Why is pelosi so powerful

But the year-old will play a critical role in advancing the agenda of the new president. That means there's no time to dwell on her personal disappointment over November's election - she takes charge of a shrinking majority in the lower chamber. And on Sunday, she was only narrowly re-elected as Speaker, following defections from a handful of Democrat colleagues.

Instead, her coming term must demonstrate all the Pelosi qualities that both rally her supporters and alienate her many detractors. Her legislative acumen, her ability to keep a restless party united when it matters and her instinct for political theatre more on that sarcastic clap later. Republicans have typically painted Ms Pelosi as a "San Francisco liberal" enamoured with big government and far to the left on social issues. But her roots are from a more practical style of politics on the other side of the continent.

She grew up in a political family, youngest of seven children in the gritty East Coast city of Baltimore, Maryland, where her father was mayor. She went to college in nearby Washington where she met and eventually married financier Paul Pelosi.

She had five children - four daughters and a son - in the space of six years. In she became involved in politics, using her old family connections to help California Governor Jerry Brown win the Maryland primary as he ran for president. She then rose through the state's Democratic Party ranks, eventually becoming its chair and then winning a seat in Congress in In the House she worked her way up again.

Because she represented a portion of the city with a large gay community, she made increasing Aids research funding a priority. In , she ran for House minority whip, which is vote-counter and second in command of the party in the House, and won a narrow victory. The next year she moved up to minority leader, which means leading the party in the House but in opposition.

She was one of the highest-profile, most outspoken opponents of the US invasion of Iraq in This stand was vindicated and paid dividends in when the Democrats took control of the House for the first time in 12 years. She was elected by her party to be Speaker of the House, becoming the first woman in that role in US history. Four years later, Democrats lost control of the lower chamber of Congress. Despite the setback Ms Pelosi defeated several challenges within her own ranks, to take the gavel once more at the helm of a resurgent party in Speaker of the House is the one congressional job detailed in the US Constitution.

Because she basically has Trump's nuts in a vice, and she's not afraid to turn the screws while staring him square in the face. Nancy smiles as she turns those screws. Source: Getty Images Source:Whimn. The swing against the government in the mid-terms meant the House of Representatives ended up with a Democratic majority. In Australia , having run of the House means your party can form government, but it's not that simple in the US. While the Democrats now run the House, the Republicans - Trump's party - still have a majority in the Senate.

And Trump is clearly still President for now. But trying to run a government without a majority in the House means you have to work together with the opposition. And we're pretty sure every school report card Trump brought home said, "Does not play well with others. Nancy Pelosi is the leader of the Democrats in the House, making her the most powerful elected official in the Democratic Party, and the most powerful woman in US history again, for now.

If Trump wants to make anything happen, he has to convince her to let it happen. Democrats, please do not distance yourselves from Nancy Pelosi. In continuing to push for accountability and transparency in government, under Speaker Pelosi, the House passed the toughest ethics reform legislation in the history of the Congress, including the creation of an independent ethics panel, and increased accountability and transparency in House operations, including earmark reforms.

Additional key accomplishments signed into law under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi include: an increase in the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years; the largest college aid expansion since the GI bill; a new GI education bill for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; and increased services for veterans, caregivers, and the Veterans Administration.

In the FY omnibus, Pelosi won the permanent authorization of the World Trade Center Health Program and a massive five-year extension of expiring wind and solar renewable energy tax credits.

Pelosi comes from a strong family tradition of public service. She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.