The Pelosis’ net worth may have topped $413 million after several surprisingly lucrative trade deals in 2024. At the same time, the race to replace the representative from California’s 11th congressional district has cast the future of the San Francisco region in a poor light.
According to recent financial disclosures, the former House speaker and her husband, venture capitalist Paul Pelosi, earned somewhere between $7.8 and $42.5 million last year, raising questions about potential insider trading.
Paul, whose portfolio outperformed every major hedge fund in 2024, aroused suspicion after he dropped 5,000 Microsoft shares shortly before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an investigation into the company and 2,000 Visa shares before the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the credit-card maker. Although Nancy has denied involvement in her husband’s business deals, critics have questioned whether it passes the “smell test” that congresspeople “can trade in the same companies whose fates they control with legislation.”
Earlier this year, Senator Josh Hawley filed Senate Bill 58, the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, blocking members of Congress and their spouses from trading or holding individual stocks. He condemned his colleagues for “using information not available to the general public” to make a profit.
“It’s time we ban all members of Congress from trading and holding stocks and restore Americans’ trust in our nation’s legislative body,” he said.
SEE ALSO: The PELOSI Act targets a systemic problem in Congress
While the speaker emerita continues to leverage tremendous power within her party (some suggest she was responsible for Joe Biden’s ouster in the 2024 presidential election), her immense wealth and lengthy career have earned her a few intra-party detractors.
In February, for example, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former campaign manager, Saikat Chakrabarti, announced he was running against Pelosi, blasting her for holding onto power too long.
“Like many others, I was astonished when Nancy Pelosi filed to run for her 21st term in Congress,” he wrote.
“People are sick and tired of this failed political establishment,” he added. “They know that the same people who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it.”
However, Chakrabarti’s version of “getting us out of this mess” appears to involve implementing universal healthcare, the Green New Deal, and other socialist principles.
SEE ALSO: Former AOC aide challenges Nancy Pelosi for congressional seat
Last week, another potential rival, California State Senator Scott Wiener, threw his hat into the ring, filing to run for Pelosi’s seat in 2028. Although Wiener has said he will not directly oppose Pelosi, calling her “one of the icons of American politics,” he indicated he would consider moving his campaign up to 2026 if the 85-year-old drops out before then.
A Pride Parade regular, Wiener, who has served in the California Senate since 2016, has sponsored many radical bills, including Senate Bill 357, which decriminalized “loitering with intent to commit prostitution,” resulting in an increase in open prostitution, and Assembly Bill 957, which would have made “a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression” a factor to consider when determining custody rights. (Although Governor Gavin Newsom signed the first bill, he vetoed the latter after facing backlash from parents.) Additionally, Wiener authored Senate Bill 132, permitting biological men who identify as women to stay in female prisons, and later shot down an effort to amend his bill to exclude male sex criminals.
In other words, it’s far from guaranteed that Nancy Pelosi’s replacement will in any way deviate from her policies. Between an elite class of out-of-touch career politicians and a radicalized new generation of leaders, it’s apparent that term limits aren’t enough to fix “politics as usual” in Washington.
Yes, we should limit federal officials’ terms of office, but we also need to restrict the overall power of the federal government to prevent their successors from exercising the same abuses.
We may not be able to change San Francisco, but thanks to the principles of federalism established by our Founding Fathers, its more extreme policies can be confined to that region. If, however, the federal government becomes too powerful and oversteps its bounds, it could impose a one-size-fits-all approach, forcing Florida to resemble California, or California to resemble Texas.
What America needs is an Article V convention to propose term limits on career politicians, stop reckless congressional spending, and reduce the power and jurisdiction of the federal government. This three-pronged attack is essential to restoring federalism and a national authority that truly represents the American people. Sign the COS petition below to help make it happen!
