black Caucus … I walked down the steps with Senator [Bill] Frist, who was majority leader at that time, in celebration. George Bush signed it. And what did these guys do? Years later they diminish Section 2.
This is really so un-American. It’s a shame what happened to the Supreme Court under this guy. Our founders could foresee a rogue president. They couldn’t foresee a rogue Senate and a rogue court.
I’m working very closely with labor to fund and to organize the outside mobilization. They have been fabulous in all of this, and also the governor with massive resources that we need, but he’s really led the way on that. I just helped him a bit, but my focus had been more on the funding for the get-out-the-vote [effort].
Can you walk me through those early days when this was first being formed? It wasn’t that long ago that they started in Texas. If they didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have done that. We weren’t planning this, no. We don’t like midterm, mid-decade redistricting.
The central opposition now is that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” If you’re out knocking on a door, how do you explain to somebody that, in this case, two wrongs do make a right? Well, it isn’t about two wrongs making a right. It isn’t about two wrongs. That’s a talking point for the Republicans, but that ain’t what the fact is. They committed a wrong, we’re in self-defense, and that’s what this is — self-defense.
Do you think if somebody comes to punch you in the face and you punch them back, that’s two wrongs?
I don’t know. I’m a coward. I’ve never gotten into a fistfight. This is not “two wrongs.” This is self-defense and democracy.
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Do you feel like the message is resonating? Are you confident heading into November? I’m confident we will win, but I want to win big. I want to win big. The support is there, we just have to get it out. That’s the whole thing about all this, is you can convince everybody, but unless they’re voting, you’ve only had a conversation. Get out that vote. Own the ground.
We touched on it a little bit, but can you articulate for me why it’s so important that Democrats have the majority in the House after 2026? More now than ever. Elections were elections. You get the results, you live with that. You compromise on this and that. But in this case, our democracy is at stake.
The current leadership of the House — Congress, even, but just talking about the House — has shredded the Constitution when it comes to the separation of power as being the exquisite beauty of our Constitution. Separation of power … that is central to not having a king.
That’s the genius of our founders. They didn’t want a king. Separation of power.
You’ve focused on preserving healthcare. How important is it to you to negotiate that as part of a path out of the [federal government] shutdown? What is the best approach out of a shutdown? What we’re doing here is about health care, but we were talking about separation of powers, saving our democracy, free and fair elections, rule of law, independent judiciary — remember that? — freedom of the press, all of those things — they’re all at stake in this election.
You save democracy and the Constitution at the kitchen table — taking down prices, not allowing cost of health care to go up, to address the issues that relate to the cost of living for America’s working families.
So from the standpoint of health care … When we passed [the Affordable Care Act] it was -6% in popularity. You know what it is now? 30-something to 60-something [percent] in favor of the Affordable Care Act.
So they’re messing with something that is right there at the kitchen table. It’s about their health, people’s health. It’s also about their financial health, because they’re gonna be getting notices now that say your healthcare is going to go up either double or triple — thousands of dollars difference that people just can’t afford. So from a standpoint of the health and financial health of the American people, this is a fight we must win. But from a standpoint of what it means politically? We fully intend to win the house. We’re going to win it anyway. This November 4 gives us a boost.
One could argue that kitchen-table issues and the rising cost of living were major reasons why Trump won reelection. How do Democrats better control those rising costs of living? Well, the difference is between lies and truth. He didn’t do anything … He had one goal — tax breaks for the richest people in America. That was his goal when he was president the first time, and [he] didn’t accomplish anything except tax breaks for the rich, adding $2 trillion to the national debt. This time it’s $4 trillion to the national debt to give even a bigger boost to the richest people in corporate America. That’s why they go up there and kiss his butt.
This is life or death. I will say this in relationship to my crudeness. Being a mom, my whole purpose in even being in politics is the children, for the children, for the children, for the children. Donald Trump is the worst president America’s children have ever had, whether it’s their health, their education, the economic security of their working families, a clean safe environment — including gun safety — in which they can thrive in a world of peace in which they can reach their fulfillment. Forget it all.
The worst, the worst, exceeding anybody in terms of being the worst president of the United States for children. So that’s part of my fight too.
That’s who we are. That’s what we’re there to do, to lower the cost of living for them by starting out by not increasing their health-care costs, which is what he is doing, and not engaging in unexplainable tariffs that will add to the cost of living just because he feels like throwing his substantial weight around — literally and figuratively. Again, this is who we are. This is for working families.
What we’re doing with our labor mobilization is about swing voters in swing districts with working families. This is for them to call the shots.
It’s No Kings day. This week there’s been talk about Trump sending the National Guard to manage things in San Francisco. You put out a fairly terse statement yesterday, and it reminded me of your response to the Presidio, Alcatraz. Reject my premise, [but] it seems like you’re not really willing to engage in a prolonged tit-for-tat, rhetorical back-and-forth on these issues. That may be so. I mean, your interpretation may be how you see things. However, the reason we didn’t take his bait on these things is health care, Medicare, Medicaid — that is what is essential to America’s working families.
He’s a notion monger. He throws out notions. He doesn’t even really understand what they are.
But tell that to Chicago. It was more than just a threat or a notion in Chicago. He ought not to even think about coming to San Francisco. Everybody knows that’s a tit-for-tat with him. But when he throws his things out, he wants us to divert our attention from the kitchen table. That’s what he wants us to do, but we’re not doing that.
No, we’re talking about the rising cost of health care because your members have decided in favor of the wealthiest people in America instead of America’s working families. Give them a tax break, really? Really?
[It’s] not that I don’t want to engage with him. I’ve probably engaged him more than almost anybody, in my history of it all … you’re not gonna divert attention away from what is important to America’s working families.
