In a potential sign that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will step down at the end of her term, the campaign arm of House Democrats has started collecting biographical information on potential successors, The Standard has learned.
People linked to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which spent almost a quarter-billion dollars during last year’s elections, have begun gathering information about potential candidates as top donors are eager to know who could replace Pelosi, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Pelosi, 84, has represented San Francisco for nearly four decades and twice served as speaker of the House. But concerns about her health and strategy in combating President Donald Trump have grown in the weeks since he reclaimed the White House. Pelosi held a press conference last week in San Francisco at which she insisted Democrats will win back the House in 2026 but made no mention of running for reelection.
A source with knowledge of the outreach said there is “light panic” in the party that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, is not ready to lead the charge into next year’s mid-term elections without Pelosi’s mentorship. However, the decision by campaign officials to begin identifying potential successors could be a pivotal step in moving on from the speaker emerita.
“You only do that if you think it’s going to happen,” a source said.
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Viet Shelton, a DCCC spokesperson, denied that the group’s campaign arm is researching potential successors to Pelosi.
“It’s not true. Full stop,” Shelton wrote in an email.
The sources did not say how widespread the search would be, but rumored or declared candidates to replace Pelosi include her daughter Christine Pelosi, who has served as a member of the Democratic National Committee; state Sen. Scott Wiener, who formed an exploratory committee to run for Pelosi’s seat in 2023 but has said he would never challenge her; and Saikat Chakrabarti, a former software engineer and staffer to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has announced his intention to run in 2026.
Pelosi has consistently cruised to reelection since first being elected to the House in 1987, often securing more than 80% of the vote. However, polling released this week by GrowSF, a moderate-leaning political organization in the city, found that just 52% of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of the congresswoman.
Pelosi and Wiener’s offices declined to comment.