Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi is retiring when her term ends in January, and at first it seemed as if she would sit out of the race to replace her.
After all, there are few safer Democratic seats than San Francisco’s District 11, and the front-runner is Scott Wiener, a well-known state legislator who had long ago wrapped up broad support among the Democratic establishment, including the endorsement of the state party. Surely Pelosi’s energy and political capital would be better spent attending to tossup races around the state and nation.
But perhaps it was too much to expect that one of the most powerful people in the nation would remain quiet on a successor to a seat she held for nearly 40 years. Two weeks before the June 2 primary, Pelosi threw herself into the fray with a surprise endorsement of Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor who hadn’t seemed to be on the former speaker’s radar until then.
Smart money vs. dark money: Support Golden State’s reporting and analysis on all 14 propositions on the Nov. 3 ballot by making a tax-deductible gift. It’s the smartest donation you can make this election cycle.
It was a game changer for Chan, who wasn’t well known outside the neighborhood she represents on the 11-member Board of Supervisors. Chan had been polling neck and neck with another progressive Democrat in the race, Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy tech engineer and former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a frequent thorn in Pelosi’s side. Chan beat Chakrabarti for second place by almost 12 points, advancing to the general election with Wiener.
But the primary endorsement was only the beginning. Pelosi has since directed the full weight of her considerable political machinery into getting Chan elected on Nov. 3, including holding fund-raisers, sharing her comms team and leading attacks on Wiener.
It’s a curious choice, even if Wiener did annoy Pelosi by announcing he was running before she had made her retirement official. Chan is a progressive Democrat who has gained a reputation during her six years on the board as someone who opposes things — public transportation projects, housing development and even Sunset Dunes, the city’s newest park — and not very successfully.
Meanwhile, Wiener checks all the boxes. Like Pelosi, he’s a moderate Democrat, at least by San Francisco’s peculiar standards. He’s a frequent target of Republican attacks due in large part to his support of the transgender community (and his penchant to never back down from a fight, another characteristic he shares with Pelosi).
Mariel Garza
Wiener is also one of the most successful and high-profile state legislators, with a long list of notable bills passed to ramp up housing production and counter President Trump’s agenda, including writing the law that prohibited immigration agents from hiding their faces. (A court challenge stayed the law, but this year the Legislature passed another bill to address the judge’s concerns.) Wiener is also behind Senate Bill 79, the wildly controversial housing law passed last year that forcibly upzones areas around transit stops in the state’s largest counties, including San Francisco.
Political insiders I spoke to said the local rumor mill is brimming with speculation that Pelosi’s involvement in the race is less about Chan and more about Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi. Could the support of Chan be payback for Wiener’s relentless pursuit of a seat she had hoped to pass on to Christine, or just the first move in a complicated long game intended to install her daughter in the seat in the future? The latter seems a stretch, but the younger Pelosi did announce she is seeking her first elected position just a week after her mother stepped down: Wiener’s seat in the state Senate in 2028.
The congressional race has divided the state’s Democratic establishment, with Pelosi reportedly twisting the arms of her allies to back Chan (which perhaps explains why Sen. Adam Schiff, who is from Southern California, is backing this relatively unknown San Francisco supervisor) and trying to lure a coveted endorsement from labor leader Dolores Huerta away from the Wiener camp.
Dan Morain
And the race is getting nasty. After the Wiener campaign rolled out a gimmicky mock AI chatbot intended to parody Chan’s stance on housing and transit, Pelosi led a group of women to write a letter condemning it as sexist and racist. In response, prominent Democratic women, including Democratic donor Susie Buell Tompkins and Nancy Tung, the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, organized a rally in Wiener’s defense, calling out Pelosi for “fake outrage.”
Pelosi’s meddling isn’t doing her otherwise remarkable legacy any favors. And what might it say about her influence at home if Chan loses the race, which is a distinct possibility? Or, more importantly, about her pettiness if this ploy works and tanks the opportunity that her seat could be filled by someone who has a track record of being as tenacious, pugnacious and stubborn as Pelosi herself?
For years Pelosi has given this city outsized power in Washington, D.C., through the force of her personality and extraordinary political prowess. Who can forget the image of her standing behind President Trump and tearing up a copy of his State of the Union speech? And although Wiener certainly wouldn’t shy away from a fight with Donald Trump, no one could ever truly fill her 4-inch stilettos.
This column originally appeared in the Boston Globe, where I am a contributor to the Opinion section. It is reprinted with permission.
