U.S. House Speaker Pelosi seeks re-election, does not say if she will continue in leadership

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday she will run for a 19th term in office, without saying whether she would seek to remain in the Democratic leadership role she had earlier said she would relinquish next year. The 81-year-old California lawmaker was the first woman to serve as speaker and had been expected to step down, particularly as her party braces for a possible loss of its majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday she will run for a 19th term in office, without saying whether she would seek to remain in the Democratic leadership role she had earlier said she would relinquish next year.

The 81-year-old California lawmaker was the first woman to serve as speaker and had been expected to step down, particularly as her party braces for a possible loss of its majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections. It was not immediately clear if she would honor an agreement she made to secure an unprecedented second term as speaker after the 2018 election to serve only two additional terms in the role and pave the way for a new generation to ascend to House Democratic leadership.

"While we have made progress much more needs to be done to improve people's lives. This election is crucial: nothing less is at stake than our Democracy," Pelosi said in a tweet.

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