To call Nancy Pelosi’s retirement the “end of an era” is an understatement. Few in modern history have had the impact on the Democratic Party, and the legislative branch as a whole, that the California lawmaker has had over her four-decade career in the House.

She secured her place in history in 2007, when she became the first female speaker of the House. Pundits have called her “the most powerful woman in U.S. history” and the most effective speaker in a century.

Pelosi has been hailed as a master vote-counter, a seasoned legislator and an astute negotiator who sought a unified agenda despite the push and pull between her caucus’s ideological wings. Nearly every major Democrat-led piece of legislation of the 21st century has had her fingerprints on it.

“As the first woman [speaker],

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