Nancy Pelosi speaks on culture wars, redistricting, and the Democrats’ stand on the shutdown—but don’t tell her that her party is “rudderless”
Introduction
By Susan A. Hughes
October 27, 2025
Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Harvard Kennedy School to speak in class with Ambassador Katherine Tai, Institute of Politics (IOP) fall 2025 fellow and former trade representative in the Biden administration.
Pelosi also spoke with Alison King, an award-winning journalist and a spring 2024 IOP fellow. They reviewed the state of the Democratic Party, the 2024 election, and the current political moment.
King started the conversation by noting what she observed as a low-energy Democratic party, even a “rudderless” one.
“I completely disagree with your characterization of the Democratic Party,” stated Pelosi, suggesting that what you see portrayed in the media is not what is happening behind the scenes in Washington.
“If you don’t have leverage, the press isn’t going to cover you that much,” said Pelosi. But what she sees is Democrats working in their districts, talking to constituents, explaining and debating the work of this administration in the House. In describing how the House of Representatives works in contrast to the presidency, Pelosi said the current job of Democrats is winning back the House, as they did in 2019, in order ultimately to win back the White House.
When King asked who she thought were the top three contenders for the Democrats in 2028, Pelosi said, “I’m too much of a politician to name just three.”
Pelosi mentioned all the names currently being bandied about in the media: Governors Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, JB Pritzker, and Andy Beshear, and “others from Congress, the Senate, and some maybe out of politics altogether,” she said.
“We have a great bench,” said Pelosi, “And again, I disagree [about low energy] because I see Democrats [at work] every day.”
In her home state of California, Pelosi sees a prime example of Democrats at work noting the current ballot initiative in California, Proposition 50 on redistricting, which will be decided in November. “I don’t like redistricting mid-decade,” she said, “But the president wanted five more seats in Texas, so we decided to get five more seats.” She disagreed with criticism that “two wrongs don’t make a right”: “He [the president] punched us in the face, and we punched him back. That’s self-defense of democracy.”
“Do you see gerrymandering, or redistricting, righting itself at some point?” asked King. “Because I see it as one of the biggest problems facing the country right now.”
Pelosi agreed but drew the distinction between political redistricting (gerrymandering) and commission redistricting, which relies on a nonpartisan body in each state to redraw districts, then puts it on a ballot for voters to concur or reject it. “This is about getting back to commission redistricting,” said Pelosi.
Looking back at the 2024 election, King asked about accusations from the right that Democrats pushed Americans too far to the left on cultural issues and immigration, and that led to a Trump victory.
Again, Pelosi disagreed. “This is about who we are. We are a beautiful, diverse country. This goes to immigration, because every white person sitting in this room is advantaged by every other person in the room. That’s how diversity works.”
Pelosi then asked the audience of students to look up Ronald Reagan’s talk “This is The Last Speech I will Make as President,” where he extols the virtues of immigration. “He was a great communicator.” In the speech, Reagan proclaimed America a preeminent country because of immigrants.
“There are people in the country who don’t want to see women, LGBTQ, people of color, or immigrants taking their place in anything,” said Pelosi. “That’s their problem. That’s not America’s problem.”
Calling on her deep Catholic faith, Pelosi said she believed Christianity adds a spark of divinity to every single person. “That spark of divinity is worthy of respect,” she said. “It is also a challenge to us to treat others with respect, whether they’re a newcomer or a homeless person on the street.”
Turning to the government shutdown, King asked about the Democrats’ stand on health care, and why Pelosi, who fought for the Affordable Care Act most of her career, thought opposing the administration's budget bill based on protecting the ACA would be successful.
For 100 years, Pelosi explained, from Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, presidents on both sides of the aisle have tried to pass a health care bill. “This was the challenge of our generation, the Affordable Care Act,” she said. She noted that once it passed, Republicans repeatedly tried to take it down, yet the American people support it.
“It’s all about affordability,” said Pelosi. “Republicans want us to take millions of people off of Medicaid, a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare, and increase by two or three times the cost of healthcare policies for America’s working family” in order to open up the government.
Photography by Bethany Versoy