Former house speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on ABC News where she predicted that Democrats will retake the house in the 2026 midterms.
As noted by The Hill, Pelosi also said that congressional Republicans have given almost all their power to Donald Trump. She hopes that her party colleagues will then seize back the congressional power from those who ceded it to Trump.
Speaking on ABC News’s This Week on Sunday, the former house speaker was asked if she had any doubts over whether Democratic New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries would become the House speaker after the elections midway through Trump’s second presidency. Pelosi responded firmly, “None.”
“Hakeem Jeffries is ready,” Pelosi told Jonathan Karl, adding, “He’s eloquent, he’s respected by the members, he is a unifier.”
Nancy Pelosi was US House speaker from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023. Moreover, the former house speaker said that “when” the Democrats retake the House, they would need to reclaim the powers of Congress that she stresses have almost all been given to Trump by the Republican legislative branch.
She said to Karl, “Right now, Republicans in the Congress have abolished the Congress.” Pelosi added, “They just do what the president insists that they do. That will be over.”
She then said, “That ends as soon as we have the gavel.”
With Trump’s approval rating down to 36 percent, and disapproval rating at 60 percent in a November Gallup poll, Pelosi is far from alone in her prediction. In fact, Republicans have been preparing themselves for what will come in the 2026 midterms.
Beside Donald Trump’s evident unpopularity, there is plenty of history to show the party that currently holds the White House, often gets hit with losses in midterm elections. Moreover, a number of Republican senators have already revealed that they are not running for re-election in the midterms. These include Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, Iowa’s Joni Ernest, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell.
Furthermore, over two dozen House Republicans have revealed that they won’t try to retain their seat, causing many to wonder if all of them are deserting what seems to be a sinking ship.
However, they are not alone, as Pelosi, 85, said in November that she plans to retire at the end of her final term in early 2027. She cited her age as a major reason for her decision to return, while she comes to the end of a career that saw her promoted as the first woman to serve as US House speaker. This came after she joined Congress to represent San Francisco in 1988.
Even so, she did say she could consider handing over her gavel to a Democrat as part of her last unfinished business.
“By and large, the American people are good people – and I would like to take us back to a place where governance and politics understand that,” Pelosi said to Karl. “So what’s next for me is… that we try to take the discussion to a place that believes in the goodness of the American people – that gives them hope.”
Watch Nancy Pelosi in her interview with ABC This Week on Sunday below:
Republicans have abolished Congress, but that will end when Democrats have the gavel again — and will use it For The People. -NP pic.twitter.com/5GvHtlgBby
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) December 28, 2025
