Growing up in Baltimore’s Little Italy, Nancy D'Alessandro never pictured herself running for office. She watched her father campaign for Congress and for mayor; she helped her mother with the nitty-gritty of organizing and keeping track of political favors.

Biographer Susan Page says that only after Nancy Pelosi had moved across the country, raised five children, chaired the California Democratic Party and raised millions for other candidates did she run for Congress herself--and a decade later pushed herself onto the path toward speaker. Pelosi told Page her father’s advice resonated.
“No one is going to give you power, you have to seize it. So even if you think you deserve power, don’t think you’re going to be rewarded. You have to go out and fight for it and win it.”

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