The House Speaker announced she’s running for yet another term in Congress, but did not address whether she would run for Speaker again, and that’s a moot point anyway if Republicans win the chamber back.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not as old, as unpopular, or as easily played by Republicans as Senator Dianne Feinstein, there are certainly parallels between the two San Francisco old-money lionesses of the Democratic establishment. And one of those parallels is that for all their faults, they can pretty much sleepwalk to an easy reelection every time. And so it is for Pelosi, who announced via Twitter Tuesday afternoon that she is running for a 19th term in the House of Representatives. She has served as SF’s congressional rep since 1987.  


“I am running for reelection to Congress and respectfully seek your support,” Pelosi said in the video above (it takes her nearly three minutes to get around to this part). She even took a suave dig at the right by actually saying the conservative boogeyman term “San Francisco values,” though followed it up with the poll-tested, bullet-point pablum of “reproductive justice, LGBTQ equality, respect for immigrants, and care for each other.”

It’s a mild surprise she’s running again, but the big question is whether Pelosi will remain in her House leadership position. She has previously said she’s step down after this term, and given the current likelihood that the Democrats will lose control of the house, Pelosi would not remain Speaker if they did lose the House. But she could remain on as House Minority Leader, should the Democrats find themselves in the minority.


There are currently 29 House Democrats retiring before upcoming November midterm elections, which is generally a sign of a party that fears a shellacking in the upcoming election. But Pelosi is a shrewd and prodigious fundraiser, and her staying on could limit the Dems’ losses. After all, she would likely raise less money for House Democrats as a lame duck, and more as a candidate for reelection.  


And from a parliamentary perspective, she is as good a tactician as anyone, certainly better than her Democratic Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer, and probably as good as her GOP Senate counterpart Mitch McConnell. Pelosi certainly has baggage, but a lot of that baggage is Republican resentment against her because she has outmaneuvered them so many times over the decades. And if she can outmaneuver them one more time and somehow retain the Democratic House majority, she can probably have the job as long as she wants.    

Related: Right-Wing Twitter Launches False Rumor That Nancy Pelosi Bought a Mansion In Florida [SFist]


Image: @TeamPelosi via Twitter