Saikat Chakrabarti’s congressional campaign ended in resounding defeat, but he is not done with San Francisco: The centimillionaire filed paperwork Thursday to convert his campaign into the “SF Solidarity PAC,” a political action committee that can spend on behalf of candidates it supports.
It is unclear what races he will back or how much new money he will put in, if any — Chakrabarti may simply spend down his campaign’s existing funds. Chakrabarti did not respond to Mission Local’s request for comment.
But he has the means to spend big. Chakrabarti became a centimillionaire from his time as an early employee at Stripe, the financial technology company. He poured almost $10 million of his own money into his campaign, but only got 18 percent of the vote.
His federal super PAC could get involved in San Francisco’s congressional race in November and likely on the side of Supervisor Connie Chan, who is running in the progressive lane against State Sen. Scott Wiener.
Chan beat Chakrabarti for the No. 2 spot in the general election with 30 percent of the vote, while Wiener took first place with 41 percent. Chakrabarti largely shied away from attacking Chan during his campaign but frequently criticized Wiener.
But Chakrabarti’s PAC could also spend money in other races outside the city. Throughout his campaign he said that his plan was to go to Congress and form a coalition with other Democrats who want to push the party in a more progressive direction. He brought three congressional candidates to his “Change the Party” campaign rally on May 7 and promoted the donation pages of several others on his X account.
Wanting to overthrow Democratic Party establishment has long been Chakrabarti’s white whale — he initially got into the San Francisco race to defeat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who announced her retirement last November.
After quitting his tech career in 2015, Chakrabarti worked on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, and then co-founded Justice Democrats, a group that works to elect progressive representatives. In 2018, the group helped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unseat Joe Crowley, who at the time was a prominent Democrat in line for Speaker of the House.
In April, Mission Local asked Chakrabarti what he would do if he lost his race. “I’m gonna keep working to make this movement happen,” he said. “This is what I want to dedicate my life to.”