Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House

Key figures: Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Dennis Hastert (outgoing Speaker, R-IL), John Boehner (House Minority Leader, R-OH), Steny Hoyer (House Majority Leader), Rahm Emanuel (DCCC Chairman)

Summary

On January 4, 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives when the 110th Congress convened, making her the first woman ever elected to the position. The California Democrat received 233 votes to Republican John Boehner’s 202, reflecting the partisan breakdown of the new House. Her election followed the November 2006 midterm elections in which Democrats gained a net 31 seats to win majority control of the House after twelve years of Republican leadership.

Pelosi’s ascension was a triple landmark: the first woman Speaker, the first Speaker from California, and the first Italian-American to hold the office. At her swearing-in — administered by outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert in a ceremony rich with symbolism — Pelosi was surrounded by grandchildren and the children of colleagues, a deliberate visual statement about her historic role. She used the moment to declare: “For our daughters and our granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling.”

Background: Path to the Speakership

Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro was born March 26, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served as Baltimore’s mayor for 12 years and as a member of Congress; her brother Thomas D’Alesandro III was also mayor of Baltimore. She grew up immersed in Democratic Party politics and moved to California after marrying Paul Pelosi in 1963.

Pelosi was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election to represent California’s 5th congressional district (San Francisco), winning a seat vacated by the death of Sala Burton. She rose through the ranks over two decades: she was elected House Minority Whip in 2001 and then Minority Leader in 2002 — itself a historic first, making her the first woman to lead a major party in either chamber of Congress.

During her time as Minority Leader (2003–2007), Pelosi consistently opposed the Iraq War troop surge and the Bush administration’s conduct of the war, positioning the Democratic Party as the anti-war alternative. Her leadership was instrumental in framing the 2006 midterm elections as a referendum on Iraq.

The 2006 Midterm Wave

The Democratic takeover of the House was driven primarily by public dissatisfaction with the Iraq War, which had become deeply unpopular by 2006. Multiple polls showed approval for the war below 40 percent for most of the year. Democrats also benefited from the fallout of the Mark Foley congressional page scandal (September 2006) and the ongoing revelations in the Jack Abramoff lobbying corruption case.

Pelosi, as House Minority Leader and in coordination with DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel, recruited candidates specifically suited to swing districts — many of them moderate Democrats, veterans, or former law enforcement officials. The strategy, which prioritized electability over ideological purity, proved decisive. Democrats gained a net 31 seats on November 7, 2006, flipping the House to a 233–202 Democratic majority. They also captured the Senate in the same election.

Exit polls showed that Iraq was the top issue for 42 percent of voters, and those voters chose Democrats by a 3-to-1 margin. The scale of the defeat — Republicans lost seats in every region — was widely attributed to the combination of Iraq, ethics scandals, and economic unease.

The Swearing-In Ceremony

The 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007, in the House chamber. Outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert administered the oath to Pelosi in keeping with tradition. Pelosi departed from the usual practice of having the Speaker hold the gavel alone, instead inviting children from the galleries — including her own grandchildren — to share the moment on the dais during the formal swearing-in, in photographs that were widely published.

In her acceptance remarks, Pelosi explicitly situated her election within the history of the women’s movement while also pivoting quickly to a legislative agenda:

“The election of 2006 was a call to change — not merely to change the control of Congress but for a new direction for America. In the House, we will not only take great pride in our new role, but we will also take our responsibilities seriously.”

She announced the “First 100 Hours” agenda — a series of legislative priorities Democrats pledged to bring to the floor within the first 100 legislative hours of the new Congress, a frame designed to contrast with what Democrats characterized as Republican inaction.

The “First 100 Hours” Agenda

The “First 100 Hours” was a deliberate reference to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first 100 days, repackaged as a rapid legislative sprint to demonstrate that the new Democratic majority could govern. The agenda moved swiftly:

The minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $7.25 — achieved through attachment to an Iraq War supplemental spending bill that Bush needed to sign — was among the most tangible early accomplishments, representing the first federal minimum wage increase in nine years.

Legislative Record Through 2007

Beyond the First 100 Hours, Pelosi’s speakership in 2007 produced several significant legislative developments:

Iraq War funding battles: Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid worked to attach troop withdrawal timelines to Iraq War supplemental spending bills. Bush vetoed the first such measure on May 1, 2007. Democrats ultimately passed a clean funding bill without timelines — a significant retreat that exposed tensions within the Democratic caucus between progressives demanding rapid withdrawal and moderates wary of being seen as abandoning troops.

Energy policy: On December 19, 2007, Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which Pelosi had championed. The law raised fuel economy standards (CAFE standards) for the first time in 32 years, requiring automakers to achieve a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020, and expanded the renewable fuels mandate.

Armenian Genocide resolution: In October 2007, Pelosi supported bringing a resolution to the House floor labeling the 1915 mass killings of Armenians a “genocide.” The resolution triggered a diplomatic crisis with Turkey, a critical NATO ally, and was ultimately pulled from the floor vote after Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned it would damage U.S.–Turkish military cooperation essential to the Iraq War. The episode illustrated the limits of congressional foreign policy assertions and the pressures Pelosi faced from the executive branch.

SCHIP reauthorization: Congress passed a bipartisan expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in September and October 2007; Bush vetoed both versions, citing cost. Pelosi organized the veto override attempt but fell short of the two-thirds majority required.

Constitutional Position

As Speaker of the House, Pelosi became second in the presidential line of succession, behind only Vice President Dick Cheney. She was also, by tradition and statute, the presiding officer of the House of Representatives — the largest deliberative body in American democracy — and held broad authority over scheduling, committee assignments, and the legislative agenda.

Her election coincided with a period of unprecedented foreign policy tension: the simultaneous presence of a Democrat-controlled House, a Republican-controlled White House, and an ongoing unpopular war produced legislative confrontation that shaped U.S. governance through the remainder of the Bush presidency. The dynamics anticipated — and in some cases directly contributed to — the financial crisis response of 2008, when Pelosi would play a central role in negotiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Significance

Pelosi’s election as Speaker was among the most symbolically significant political events of 2007 in the United States. It completed the Democratic Party’s recapture of both chambers of Congress for the first time since the 1994 Republican Revolution swept Newt Gingrich to the Speakership. It positioned the House as a check on the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq War, though the constitutional limits of congressional war powers constrained what that oversight could actually accomplish while Bush retained the veto and the Republicans held the Senate until 2007.

For the longer history of women in American politics, the Speakership was the highest office any woman had held in U.S. government at that point — surpassing the records set by women who had served as Cabinet secretaries, senators, and governors. Pelosi’s path from the 1987 special election through 20 years in the House to the gavel demonstrated that the obstacle to women’s political advancement in the United States was not structural impossibility but the long accumulation of seniority, coalition-building, and electoral opportunity. She would serve as Speaker again from January 2019 through January 2023, becoming the longest-serving female Speaker in U.S. history.

Her 2007 ascension occurred alongside other milestones in women’s political representation globally — including the 2007 election of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as Argentina’s first elected female president — reflecting a decade-long pattern of advancing female leadership across democratic systems. The contrast with the Benazir Bhutto assassination later in 2007 underscored how politically perilous the path to power remained for women leaders in other contexts.

Sources

• Nancy Pelosi — Wikipedia
• Speaker of the United States House of Representatives — Wikipedia
• 110th United States Congress — Wikipedia
• Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 — Congress.gov — full text of the ethics reform legislation passed in the First 100 Hours.
• Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 — U.S. Department of Energy — summary of the CAFE standards expansion and renewable fuels mandate.