Nancy Pelosi has endorsed her preferred successor: The speaker emerita said Monday afternoon that Connie Chan — the District 1 supervisor who is in a heated race to become San Francisco’s next House representative — would be best suited for the job.
“I know and love this district, I know the Congress, and I know Connie. I’m proud to endorse Democrat Connie Chan and ask you to join me in electing her to Congress,” Pelosi said in an endorsement video, sitting next to Chan in front of a backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Connie Chan is the leader best prepared to carry forward the fight for San Francisco in the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi continues, according to a transcript for a fuller video to be released Tuesday, which was shared with reporters.
Pelosi’s pick was much-anticipated — and critical for Chan. She is in a tight contest: State Sen. Scott Wiener is almost guaranteed to come in the No. 1 slot in the June 2 primary and has the name recognition and money to potentially cruise to a victory in November. Saikat Chakrabarti, Chan’s other rival, is an upstart progressive whose personal coffers — he is worth more than $100 million and has been spending handsomely on his campaign — make him dangerous to both Chan and Wiener.
But he is a more pressing concern for Chan, who must beat Chakrabarti for the No. 2 slot in June in order to advance to November’s general election. The two campaigns are neck and neck, according to recent polls, and their followers are often at each other’s throats.
The imprimatur of San Francisco’s 39-year congresswoman may well turn the tides.
“It’s a real shot in the arm for Connie’s campaign and it comes at a very crucial time,” said Jim Stearns, a progressive political consultant. Of the 470,621 ballots that have been mailed out in the congressional district, just 22,663 have been returned — a little less than 5 percent.
Many are still weighing their choice and the timing, Stearns said, is perfect. “If you endorsed six months ago, it’s old news. But you endorse now, it’s big news.”
“It is going to carry more weight than any other endorsement that [Pelosi] can ever make,” added another longtime political strategist.
Chan’s campaign said it was ready to make use of the endorsement: Spokesperson Julie Edwards said she will make sure every voter they speak to knows Chan is Pelosi’s pick. “Our campaign has been feeling the momentum for the last few weeks,” said Edwards, who has been busy fielding media inquiries.
“We wanna make sure every person voting in San Francisco knows Connie is the choice of teachers, nurses, firefighters, working families, and — of course Nancy Pelosi,” she said. Anand Singh, who is the treasurer of a labor-backed pro-Chan political action committee, said the group will “work overtime everyday between now and the election to make sure we get every last bit we can get out of this.”
Pelosi was unlikely to put her thumb on the scale for either of the other two top contenders.
Her distaste with Chakrabarti is well-known: The two sparred when Chakrabarti was chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — he took aim at her online, saying Pelosi was being “outmaneuvered” by Republicans. He reportedly helped push the nascent New York congresswoman towards a confrontational stance against her colleagues, including Pelosi.
Chakrabarti then left Ocasio-Cortez’s office a week after a sit-down between his boss and the then-speaker.
“We’ve always known this race would come down to voters, not endorsements,” said Chakrabarti’s campaign spokesperson. “While the other candidates in this race are focused on political insiders, we’ll continue talking directly with voters about the issues that matter most to them.”
And Pelosi is lukewarm toward Wiener: When Wiener announced his run for Pelosi’s seat before she had even announced retirement, it was taken poorly in the speaker emerita’s camp.
Wiener was gracious on Monday, following Pelosi’s announcement. “I have tremendous respect for Speaker Emerita Pelosi and deep gratitude for everything she has done for our city and our country,” Wiener wrote in a statement. “Whoever wins in November will have giant stilettos to fill.”
In a sign of the times, the announcement has had an immediate impact on prediction markets: Chan’s likelihood of advancing to November’s general election was 54.5 percent on Kalshi prior to Monday’s news. Immediately after, it jumped to 71 percent.