Political Notebook: Wiener launches bid for Pelosi’s SF House seat

Thirty-eight years ago, Congressmember Nancy Pelosi first won election to her House seat by narrowly defeating the late gay progressive San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt. Should she decide to seek reelection next year, the former House speaker will face a formidable gay moderate opponent.

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is officially launching his 2026 bid for Pelosi’s congressional seat Wednesday. He is the second high-profile candidate to do so, as progressive Saikat Chakrabarti, formerly chief of staff to Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), is also seeking Pelosi’s House seat.

The software engineer who now heads the think tank Mission for America has already put $720,000 of his own money toward his campaign, which reported having $95,384 in cash on hand as of July 1. Wiener, who filed paperwork in June to run for the seat in 2028, has been raising money since 2023 for a House bid and reported having more than $867,000 in his campaign account as of July 1.

It had long been expected he would seek the seat when Pelosi retired. But in an October 20 phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, one of his first to talk about his decision to run next year, Wiener explained his calculus about seeking the seat had changed due to several factors. One being the emergence already of a serious challenger for Pelosi’s seat and the onslaught of undemocratic stances and policies being taken by the Trump administration, which in recent days has insisted it will be sending National Guard troops to patrol San Francisco streets.

“The race has started, and it is important for me to make the case to people in San Francisco why they should support me and send me to Congress to represent them,” said Wiener, 55, who will be termed out of his legislative seat in 2028. “This is about our community’s future, our country’s future, and we need strong representation in Congress, and that is why I am running.”

Asked if that meant he felt Pelosi wasn’t providing such leadership, Wiener said his remark wasn’t about the congressmember, the first woman to be elected speaker of the House. He said he was directing his comment toward the issues he would champion, from housing affordability and health care to clean energy and civil rights, should he win the seat.

“This is about me making the case to the people in San Francisco to send me to Congress to represent them. It would be the honor of a lifetime to represent San Francisco in Congress at the moment Donald Trump is trying to destroy democracy,” said Wiener, who grew up in New Jersey and came to San Francisco after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1996, eventually being hired as a deputy city attorney. “I believe I can be effective in fighting back.”

Wiener, a former San Francisco Democratic Party chair and current member of the local party’s governing body, has long worked closely with Pelosi on various electoral and political matters. He first won election to the District 8 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2010 and six years later was elected to his state legislative seat.

Last November, Wiener easily won reelection to a final four-year term in the state Senate. He is one of at least eight LGBTQ candidates who have pulled papers to run for House seats in the Golden State in 2026. All of the others are seeking election in Southern California districts, including the current two gay incumbents, with the filing deadline in early March. 

“I mean, it would be a great honor to be the first LGBTQ person to represent San Francisco in Congress, and I look forward to taking our work to support and strengthen and protect LGBTQ people to Congress,” said Wiener, noting that while he’s “proud” of that record at City Hall and in Sacramento, “it has subjected me to a lot of personal attacks and death threats, ranging from Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz and Don Jr. all the way down to people whose names are not as well known.” (He was referring to the Georgia congressmember, Texas senator, and eldest child of the president, respectively.)

He pledged to be a champion in Congress particularly for LGBTQ youth and trans people, as they have seen the Trump administration move to roll back their rights this year and are bracing for even harsher policies to be enacted in the coming months. In this year’s legislative session that wrapped up in September, Wiener saw his bill strengthening California’s status as a refuge for trans people and their families be enacted into law by Governor Gavin Newsom (D).

“We can’t do anything, we can’t get any legislation passed without our allies,” Wiener acknowledged, “but it is also incredibly important to have our own seat at the table.”

A main argument the Texas-born Chakrabarti, the child of immigrant parents from India, has been making is the need for younger voices on Capitol Hill. The 39-year-old straight ally reiterated that contention in a statement to the B.A.R. when asked about Wiener’s entrance into the race.

“Scott Wiener has said over and over that he will never run a race against Nancy Pelosi, and I trust his word. Regardless, the Democratic Party needs a new kind of leader who is not a part of the establishment, because the establishment has failed us,” stated Chakrabarti, who first moved to San Francisco in 2009 post college. “I will continue to be the only candidate who will take no corporate or lobbyist money. The only candidate who will fight to organize civil society to stop this authoritarian coup. And the only candidate calling for sweeping, structural reforms like Medicare-for-all, directly building affordable and social housing, or public power in SF to make life affordable. That’s my campaign, regardless of who else is in the race.”

Pelosi, 85, had more than $1.5 million in her campaign account as of July 1. Speculation on when she will retire from Congress have swirled around her for years, picking up steam after her husband, Paul, was severely assaulted by an intruder to their Pacific Heights home in 2022, and more recently with talk that her oldest daughter, Christine, 59, will run to succeed her in the House.
When asked about her reelection plans last week by the San Francisco Standard, a spokesperson for the congressmember, Ian Krager, responded that Pelosi is focused on passing Proposition 50 come November 4. The statewide ballot measure is aimed at making five more California House seats favorable to Democratic candidates in response to Trump’s pushing GOP lawmakers to redraw their House seats to favor Republicans. (The online outlet was first to report about Wiener’s decision to enter the 2026 race.)

Pelosi over the weekend told the SF Examiner that she won’t end the guessing game about her plans until after the special election next month.

“I won’t make any announcement until we get through November 4th. That is everything to us,” Pelosi told the outlet while attending a Yes on Prop 50 event Saturday.

Wiener told the B.A.R. he has no inside knowledge about what Pelosi’s electoral plan is for next year and that his candidacy isn’t about her. When asked if he would suspend his candidacy should she seek another term, Wiener described his candidacy as not being temporary.

“I have no idea what Speaker Emerita Pelosi will do; I am entering the race and I am in the race,” said Wiener, adding when pressed if that means he will run against her, “I am in this race. I am not temporarily in this race; I am in this race.”

Under the state’s open primary system, the top two vote-getters regardless of party will advance out of the June 2 primary onto the fall ballot next November. During her first race, Pelosi defeated Britt by 4% of the vote and has largely sailed to victory ever since.

Should Pelosi opt against seeking another two-year term, a number of city electeds could decide to jump into the race. Already, progressive District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan is rumored to be considering a bid should the House seat be open.

Gay former supervisor and state Assembly member Tom Ammiano, a progressive who had backed Britt in the special election of 1987 called after the death of congressmember Sala Burton, told the B.A.R. he has been unimpressed with the field of candidates to date.

“Where is AOC? That is my reaction,” Ammiano told the B.A.R. when asked about Wiener’s decision to run. He later quipped, “Let the games begin.”

Sending an LGBTQ person to Congress from San Francisco will be a factor for some LGBTQ voters, though as Ammiano noted, it is just “one part of the equation” the city’s voters will weigh in next year’s contest.

Pelosi remains popular among local Democrats, he added, and would likely have strong support should she seek reelection. He doesn’t see Wiener or Chakrabarti as whom the congressmember would want to see succeed her in Washington, D.C.

“If I were her, I would want someone to replace me who reflected who I was, so in that case, I don’t know if that is her assessment of Wiener or Chakrabarti. They come across very YIMBY, of course, and I don’t think she is supportive of that,” said Ammiano, using the pro-development acronym for Yes In My Backyard. “Regardless of any negative stuff, she still is very popular.”

Ammiano is waiting to endorse until the field of candidates comes into greater focus. He was dismissive of arguments that Pelosi should be replaced due to her age, a contention a number of elder Democratic congress members from across the U.S. are facing from their younger opponents seeking to oust them come next November.

“I am 84, so I am sensitive to the simplification of older people. We are not monolithic,” said Ammiano. “One thing we have seen is Nancy Pelosi runs very well in high heels.”

He joked that it remains to be seen if Wiener and Chakrabarti can match Pelosi’s sartorial prowess as a political candidate. Known for pounding the pavement in his past races for elected office, Wiener can be expected to work just as hard in the House race no matter if the incumbent runs or not.

“I am not focused on what other people are doing. I am focused on making the case to San Franciscans in this moment, at a time when democracy is at risk, when the LGBTQ community is at risk, and we need strong pro-affordability policies, that I am the right person to represent our great city,” Wiener told the B.A.R.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported on planned upgrades to a gay Pennsylvania historic site with ties to San Francisco.

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