Politics

(WASHINGTON) — With almost a year as vice president — and one year until the midterm elections, JD Vance’s supporters say he is settling into his role in the Trump administration, being used as the president’s “fixer” and “enforcer,” a source familiar with their relationship told ABC News.

“Vance really has been an enforcer and fixer for the president and his administration, and he’s been able to do it on a wide variety of topics,” the source, someone familiar with the relationship between Vance and Trump, said. “Unlike past vice presidents who demanded a specific policy portfolio, Vance never did that, which allows the president to put JD in the game whenever he sees a need for him to be put in the game.”

This has allowed Trump to dispatch Vance to advance his agenda, the source said.

“I think that dynamic has benefited the president, the vice president and the entire administration,” the source added, saying trust between the two — and others in the administration with whom Vance has forged relationships for years — has led to Vance’s role.

Vance’s role in the Trump White House has sharpened as the 2026 midterm elections approach and his name has been floated as a possible 2028 presidential candidate — even by Trump himself.

Proponents of Vance say his role as the “enforcer” and “fixer” was on display last summer as the White House worked to push Trump’s massive tax and spending bill through Congress.

In the days leading up to the bill’s passage, Vance — who served as a senator from Ohio before becoming vice president — held a series of meetings with conservative and moderate holdouts and with Senate leadership to help move the bill forward.

“He was a big part of getting it across the finish line and then promoting it afterwards,” a former White House official told ABC News about Trump’s megabill.

When asked by ABC News how they view Vance’s role in the administration, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement that Vance is Trump’s “trusted partner” who has helped deliver on Trump’s agenda.

“Vice President Vance is a trusted partner to President Trump and has played a critical role in helping the President keep all of the promises he made to the American people including delivering the largest tax cut in history for middle and working class Americans, securing the border, and putting American workers first,” Huston said.

Vance also took the lead in facilitating the TikTok framework that would transfer majority ownership of the app to Americans, but the deal has not been fully solidified. Vance was heavily involved in developing a strategy to reach the TikTok framework leading up to the U.S.-China summit in Madrid, where officials discussed the matter and joined Trump in the Oval Office when he signed the executive order on the framework.

A critical moment for Vance during this past year was his angry exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office where he chastised the world leader for not being thankful for the support the U.S. has provided to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

“Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said to Zelenskyy in February. “Right now, you guys are going around enforcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

The eyebrow-raising exchange underscored Vance’s willingness to publicly defend Trump and the lengths he would go to do so. But Trump appeared to shut down Vance in the meeting: “But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important,” Trump said.

Vance and Trump have not always been aligned. In March of this past year, Vance showed a rare instance of appearing to break with Trump in a Signal group chat with other top US officials and questioned whether the president recognized that a unilateral U.S. attack on the Houthis to keep international shipping lanes open was at odds with his tough talk about European nations paying their share of such efforts.

Still, Vance’s skills as a communicator have been useful for the administration — especially during the ongoing government shutdown, the former White House officials said.

“I would say one thing there that sort of ties to where he’s been in general as a help in the administration, is that he’s a very good communicator, and like you saw when he took the podium at the beginning of the shutdown to talk about, you know, the White House’s position on it,” the official said.

Joel Goldstein, a vice-presidential scholar and former professor at Saint Louis University Law School, told ABC News that Vance follows the footprint of vice presidents as an administration spokesperson — but takes it even further.

“Vice presidents are generally spokespersons for the administration they serve, but Vice President Vance seems unusually active in this regard, including on social media, and more confrontational than most recent vice presidents in some of his rhetoric against political opponents and the discourse he uses or doesn’t rebuke,” Goldstein said. “He has also performed in visible diplomatic roles as have his predecessors, but has often been more confrontational towards traditional allies as he was at the Munich Security Summit and in the Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy.”

Republican political operatives said Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference was a breakout moment as vice president.

In February, Vance delivered a stinging message to European allies, saying that the biggest threat to Europe did not come from Russia or China, but from within Europe itself, and that he was concerned Europe was moving toward censorship and away from democracy.

Vance added another title under his portfolio when he became the Republican National Committee finance chair, a key fundraising role in the organization and the first time a sitting vice president has held the position.

In a statement to ABC News, RNC press secretary Kiersten Pels said that Vance will be critical for the national party heading into next year’s midterms — calling Vance a “fundraising powerhouse for the RNC.”

Vance has also been involved in trying to maintain Republicans’ slim majority in the House ahead of next year’s midterm elections. In August, Vance traveled to Indiana, where he made the pitch to Republican lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map.

With a year until the midterm election, a source close to the vice president said Vance will be involved.

“I think you can probably expect, as we get closer to midterms, for the vice president to be a regular presence on the campaign trail for Trump-endorsed candidates across the country,” the source said.

Next year’s election will also be critical for Vance as he’s viewed as a possible 2028 candidate and someone who could take on the mantle of leading the MAGA movement once Trump leaves office.

In a recent interview with Pod Force One, Vance shared that during a private lunch at the White House six months ago, Trump floated the idea of him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the Republican ticket in 2028.

“It feels so premature, because we’re still so early. And what I always say to people is, if we take care of business, the politics will take care of itself,” Vance said to podcast host Miranda Devine.

Trump himself recently said Vance and Rubio would be “great” options as 2028 presidential candidates.

“I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two,” Trump said on Oct. 27 of Vance and Rubio. “I think if they ever formed a group it would be unstoppable.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) The United States has conducted its 17th lethal strike against a suspected drug vessel, killing all three on board, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X overnight.

The strike took place in international waters in the Caribbean on Thursday, Hegseth said.

“As we’ve said before, vessel strikes on narco-terrorists will continue until their the poisoning of the American people stops,” said Hegseth in his social media post. “The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and three male narco-terrorists — who were aboard the vessel — were killed.”

Separately, six individuals were arrested and more than seven tons of cocaine were seized in the Atlantic Ocean “without fatalities,” Colombia President Gustavo Petro said in a post on X Friday morning.

Petro called it “one of the largest seizure days in my government, with the collaboration of our public security forces and the French authorities.”

The seizures were carried out on land and at sea, according to Petro. The nationalities of those arrested are unknown, Petro said.

President Donald Trump has called Petro an “illegal drug dealer” who “does nothing to stop” drug production.

At least 70 people have now been killed in strikes on vessels since Sept. 2.

On Sunday, the Trump administration gave more than a dozen Senate Republicans a secret target list for its ongoing military campaign in the Caribbean Sea, suggesting it is preparing for sustained operations against drug cartels and that it believed the military strikes could withstand potential legal challenges.

“To all narco-terrorists who threaten our homeland: if you want to stay alive, stop trafficking drugs. If you keep trafficking deadly drugs — we will kill you,” said Hegseth.

 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) The Supreme Court on Friday will consider whether to take up the appeal of former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who has directly asked the justices to overturn the landmark 2015 decision that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide.

Davis gained international attention after she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple on religious grounds in open defiance of the high court’s ruling and was subsequently jailed for six days. A jury later awarded the couple $100,000 for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees.

In a petition for writ of certiorari filed in August, Davis argues First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes her from personal liability for the denial of marriage licenses.

She also claims the court’s decision in Obergefell v Hodges — which rooted marriage rights for LGBTQ couples in the 14th Amendment’s due process protections — was “legal fiction.”

“The mistake must be corrected,” wrote Davis’ attorney Mathew Staver in the petition.

“If there ever was a case of exceptional importance,” Staver wrote, “the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it.”

Davis’ petition will be discussed during the court’s weekly private conference when justices cast secret votes on which cases to accept for argument.

Four must agree in order for a case to be heard. The court typically releases outcomes from the conference on the following Monday.

The Davis petition appears to mark the first time since 2015 that the court has been formally asked to overturn the landmark marriage decision. Davis is seen as one of the only Americans currently with legal standing to bring a challenge to the precedent.

An attorney for David Ermold and David Moore, the gay couple to which Davis’ owes damages, told the justices in a court filing that the former clerk does not make a convincing case that warrants being heard.

“Because Davis’s policy went beyond anything she arguably had a right to do, her First Amendment affirmative defense would fail even if such defenses are available to government officials engaged in state action,’ wrote attorney William Powell.

Davis, as the Rowan County Clerk in 2015, was the sole authority tasked with issuing marriage licenses on behalf of the government under state law.

“This is a relatively easy case that does not merit this Court’s review,” he wrote.

Lower courts have dismissed Davis’ claims and most legal experts consider her bid a long shot.

“Not a single judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals showed any interest in Davis’s rehearing petition, and we are confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention,” said Powell said in a statement to ABC News.

Davis’ appeal to the Supreme Court comes as conservative opponents of marriage rights for same-sex couples pursue a renewed campaign to reverse legal precedent and allow each state to set its own policy.

At the time Obergefell was decided in 2015, 35 states had statutory or constitutional bans on same-sex marriages, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only eight states had enacted laws explicitly allowing the unions.

So far in 2025, at least nine states have either introduced legislation aimed at blocking new marriage licenses for LGBTQ people or passed resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell at the earliest opportunity, according to the advocacy group Lambda Legal.

Last month, Texas courts adopted new rules allowing judges statewide to refuse to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples if it would violate a sincerely held religious belief.

“Without this Court’s review, the First Amendment’s protections for public officials with sincerely held religious beliefs will continue to vary by jurisdiction,” Staver wrote to the justices Wednesday in a last-minute letter . “This case provides a suitable vehicle to establish the clear guidance that lower courts and government officials currently lack.”

Davis first appealed the Supreme Court in 2019 seeking to have the damages suit against her tossed out, but her petition was rejected. Conservative Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito concurred with the decision at the time.

If the court were to accept the Davis case, it is far from certain that a majority of justices would undermine or overturn the Obergefell decision.

Several conservatives, including Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, have publicly signaled that same-sex marriage rights should not be rolled back.

If the ruling were to be overturned at some point in the future, it would not invalidate marriages already performed, legal experts have pointed out. The 2022 Respect for Marriage Act requires the federal government and all states to recognize legal marriages of same-sex and interracial couples performed in any state — even if there is a future change in the law.

There are an estimated 823,000 married same-sex couples in the U.S., including 591,000 that wed after the Supreme Court decision in June 2015, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School. Nearly one in five of those married couples is parenting a child under 18.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump and Hungary’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban, whom Trump has repeatedly praised as a “strongman,” will meet at the White House on Friday.

Expected to be part of the talks is Russia’s war in Ukraine, specifically new U.S. sanctions targeting two of Moscow’s largest oil companies and their subsidiaries that are set to go into effect on Nov. 21.

Last week, Trump said Orban wanted an exemption from the sanctions.

“He has asked for an exemption. We haven’t granted one, but he has asked. He’s a friend of mine. He’s asked for an exemption,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Orban was recently going to play host to a summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, before Trump called the proposed meeting off amid frustration with the lack of progress in peace talks.

Trump said they had picked Budapest, Hungary as the location because both he and Putin liked Orban.

“He’s been a very good leader in the sense of running his country,” Trump said of Orban.

Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Orban posted on X that he hoped to “open a new chapter in Hungarian–American relations with President Trump.”

“Our goal is to establish a strategic partnership that includes energy cooperation, investments, defence collaboration, and discussions on the post-war landscape following the Russia–Ukraine conflict. We are working on an agreement based on mutual benefits, one that serves the interests of every Hungarian citizen,” Orban wrote.

Trump also welcomed Orban to the White House during his first term, in 2019, breaking from his predecessors who had shunned Hungary’s prime minister from Washington.

The two men met several times when Trump was out of office at his Florida estate, including during the summer of the 2024 campaign and after Trump became president-elect.

Orban has been embraced by many prominent American conservatives over his positions on immigration and LGBTQ issues, and has spoken several times at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Orban hosted a CPAC event in Hungary earlier this year.

Trump praised Orban during the ABC News September 2024 presidential debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, after Harris claimed Trump was not respected on the world stage.

“Let me just tell you about world leaders. Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men — they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart. Prime Minister of Hungary. They said why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago it wasn’t. Why is it blowing up? He said because you need Trump back as president,” Trump said during the debate.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a top ally of President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, officially launched a campaign for governor in 2026 against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday after months of hinting at the move.

She has been a vocal critic of Hochul and doubled down on attacks against her after the upstate moderate governor endorsed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani following his Democratic primary victory.

In a statement Friday through her campaign, Stefanik slammed Hochul, her likely opponent in the election if both Stefanik and Hochul win their respective party primaries.

“Kathy Hochul is the Worst Governor in America. Under Kathy Hochul’s failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery prices crushing hardworking families,” Stefanik wrote.

“I am running for Governor to bring a new generation of leadership to Albany to make New York affordable and safe for families all across our great state,” Stefanik wrote. “Our campaign will unify Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to Fire Kathy Hochul once and for all to Save New York.”

An announcement video Stefanik posted on Friday focused on a similar message, with the video’s narrator largely pinning affordability issues and other key concerns on Hochul.

The video does not mention President Donald Trump.

But Hochul and the New York State Democratic Party are pointing to her close relationship with Trump as a detriment. And New York went blue in the 2024 presidential election — with Trump receiving 43% of the vote in New York state, trailing Vice President Kamala Harris by around 13 percentage points.

“Elise Stefanik is running to deliver New York for Donald Trump and raise your costs,” Hochul said in a post on X on Friday. “Not on my watch. My message to Trump’s ‘top ally’ — bring it on.”

After Tuesday’s election victories for Democrats, a spokesperson for the New York State Democratic Party said New Yorkers will reject Stefanik, who was briefly nominated for a position as United Nations ambassador by Trump earlier this year.

“Voters in New York and across the country rejected Trump and his enablers earlier this week, and Stefanik will face the same fate when she launches her campaign to put Trump ahead of New Yorkers,” Addison Dick wrote in a statement.

Press releases from Stefanik’s campaign on Friday released after the announcement said that Stefanik has already netted endorsements from more than half of New York’s Republican county chairs and from the chair of the New York Republican Party.

“There will not be a Republican primary and a year from now, Elise will lead our team to victory over Kathy Hochul, end one-party Democrat rule, and make New York affordable again,” New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox wrote in a statement.

The upstate New York congresswoman, a onetime staffer for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign who helped former House Speaker Paul Ryan prepare for his vice presidential debate, gained prominence in the MAGA movement during the first Trump administration as a vocal defender of the president on the House Intelligence Committee during Democrats’ first impeachment inquiry in 2019. 

New York last elected a Republican governor in 2002 when George Pataki won a third term in office.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — As tributes pour in for former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi after she announced Thursday that she would leave Congress in January 2027 at the end of her current term, it’s an open question who will replace her.

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission as of Thursday morning, six Democratic candidates besides Pelosi and two Republicans have registered campaign committees for the June 2026 primary for California’s 11th Congressional District, the San Francisco-based congressional seat Pelosi represents.

California uses a “top-two” primary system where the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

The filing period for California’s congressional primary does not open until February 9, 2026, and closes on March 6, so there is still plenty of time for other challengers to enter the ring.

Two of those candidates had already been gaining attention and some prominence.

Both are decades younger than Pelosi, and now could be among the continued wave of generational change within the Democratic Party — similar to how U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., announced his retirement in September and is likely to be succeeded by one of the numerous younger candidates who have launched bids.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener announced in October, weeks before Pelosi’s announcement, that he would run for the seat. Weiner had previously indicated he would wait for her to announce her plans.  

Wiener, 55, was first elected to the California state Senate in 2016 and previously worked in San Francisco city government and as a lawyer.

In his announcement video launching his congressional bid, he said he was running “to defend San Francisco, our values, our people, and the constitution of the United States with everything we have … Trump and his MAGA extremists don’t scare me.” According to federal campaign finance filings, his campaign had nearly $870,000 on hand as of the end of September.

Wiener, in a statement on Thursday, called Pelosi “an icon of American politics,” and praised her work on health care, the economy, climate policy, and “fighting for the marginalized … At the height of the AIDS crisis, when so many others wanted to push LGBTQ people under the rug, Nancy Pelosi fought proudly for us to be treated with dignity.”

Speaking about his own experience coming out as gay around the time Pelosi came to Congress and said she was there to fight AIDS, Wiener added, “It was a terrifying time to come of age as a gay man, and Nancy Pelosi stepped up and used her voice and platform to fight for people like me.”

Asked on Thursday by ABC station KGO-TV how more challengers might enter the race now and how that impact his campaign, Wiener said he didn’t want to speculate on who else might enter.

“Today, this is really just about honoring Nancy Pelosi, her leadership, how much she delivered for our city and our country. And then we will certainly have plenty of time to talk about the campaign,” he said.

Separately, former Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Saikat Chakrabarti had well beforehand launched a primary campaign to Pelosi, with a progressive platform that includes tuition-free public college and universal health care.

Chakrabarti, 39, a founding engineer of the online payment platform Stripe, was New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager during her 2018 primary upset against incumbent Joe Crowley, which kicked off Ocasio-Cortez’s meteoric rise.

He also worked as her chief of staff in Congress for the beginning of her first term and got his start in politics working on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.

In a statement on Thursday, Chakrabarti thanked Pelosi “for your decades of service that defined a generation of politics and for doing something truly rare in Washington: making room for the next one. Our campaign is ready to build on that legacy by fighting to create a San Francisco and an America that works for everyone.”

Speaking with ABC News on Thursday, Chakrabarti said that challengers in the race and Pelosi’s decision to retire “doesn’t change what my campaign’s about, because I still believe we need to change the Democratic Party. I’m still calling for people to run all across the country to build this new movement.”

Asked if he’d want Pelosi’s endorsement, Chakrabarti said he would if she’s willing to endorse him but that it’s her decision to make.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an “evil woman” when asked to comment on her retirement announcement.

“I’m glad she’s retiring,” Trump said as he took reporter questions in the Oval Office during a news conference on reducing the cost of weight loss drugs for Americans.

“I think she did the country a great service by retiring,” Trump continued. “I think she was a tremendous liability for the country. I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job, who cost the country a lot in damages and in reputation. I thought she was terrible.”

Pelosi became one of Trump’s fiercest critics, and their tensions were well-documented as she led the House in the final years of his first term.

She presided over both of Trump’s impeachments, the first in 2019 over allegations of abuse of power and the second in 2021 after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

In 2020, she went viral for ripping up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech as she stood behind him.

Pelosi did not attend Trump’s inauguration this past January.

More recently, she called Trump a “vile creature” in an interview with CNN.

“The worst thing on the face of the Earth, but anyway,” Pelosi said. When asked to explain why she described him that way, Pelosi said he “does not honor the Constitution.”

Trump, too, has spared no criticism of Pelosi over the years. He regularly targeted her in his 2024 campaign speeches and rallies, calling her a “crooked person,” “evil” and “sick.”

Pelosi, 85, announced early Thursday morning in a video message that she was retiring at the end of her current term in 2027 representing San Francisco in Congress.

The first woman elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, Pelosi will leave Washington after nearly 40 years as one of the most powerful elected women in history.

“I say to my colleagues in the House all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me, speaker, leader, whip, there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, I speak for the people of San Francisco. I have truly loved serving as your voice,” Pelosi said in her announcement on Thursday.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she will retire at the end of her current term in Congress, starting the long goodbye as the California Democrat wraps up one of the most consequential legislative careers in U.S. history.

“I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know,” Pelosi said in a video message. “I will not be seeking reelection to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”

Pelosi’s term in Congress ends on Jan. 3, 2027.

Pelosi, 85, was the first woman elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress.

She has represented part of the San Francisco area in the House since 1987. This is her 19th term.

“As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” Pelosi said in the video announcement.

For weeks, Pelosi had deflected questions about her political future, insisting her central focus was on ensuring that Prop 50 redistricting ballot measure passed in California. With that achievement in the rear-view mirror, Pelosi quickly made her plans clear that she will not seek another term in the House.

“I say to my colleagues in the House all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me, Speaker, Leader, Whip, there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, I speak for the people of San Francisco. I have truly loved serving as your voice,” Pelosi said in the video.

Pelosi’s rise
Pelosi was elected as the first woman speaker in 2007 and elected again in 2019 — the only speaker in 70 years to have won the office twice after having lost the office when Republicans regained the House majority in 2010.

She led the House Democrats for 19 years, previously having served as House Democratic whip. She rose to prominence in 2002 after whipping the majority of the party against an Iraq War resolution that her mentor, then-Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, crafted with President George W. Bush’s administration. She became minority leader when Gephardt stepped down to run for president.

“This is an historic moment,” she said in a speech after accepting the speaker’s gavel for the first time. “It’s an historic moment for the Congress. It’s an historic moment for the women of America.”

Her measured rise to power was characterized by her steady command of inside politics and her ability unite conflicting factions of Democrats in order to achieve legislative success.

Journalist Susan Page, the author of a biography about the House speaker, called Pelosi a “master of the inside game of politics and of being a legislative leader” in an April 2021 interview with ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.

Page revealed in her book that Pelosi originally planned to step down after the 2016 election but changed her mind after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

In 2019, Pelosi led the investigation that resulted in the third presidential impeachment in history following what the impeachment charges said were Trump’s alleged moves to solicit foreign intervention in the 2020 presidential election and withhold congressionally appropriated assistance to Ukraine.

Pelosi headed Trump’s second impeachment in 2021 after his supporters mounted a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 presidential election that Trump sought to overturn. She then led the House in creating a bipartisan select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

“I have enjoyed working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush, transformed health care reform with President Barack Obama and forging the future from infrastructure to health care to climate action with President Joe Biden,” Pelosi said in a speech bidding farewell to the speakership in December 2022, notably leaving Trump off the list.

Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 1940 to an Italian-American family. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a Democratic politician who represented Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District in the House and later served as mayor of Baltimore. Her mother, Annunciata M. “Nancy” D’Alesandro, was also involved in Democratic politics as an organizer.

She met Paul Pelosi at Georgetown University in 1961. The couple married in 1963 and had five children. Pelosi raised their children in San Francisco and started a Democratic Party club at her home, until she began working for the presidential campaign of California Gov. Jerry Brown in 1976, when she was 36.

By 1981, she was the Democratic Party chair for the state of California.

In 1987, Pelosi won a special election for California’s then-5th Congressional District which encompassed most of the city of San Francisco. Pelosi advanced through the ranks of the House Democratic Caucus to be elected House minority whip in 2002. She was elevated to House minority leader the following year, becoming the first woman to hold each of those positions in either chamber of Congress.

In October 2022, Paul Pelosi was the victim of an attack at the couple’s San Francisco home. The assailant, later told authorities the attack was intended for Nancy Pelosi, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Following the loss of a Democratic majority in the House in November 2022, Pelosi said she would be giving up the gavel for the last time.

“History will note she is the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history,” Biden said in a statement at the time.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — One year out from the 2026 midterms, major Democratic Party names have been taking the show on the road, saying that they’re helping the party lay the groundwork to battle for the U.S. House.

They also might be preparing to run for president.

ABC News has tracked at least 24 visits by Democratic presidential hopefuls to the campaign trail in the key 2025 elections that Democrats swept — New Jersey and Virginia’s gubernatorial races, New York City’s mayoral election, and California’s redistricting ballot proposition election.

Separately, ABC News has tracked at least 43 visits or planned visits so far in 2025 and 2026 by Democratic presidential hopefuls to key early or battleground presidential election states. Some of those states are also expected to be key House battlegrounds in 2026. 

The early and battleground state count excludes if the state is their home state and does not count multiple visits by the same candidate.

“Anybody who’s looking at the 2028 cycle is starting to head out on the road … Putting an emphasis on states that could determine control of the House is your best bet, and probably should be your only focus between now and the midterms,” Sawyer Hackett, a veteran Democratic strategist who worked on presidential campaigns for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Julian Castro, told ABC News.

2025 election states: New Jersey, Virginia, California, New York City

In New Jersey, Democratic candidate and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill received support on the trail from a crowd of presidential hopefuls, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

And in Virginia, Democratic candidate and former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger had the support of Beshear, Buttigieg, Emanuel, Gallego, Kelly, Khanna, Moore, Shapiro, and Whitmer. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Klobuchar separately stumped for “Proposition 50” in California, while Khanna and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stumped for Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York City.

Key early states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina

Some of the presidential hopefuls have flocked to states with early nominating contests. The Democratic Party is currently reevaluating its calendar for when those early contests will occur, but Hackett said Democrats hoping to run are still covering their bases.

Iowa, which usually boasts first-in-the-nation caucuses, will host a closely watched Senate race next year. The state also has some competitive House seats.

Iowa hosted former Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in March and Buttigieg for a town hall in May, while Gallego visited in August and Emanuel came by in September. Kelly is set to visit in November, while Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen spoke to Iowa Democrats in September.

New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first presidential primaries and will hold a contested U.S. Senate race in 2026 for the seat being vacated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, has hosted several lawmakers. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear visited earlier this month; Gallego and Khanna stopped by in August; Klobuchar was there in July and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will visit in November.

When Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker visited in April, he painted a dire picture for his party.

“Fellow Democrats, for far too long, we’ve been guilty of listening to a bunch of do-nothing political types who would tell you that America’s house is not on fire, even as the flames were licking their faces,” Pritzker said.

South Carolina, meanwhile, also has an early presidential primary. This year, it saw visits from Beshear, Khanna and Newsom in July — who told rural residents “what we’re experiencing is America in reverse.”

Kelly visited in September, while Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Walz visited in late May for South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn’s “Fish Fry” event, which has often been fertile waters for would-be Pennsylvania Avenue hopefuls.

Both Walz and Moore have told ABC News previously they are not “running” for president or have no plans to run.

Battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

Several 2028 presidential hopefuls have also made their way around the seven battleground states, which have been considered winnable by either party and have an outsized influence on where campaigns place their resources.

A few potential candidates have or plan to pay visits to Arizona, including Ocasio-Cortez, who visited in March as part of the Fighting Oligarchy tour run by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. Whitmer visited in March, while Booker visited in April and Buttigieg visited in October. Harris, who recently said she’ll “possibly” run for president again, will be speaking there in April 2026.

Arizona has two congressional seats currently held by Republicans viewed as competitive, according to the Cook Political Report. 

Georgia is often the site of both a close presidential race and critical down-ballot races. Khanna visited in August, while Harris made a stop there on her book tour in October.

Further north, Moore and Khanna have paid visits this year to the battleground state of Michigan, where both President Donald Trump and Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin won in 2024.

Wisconsin, which had the closest margin between Trump and Harris in 2024 of the battleground states, saw visits from Klobuchar in March, Khanna in May, Walz in March and September and Whitmer in October.

Nevada, which also often figures early in the presidential primary calendar, saw visits this year from Ocasio-Cortez in March, Pritzker and Khanna in August, and Gallego and Kelly in September.

North Carolina saw visits from Pritzker in July and Buttigieg in September. Harris visited for her book tour there in October, while fellow Californian Khanna will drop by in November.

Pennsylvania is also a key battleground state. Moore delivered a commencement address at Lincoln University in Gettysburg in May, the same month Gallego and Khanna paid their own visits. Notably, two Republicans in Pennsylvania, Reps. Scott Perry and Ryan Mackenzie, are expecting to face fierce fights to hold onto their seats.

Khanna recently said the party’s focus is to win back control of the House, which has a Republican majority.

“We have already a number of great candidates for 2028 that’ll emerge, but right now the focus has to be to take back the House in terms of political priority,” Khanna told public media organization WHYY.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection had the lowest number of border encounters in any October, according to statistics obtained by ABC News.

The numbers also represent the lowest start to a fiscal year ever recorded. CPB says.

In October, there were 30,561 total encounters nationwide — the lowest start to a fiscal year ever recorded by CBP. The previous record low was 43,010 in October of FY2012, officials said.

The numbers are also almost 80% lower than in October 2024, according to CBP statistics.

“History made: the lowest border crossings in October history and the sixth straight month of ZERO releases. This is most secure border ever,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement to ABC News, who also thanked the men and women of CBP.

Since Jan. 21 through the end of October, there have been 106,134 total enforcement encounters along the southwest border. The daily average encounters along the border is 258 per day — 95% lower than the previous administration’s encounter numbers, CPB said.

Customs and Border Protection has focused now on interior enforcement due, it says, to the lack of migrants encountered at the border. They are currently deployed to cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.

“Our mission is simple: secure the border and safeguard this nation,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. “And that’s exactly what we are doing. No excuses. No politics. Just results delivered by the most dedicated law-enforcement professionals in the country. We’re not easing up — we’re pushing even harder.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.