LOS ANGELES — State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-CA) and Connie Chan have advanced to the general election for the seat held by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the 11th Congressional District.
Wiener’s march to November was confirmed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but Chan, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, had to wait longer. With 50% of the votes counted, Wiener got 44,521 votes, good enough for a 41.3% share, while Chan had 30,887 votes, or 28.6%.
Recommended Stories
Saikat Chakrabarti, a tech entrepreneur and former campaign manager for then-candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, finished in third place by some distance, garnering just 14.9% of the vote.
The contest was the first truly competitive race for the Northern California seat in nearly four decades and had a crowded field of 11 candidates.
Pelosi, 86, who is in her 18th term in Congress, is regarded as one of the most powerful women in U.S. political history. She was the first woman to serve as speaker of the House and was the chief architect of Obamacare. She did not endorse either Wiener or Chakrabarti, instead opting late last month to back Chan. Over the weekend, Pelosi showed up at an event for Chan wearing a T-shirt with “CONNIE” across her chest. Chan also picked up an endorsement from Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Wiener, 56, was elected to the state Senate in 2016, where he wrote more than 100 laws. The Harvard-educated attorney chairs the state Senate Budget Committee and wants to join the new class of Democrats in Congress. He is known around Sacramento for championing LGBT rights, combating climate change, and pushing for fair housing. He made headlines for pushing back against President Donald Trump’s order to send National Guard troops to San Francisco and has consistently said he would be the strongest candidate to challenge the sitting president.
Chakrabarti has said Democrats are craving a generational change and need a “new kind of leader who is not a part of the establishment, because the establishment has failed us.”
The progressive candidate, who has largely self-funded his campaign, has focused on housing affordability and said his proposals will help San Franciscans from being priced out of the city.
PELOSI ENDORSES CONNIE CHAN TO SUCCEED HER IN CONGRESS
“The centerpiece of my housing plan is creating a federal financing entity that can directly provide low-cost loans to make sure affordable housing actually gets built,” he said. “It can even do things like spin off public developers to build the housing if private markets won’t do it.”
California’s 11th District covers all but the southernmost neighborhoods of San Francisco.
