For nearly four decades, San Francisco politics revolved around one towering Democratic figure: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Now, as the longtime lawmaker prepares to leave Congress, the city is having an unusually public argument over what comes next.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-CA) and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan are competing to succeed Pelosi in a race that has become a test of what kind of Democrat should represent one of the country’s bluest cities.
Both Wiener and Chan are firmly liberal. They differ on how the government should respond to San Francisco’s problems.
Wiener has made housing construction, development, and government performance central to his campaign. Chan has emphasized tenant protections, organized labor, affordable housing, and neighborhood interests, arguing the government should do more to protect residents from the economic forces reshaping the city.
“The fundamental divide between Wiener and Chan is less about whether San Francisco should remain liberal than about what liberal government should actually do,” Democratic strategist James Christopher told the Washington Examiner.
That debate is becoming more competitive than the June primary results initially suggested.
Wiener finished first in the primary with 40.7% of the vote, compared with 29.7% for Chan. But with the field now reduced to two Democrats, Chan has a chance to consolidate voters who backed other progressive candidates.
A poll sponsored by Chan’s campaign and conducted by Lake Research Partners found Wiener leading 45% to 40%, with 11% undecided. The July 14-19 survey of 500 likely voters was conducted in English and Cantonese and included an oversample of 100 Chinese American voters.
A separate poll sponsored by Fair Housing showed an even tighter race, with Wiener at 39% and Chan at 38%. Twenty-three percent were undecided in the Public Policy Polling survey of 509 San Francisco voters conducted June 26 through 27.
The surveys are campaign-sponsored, but both point to a race that remains unsettled.
“Wiener’s argument is that he’s the Democrat best positioned to deliver different results,” Nike E. Smith, a Democratic strategist and president of Polaris, told the Washington Examiner.
Wiener is betting that frustration over housing costs, homelessness, drug use, public safety, and downtown vacancies has made voters more receptive to a pragmatic version of liberalism.
He has repeatedly pushed for more housing and development, sometimes putting him at odds with progressive groups. His argument is not that San Francisco should become less liberal, but that Democrats should be willing to abandon policies that do not work.
“Voters don’t always move to the center when they’re frustrated — they move toward change,” Smith said. “Sometimes that’s a moderate, sometimes it’s a democratic socialist, and sometimes it’s an outsider.”
Chan is making a different case, portraying herself as a champion of working families, tenants, and immigrants and casting Wiener as too closely aligned with wealthy donors, developers, and the technology industry.
“Connie Chan has spent her career fighting for working families,” spokeswoman Julie Edwards told the Washington Examiner.
Pelosi has given Chan perhaps her most powerful institutional advantage.
The former speaker endorsed Chan over Wiener and has continued campaigning for her, allowing Chan to argue that she is not simply seeking Pelosi’s seat but carrying forward the coalition Pelosi built over decades.
“Nancy Pelosi is one of the Democratic Party’s most influential powerbrokers — so seeing her handpicked successor’s success is a heavy indication of institutional politics’ staying power,” Christopher said.
Pelosi’s support has also made her an active participant in the race. When Wiener’s campaign launched an AI chatbot designed to imitate Chan and attack her record, Pelosi called it a “gross misuse” of artificial intelligence. The campaign took the chatbot down, and Wiener apologized after some of its responses, including comments about Chan’s accent and background, drew accusations of racism and sexism.
The episode gave Chan another way to argue that the race is about more than policy — it is about the kind of politics San Francisco wants.
Foreign policy has created another fault line.
Wiener, who is Jewish, has faced criticism from both pro-Israel and anti-Israel activists as his position on Gaza has evolved. In January, he began claiming Israel’s conduct in Gaza is genocide. His campaign website says he opposes AIPAC contributions and offensive U.S. arms sales to Israel and believes Israel should pay for its own Iron Dome missile defense system.
Chan also claims that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide and says she opposes U.S. weapons sales to Israel and all U.S. aid to the country.
She also faced scrutiny shortly before the primary over reports that AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel had supported her campaign. The groups did not donate directly to Chan, however, but contributed to independent political committees that later spent money supporting her among other candidates. Chan’s campaign rejected the characterization that she had received support from the pro-Israel lobby and pointed to her pledge not to accept such contributions.
The competing positions illustrate the challenge for both candidates in a Democratic electorate that includes strongly pro-Gaza activists as well as voters who remain supportive of Israel.
Ultimately, however, the race is less about whether San Francisco will remain liberal than about which version of liberalism will define its next chapter.
“San Francisco has long been an incubator for ideas that eventually shape the national Democratic Party,” Smith said. “This race is really about whether Democrats believe the next chapter should be defined primarily by ideological identity or by governing effectiveness.”
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A Wiener victory would suggest Democrats want a more pragmatic approach without abandoning liberalism, Smith said. A Chan victory would demonstrate the durability of the city’s progressive coalition and reinforce Pelosi’s influence.
After nearly 40 years of Pelosi, San Francisco is preparing to find out what comes next.