• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

Pelosi’s “Hot Ticket” & Thiel’s Donor Mystery

In San Francisco, speculation that Nancy Pelosi will soon depart Congress has given way to excitement and apprehension surrounding a potential last hurrah fundraising bacchanalia in Napa. Plus, news on the rise of a little-known G.O.P. shadow project aligned with Peter Thiel.

Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Theodore Schleifer
August 2, 2022

Among the worst kept secrets in politics is the widespread expectation that Nancy Pelosi, the 82-year-old Democratic Speaker currently finishing her 18th term in Congress, will almost certainly retire sometime next year when Republicans retake the House. Her presumptive successors are already angling for both her seat in San Francisco and her leadership perch in Washington, where New York’s Hakeem Jeffries, assistant speaker of the House Katherine Clark, and impeachment star Adam Schiff are all pre-positioning themselves for draft day, even if they’d never admit it publicly.