The Most Powerful Woman In America - Nancy Pelosi

When Nancy Pelosi is sworn in as Speaker of the House on Thursday, she becomes not just the third most powerful US politician but also the leader of the Trump opposition. Both loved and loathed, her comeback story is an extraordinary tale of political survival.

After eight years in the political wilderness, Nancy Pelosi is back on top.

In 2007, the California Democrat made history as the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, but it was short-lived.

This time, she's at the helm of a resurgent party with responsibility for initiating new laws through the lower chamber of Congress, not to mention guiding a slew of new investigations into the president.

And she's done so despite being written off multiple times and labelled a pedestrian public speaker prone to the occasional gaffe, having high disapproval ratings and becoming a lightning rod for Republicans.

Tying her name to embattled Democratic candidates had been an effective weapon for conservatives in the past but in the 2018 mid-term elections, it lost its punch.

In Virginia, for example, Republican incumbent David Brat mentioned Nancy Pelosi and her "liberal agenda" 21 times in an hour and a half at a debate.

His Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, finally shot back: "I question again whether Congressman Brat knows which Democrat in fact he's running against... My name is Abigail Spanberger."

She went on to win the district, one of 40 Democrats who captured Republican-held seats, giving the Democrats their largest surge in the House since the 1970s Watergate scandal.

Now, with her return to the speaker's chair, Ms Pelosi again becomes the most powerful woman in US politics.

It caps a remarkable journey for someone who grew up the youngest child in a family steeped in East Coast big-city politics, made a political name for herself in the most liberal corners of California and has dominated Democratic politics for nearly a decade and a half.

"People have gone wrong by under-estimating her for years," says journalist Elaine Povich, who wrote a 2008 biography about Ms Pelosi. "Never bet against her. She's consistently the hardest worker, the best organized and great vote counter."

These skills are going to be sorely tested in the days ahead, as the incoming speaker will have to balance the competing priorities of her Democratic caucus while facing incoming flames from the political Vesuvius that is Donald Trump.

The public had a taste of such confrontations in December, when the two argued in the Oval Office about border wall funding. She emerged from that duel with Democrats singing her praises but for many on the left such fireworks should only be the beginning.

They will be clamouring for aggressive oversight of the president while others want a legislative record that Democrats can run on.

It's a recipe for intra-party conflict and indicates the treacherous path ahead for her to navigate.