Ro Khanna backs Connie Chan, saying next S.F. congressperson will have ‘huge megaphone’

Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna made a simple pitch on Monday for the city’s progressives to get out and vote for Connie Chan: San Francisco’s next Congressional representative will have national clout.

“The person who sits in the San Francisco seat matters. We know this from Nancy Pelosi,” Khanna told an audience of a few dozen people at the San Francisco office of SEIU Local 1021 in Potrero Hill. The congressman endorsed Chan in July.

“You’re not just an ordinary freshman member of Congress,” Khanna continued. “You have a huge megaphone. That’s why we need the strongest progressive leader in this seat.”

Chan’s backers hope Khanna, who is “thinking seriously” about a presidential run, will help expand Chan’s base beyond traditional labor progressives — and appeal particularly to progressive, anti-establishment tech workers who may have voted for primary rival Saikat Chakrabarti. 

Some of the Chakrabarti voters, said political consultant David Ho, who runs a pro-Chan political action committee, “may not be familiar with Connie Chan, because they could be younger voters, new voters, so it’s good to have endorsements that represent a broader perspective across the spectrum.” 

Khanna “represents a measured approach to regulating AI and tech, and also taxing the wealthy while still representing one of the major innovation capitals of the country,” Ho added. 

Chan, Pelosi’s preferred successor, is assembling a coterie of national Democrats. Pelosi endorsed Chan months ago and strongly supports the candidate. She has held multiple fundraisers, and her former communications director is now staffing Chan’s campaign.

Pelosi represents a more establishment lane, alongside others who back Chan, like Sen. Adam Schiff, who also attained office with Pelosi’s strong backing.

Chan’s campaign hopes that Khanna, a progressive who is not in Pelosi’s orbit, will open up new possibilities. 

Khanna is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Chan said on Monday she would join if elected. He came out of the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party, endorsing Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary. He has been hiring Bernie-world staffers as he weighs a possible run for president. 

While the November election will bring out more voters than June’s primary and open up new swaths of the electorate for both Chan and Sen. Scott Wiener, the 18 percent of primary voters who opted for Chakrabarti are vital for both campaigns. That’s particularly so for Chan, who trailed Wiener by 11 percent in the primary and needs every undecided voter. 

The race may be tight, according to polls, albeit ones sponsored by Chan’s campaign and a progressive committee.

Chan has an advantage in this: She is widely seen as the progressive candidate, and was endorsed by Chakrabarti, after all. 

But she is also more skeptical of the tech industry, and may have a hard time winning over tech workers. 

Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, could help unlock some of these voters, particularly those who favorably view his increasingly public clashes with their tech billionaire bosses. 

This past weekend, for example, Khanna gained national attention because he publicly clashed with prominent tech investor Mark Cuban over California’s billionaire tax, Prop. 40.

“Why not put this energy in figuring out how we bring capital and high paying jobs to every community in America?” Khanna wrote on X. 

Chan’s Monday event, billed as a “Young voters town hall,” drew a combination of young people, union members and some interested observers from Chakrabarti’s campaign.

It was moderated by Jorge Contreras, director of the California Working Families Party, which plans to support Chan by both investing in an independent PAC and field operations, according to Contreras. 

Wiener’s campaign, for its part, responded to Khanna’s appearance by aiming its guns at the congressman.

“Tonight, Connie Chan is headlining a Working Families Party event with the most prolific stock trader in Congress,” Wiener campaign spokesperson Joe Arellano said in a statement, referring to a New York Times story that lists Khanna’s family as trading shares valued between $24 million and $147 million.

Khanna has said that his family’s wealth is handled by outside advisors. 

Still, Arellano continued, “Working families don’t trade stock thousands of times.” 

Chan’s campaign’s response? That the candidate supports banning congressional stock trading, full stop.

Correction: A previous version of this article attributed a statement to Scott Wiener. The statement was from Wiener’s spokesperson, Joe Arellano.