WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Eighty-three-year-old former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and Democrat mainstay Nancy Pelosi announced on Friday that she is seeking reelection to her House seat representing California’s 11th District, amid ongoing consternation about the advanced age of America’s leaders.
“Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery,” Pelosi wrote on social platform X (formerly known as Twitter). “Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote.”
Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery. Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote.…
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) September 8, 2023
Pelosi, who is ardently pro-abortion and supportive of homosexual “marriage” despite her self-identification as Catholic, opted not to seek reelection to House Democrat leadership last year after Republicans narrowly retook the chamber, saying the “hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.”
Despite her strident leftism, Pelosi was known for strategic pragmatism as leader, on multiple occasions counseling her party to downplay issues like abortion in election messaging and advocating toleration of “pro-life” Democrats in more moderate districts, on the grounds that such moves would ultimately be more beneficial to pro-abortion policy outcomes in the long run.
Pelosi told CNN in January that she did not miss being Speaker: “I sometimes wonder why I don’t, but I think that I’ve done my time. I loved it. It was a great honor. Imagine, to be speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency, which of course, would never happen, but nonetheless, the prestige of it all. I love my members. I love the institution.”
While no longer in leadership, Pelosi remains a major voice in Democrat politics, and as an 83-year-old reelection candidate is part of what many on both sides say is an increasingly worrying trend of political leaders being too old to reliably perform their duties, including President Joe Biden (80), former President Donald Trump (77), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (81), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California (89).
For years Biden has been plagued by moments of apparent confusion and incoherence, raising questions about his mental health, Trump has maintained a strikingly sparser event and travel schedule for his 2024 presidential campaign compared to his previous bids, McConnell has frozen during public remarks on two recent occasions, and Feinstein has announced she will not seek reelection after 2024, following extended absence from the Senate and questions about her physical and mental health.
The U.S. Constitution imposes minimum age requirements for presidents and members of Congress, but no maximum age limits. A CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday found that 77% of Americans, including 79% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats, would support cutoff points for elderly officeholders.