California state Sen. Scott Wiener claimed victory Tuesday night in the San Francisco primary to succeed retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, brushing aside the 86-year-old congresswoman's last-minute endorsement of a rival and a self-funding former Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aide who poured $10 million of his own money into the contest.
The first batch of returns showed Wiener at 43.4%, with San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan trailing at 28.5% and former AOC chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti at 13.5%, the New York Post reported.
The top two finishers advance to the November general election, meaning Chan and Chakrabarti are now fighting for the right to face Wiener in a head-to-head matchup, a contest that will determine who fills a congressional seat Pelosi held for nearly 40 years.
The most striking detail in Tuesday's returns is what didn't work. Pelosi endorsed Chan just days before the primary, cut an ad for her, and publicly dismissed Wiener's legislative record. She also took aim at Chakrabarti in a radio interview, saying she had no idea who he was.
In May, Pelosi framed the stakes of the race in sweeping terms:
"At a time when fundamental freedoms and democratic values are under assault, we need a leader in Congress who is prepared to fight, forcefully and effectively."
That fighter, in Pelosi's view, was Chan, a progressive supervisor representing residential neighborhoods on San Francisco's west side. But San Francisco voters gave Pelosi's chosen successor barely a quarter of the early vote. Pelosi's endorsement of Chan had drawn attention when it landed, but it did not translate into the kind of commanding performance the former speaker might have expected.
Wiener, a 56-year-old state senator who has represented San Francisco since 2016, spoke at an election night party near the Castro neighborhood. His message was confident and direct.
"The people of San Francisco sent a very clear message... San Franciscans are ready for bold forward looking leadership, for real results."
Whether that message was aimed at his opponents or at Pelosi herself, the subtext was hard to miss. The retiring congresswoman's grip on the district appears to have loosened well before she leaves office.
The most expensive flameout of the night belonged to Chakrabarti, a 40-year-old Harvard graduate and tech millionaire who spent $10 million of his own money chasing Pelosi's seat. He finished a distant third at 13.5%.
Chakrabarti gained national attention years ago as the chief of staff who helped shape Ocasio-Cortez's early tenure in Congress. But that connection proved to be a liability as much as an asset. Ocasio-Cortez declined to endorse her former aide in the San Francisco race, a conspicuous silence that left Chakrabarti without the progressive star power his campaign seemed to be built around. His campaign launch had generated buzz, but the returns suggest San Francisco voters were unimpressed.
Pelosi herself was blunt about Chakrabarti. In an interview, she said:
"I've never seen him in our community. I don't have any idea who he is."
For once, Pelosi and the voters seemed to agree on something, even if they disagreed on who should replace her.
Whoever wins in November will inherit a district defined by dysfunction. San Francisco's housing crisis alone tells the story. A UC Berkeley study released in March found it would take 124 years to fix the city's housing shortage at the current pace. One-bedroom rents have surged past $4,000 per month amid an AI-driven economic boom that has priced out working residents.
Wiener has built his political brand around housing. He served on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors before moving to the state Senate and has been described as the godfather of the YIMBY, Yes in My Backyard, movement, which pushes to speed up housing development. At 6-foot-7, he is nicknamed "The Giraffe," and his legislative profile centers on housing, transit, and LGBTQ issues.
But housing is only one of the pressures facing the next representative. Pelosi's retirement comes as President Donald Trump's administration escalates its crackdown on sanctuary cities, and San Francisco sits squarely in the crosshairs.
The city's sanctuary policy generally bars local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration officers. On Tuesday, the same day San Francisco voters went to the polls, the House Judiciary Committee sent letters demanding records from police and sheriff's departments in both San Francisco and San Diego. The Republican-led Congress has threatened San Francisco directly over its sanctuary stance.
Every leading candidate in the primary vocally opposed the Trump administration. That is no surprise in one of the most liberal congressional districts in the country. But vocal opposition and effective governance are different things, and the next representative will face a Republican-controlled Congress with real leverage over federal funding and immigration enforcement.
The San Francisco primary is one more chapter in a pattern playing out across California. Democrats in the state are grappling with crowded fields and internal fractures that threaten to dilute their power even in deep-blue strongholds.
In this race, the fault lines were generational, ideological, and personal. Pelosi, the grand dame of San Francisco liberalism, backed Chan, a progressive from the city's west side. Wiener, a fixture of the state's pro-development wing, ran as a pragmatist. Chakrabarti, the outsider with national progressive credentials and deep pockets, bet that star power and self-funding could substitute for local roots. The voters sided with the candidate who had actually been doing the work in Sacramento.
The broader California Democratic landscape reflects similar tensions. Endorsement patterns across the state have revealed selective silence and strategic hedging from top party figures, suggesting that even within the Democratic coalition, leaders are unsure which direction their base wants to go.
Wiener's strong showing suggests that at least in San Francisco, voters want someone who talks about building things rather than just fighting things. Whether that instinct survives a general election campaign, in a district where opposing Trump is practically a job requirement, remains to be seen.
The November general election will pit Wiener against whichever candidate finishes second once all votes are counted. Chan holds a substantial lead over Chakrabarti in the early returns, but the margin between second and third could shift as more ballots are tallied.
For Wiener, the path forward looks clear. He dominated the primary field, outperformed Pelosi's handpicked successor by nearly 15 points in the first returns, and positioned himself as the candidate of results over rhetoric.
For San Francisco, the questions are harder. A city where it takes 124 years to solve a housing crisis, where rents top $4,000 a month, and where federal authorities are demanding law enforcement records over sanctuary policies is not a city that can afford another representative who simply shows up to oppose the other party. It needs someone who can govern.
Pelosi spent nearly four decades in that seat. San Francisco's problems got worse on her watch. The voters just told her they'd like to try someone else's approach, and they didn't much care whom she preferred.
