Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says her duty to her home district in California and a “risk” to democracy motivated her decision to run for another term in Congress.

Pelosi, 83, emphasized her San Francisco district in explaining why she would be running for an additional term, despite stepping down from House Democratic leadership last year. Her comments came while speaking on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House.

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“The needs that our city has right now really call for me to stay another term. I had the privilege of representing San Francisco for a long time and they have given me the latitude to serve as speaker, as leader, for over 20 years, and witness well, visit 87 countries, served 30 years on the intelligence committee, all of those things, but at the same time being central to my service was representing my district. In gratitude to them for that I have agreed to stay on another term, in order to help meet the needs that we have now,” Pelosi said.

“Now, at the same time, our democracy is at risk when we talk nationally, and globally, people are concerned about what it means that our democracy is at risk, and what it means to the War in Ukraine and what it means to our relationship with NATO, and other alliances that we have. So I am motivated to do everything I can to win this election,” she added.

Pelosi also addressed criticisms about her home city of San Francisco, arguing that problems with crime and homelessness are not unique to her home district.

“So it’s about mental health issues that lead to homelessness, it’s about drug use leading to homelessness and affordable housing, and we are providing housing and people have to accept it. But if they don’t, there’s the ability to take them off the street and taking them off the street takes drug use off the streets, drug sales off the street. But the fentanyl issue is not just confined to San Francisco, it’s a national issue, and we all have to work together,” Pelosi said.

“That’s what I’m concerned about with what the Republicans are doing in Congress, because their shutdowns or their cuts, and all the rest, will limit our ability to fight the fentanyl crisis, which is an assault, every community is at risk with that. But again our city, we’ve been through a lot and we’ll come through this very well, but it’s confined to a certain part of town and I wish people would recognize that, because our city is beautiful, clean, and we’d love for them to visit,” she added.

The longtime congresswoman announced earlier on Friday that she would seek another term in Congress, and she is almost certain to win reelection in the heavily Democratic district.

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Pelosi was first elected to her House seat representing San Francisco in 1987 and was speaker of the House from 2007 until 2011 and again from 2019 until 2023.

The California Democrat was the first woman elected as House speaker after Democrats took back the House of Representatives in the 2006 elections and remained in House Democratic leadership until this Congress.