Nancy Pelosi was born March 26, 1940 in Baltimore, the sixth and youngest child of Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., a U.S. Congressman from Maryland and a mayor of Baltimore. She married Frank Pelosi in 1963 and the couple moved to California, where Pelosi continued the family political tradition, becoming involved in Democratic Party politics in San Francisco and the state of California. In 1987 she won a special election to fill the seat of a congresswoman who
had died in office, but anointed Pelosi as her preferred successor before dying. Pelosi has since been re-elected 11 times to the seat from California's 8th Congressional District in San Francisco, which is one of the most liberal in the nation. No Republican has occupied the seat since 1949. Elected from such a “safe” Democratic seat, Pelosi has been freer than many Democrats to espouse liberal causes. She consistently receives high ratings from liberal lobbying groups such as Americans for Democratic Action and People for the American Way, and she has a lifetime rating of 3 out of 100 from the right-leaning American Conservative Union. Pelosi rose to the Speakership from her position as Minority Leader, a post she won in 2002. She was elected Speaker of the House in January, 2007, after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives. As Speaker, Pelosi is next in line for the presidency, after the vice
president.

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This Week's FACEOFF QUESTION: Would President Obama’s quest for Bi-Partisanship in Congress benefit from a Speaker of the House who is more “centered” than Nancy Pelosi?