California Rep. Jackie Speier won’t run for re-election. What it means for Democrats
Rep. Jackie Speier said Tuesday she would not run for re-election, a decision that ends the congressional career of one of the House’s leading women’s right champions.
“It’s time for me to come home. Time for me to be more than a weekend wife, mother and friend,” the Bay Area Democrat said in a video announcing her decision to leave Congress.
Her announcement also was a new sign that veteran Democrats are increasingly reluctant to return in 2023 as polls show Republicans more and more likely to win control of the chamber.
Speier has served in Congress since 2008. She’s been a reliable ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a strong voice for gay and women’s issues.
Speier was known for being outspoken about women’s rights. In 2011, during a tense debate on family planning issues, she talked about her abortion on the House floor.
“Since Day One, Congresswoman Jackie Speier has been a force in the fight to combat sexual assault and harassment in all places, from our Armed Forces to college campuses to the Congress,” Pelosi said Tuesday.
In 2017, Speier talked about her experiences being sexually harassed in a YouTube video.
She described the time when, as a congressional aide, “A chief of staff held my face, kissed me, stuck his tongue in my mouth.”
Speier, 71, was elected a San Mateo County Supervisor in 1980 and later and served in the state Assembly and Senate.
Speier Tuesday cited her experience as an aide to Rep. Leo Ryan, D-Calif. As a motivation for her public service career.
She was in Guyana in November, 1978, with Ryan and others looking into Jim Jones’ Jonestown cult, when they were shot on an airstrip.
Ryan died. Speier was hit by five gunshots.
She reflected Tuesday on how that experience shaped her public career.
“Forty-three years ago this week, I was lying on an airstrip in the jungles of Guyana with five bullet holes in my body. I vowed that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to public service. I lived, and I survived,” she said in her announcement video Tuesday.
Speier represents a heavily Democratic district, one that includes San Mateo County and part of southwest San Francisco. The district is expected to remain safely in Democratic control even after redistricting.
President Joe Biden won 77% of the votes in the district in 2020. Two years earlier, Gov. Gavin Newsom won with 76%. Speier has routinely won re-election with about 80% of the vote.
The bigger concern in Washington is the exodus of veteran House Democrats. About a dozen have said they would not seek re-election. Republicans need a net gain of four seats to win control of the chamber next year.
The announcement took some colleagues by surprise. “I was really surprised to hear. I think she’s made a lot of good contributions. This is a hard place,” said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 10:20 AM.
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