In preparation to pass the torch onto the next generation of leaders, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered words of encouragement in an on-campus event to students at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), calling on the audience to steer towards leadership roles in an effort to make change, as she voiced her concerns about the current position of the U.S.
At the start of the conversation in Ahmanson Auditorium with event moderator Fernando Guerra, Ph.D., Political Science and Chicano/a Latino/a studies professor at LMU, Pelosi credits the U.S. Constitution for its achievements towards greater equality but claims that the country is “always becoming more free, until now, now we are not honoring that.”
Pelosi continued to condemn the Trump administration and the Supreme Court for going back on legislation that has ensured rights and equality, such as the 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade, claiming they have been undoing years of progress.
“Whatever you think about personal matters of women’s reproductive health, the fact is that the right of privacy in the Constitution had to be respected and the precedent of the Supreme Court, which had established that–had verified that right, decided that both had to be thrown out the window. Privacy, forget about it, precedent, forget about it.”
After taking power in 1987, Pelosi has remained a figure of the traditional Democratic Party. As the 2026 midterms approach, she expresses great confidence in Democrats’ ability to win back the House of Representatives but warns that a loss would deepen what she believes would harm American democracy.
Even with growing nationwide support of left-wing and socialist political figures, Pelosi positions herself as a Democrat committed to traditional progressivism—while deliberately distancing the party’s agenda from the far-left terminology that has become more visible in recent years.
“We’re a very progressive Democratic Party,” said Pelosi, “We’re not a left-wing Democratic Party, but we’re a very progressive Democratic Party.”
Popular contemporary figures such as New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan’s Rep. Rashida Tlaib – along with other democratic socialists – continue to draw strong support from younger voters, further dividing traditional “Progressive Democrats” from the new age of “Leftist Democrats”.
Pelosi addressed numerous challenges she believes the country faces, like income inequality, climate crisis, and unequal access to healthcare, but claims the main priority is to “save our democracy and then address the challenges,” though a common critique of traditional Democratic campaign strategy is that the party often organizes around opposing unpopular incumbents rather than offering a unified progressive policy agenda.
In her advice to the audience, she encouraged everyone to “know what you care about and what you believe.”
“A vision with a plan can be a wonderful success. A vision without a plan can just be a fantasy,” she remarked.
“Know your why,” Pelosi continued, urging the audience to stay grounded in purpose as they pursue their goals, stating that her own “Why?” when in office was the “one in five children in America” who live in poverty and “go to sleep hungry at night in the greatest country that ever existed.”
She also pointed to the income inequality in San Francisco, stating that, “Some tech CEOs can earn in two weeks what workers make in a lifetime.” Pelosi’s remarks come as lawmakers from both parties, including herself, face renewed scrutiny over how members of Congress participate in financial markets while shaping economic policy.
On the left fold of Pelosi’s velvet green pantsuit, she wore an American and Ukrainian flag pin in solidarity, and emphasized the struggle Ukraine faces to maintain its own democracy. “We were all there with them for a while, until we weren’t. That’s just not right,” she said, “there are those who will go into countries to undermine their democracy.”
She then addressed the common economic backlash for Ukrainian support and stated that instead of worrying about funds allocated to Ukraine, “we could not be giving tax cuts to the richest people in America and taking healthcare away from the American people,” to which the audience applauded. Additionally, she also called out China for its persecution of the minority population of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China, questioning, “How can we ignore what’s happening to people, their genocide in China?”
Although she denounces human rights abuses in other countries, she is called out by critics for her support for Israel and has faced backlash from her own party for her centrism regarding human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Toward the end of the Q&A, Pelosi stated, “I should have some regrets, but I don’t have any regrets,” in response to Guerra’s question about self-doubt.
After the conversation in the auditorium, the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (BCLA) Dean Student Advisory Board met for a roundtable discussion with Pelosi in the McIntosh Center. Fellow reporter from The Lion, Lisa Jacobs, participated in the roundtable discussion along with 13 other students from the Board, and accompanied by a group of faculty observing the discussion, Secret Service, and one LAPD officer.
Jacobs was granted special access to the meeting through the Dean, as the event was limited to the students on the Dean’s Advisory Board and the accompanying faculty. According to Jacobs, many of the same topics were discussed during the roundtable as in the prior main event, with additional calls to preserve human rights and democracy worldwide.
Despite opening the conversation with a dim view of the present-day U.S., her final message was to have faith in the American people she described as “inherently good,” and to recognize that, right now, “hope is our resistance, and our resistance is hope.”
