San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan campaigns on a trolly Saturday alongside Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi after a rally supporting Chan to replace Pelosi in the House.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
Crowds parted and smiles broke when Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi entered a San Francisco union hall Saturday sporting a T-shirt with “CONNIE” across her chest.
Pelosi could only take a few steps before a cluster dressed in blue — electrical workers — clamored for a selfie. A Teamster eagerly shook her hand as a sea of service workers in purple thanked her for years of service. For the first time in four decades, Pelosi spent the last weekend before a primary asking voters to hit the polls and put someone else’s name on their ballot for her seat: Supervisor Connie Chan.
For Chan, Pelosi’s pick to take over California’s 11th Congressional District, Saturday morning marked a surreal moment during the final push before Election Day. She told the crowd of about 100 people — mostly union members readying for a day of canvassing or working phone banks — that she got a text message from a friend just as she arrived at the IBEW meeting hall on Fillmore Street that morning.
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“Someone actually sent me a picture,” she said. “It said, ‘You know you made it when Speaker Madam Pelosi has your name on her shirt.”
Congressional candidate Connie Chan and Speaker Nancy Pelosi hug on a trolly after a “Get out the vote” rally in San Francisco.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
Pelosi, the first woman to serve as the speaker of the House, has cemented herself in history: a trailblazer for women in politics, the chief architect of the Affordable Care Act, and a symbol of party unity and control of the Democratic caucus. Supporters Saturday — including her daughter and political strategist, Christine Pelosi — called Pelosi their “forever speaker.”
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“We should all be really proud of what we have done,” Chan told the crowd. “We, for the last four decades, together, we elected Speaker Madam Nancy Pelosi together. She is our accomplishment.”
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But soon the seat long held by Pelosi will have a new face, as three front-runners vie for the spot. Chan is facing off between two other Democrats: state Sen. Scott Wiener and former congressional staffer Saikat Chakrabarti.
Pelosi had stopped short of formally backing a candidate for months but came out in support of Chan two weeks ago. The endorsement might not help Chan overtake front-runner Wiener on Tuesday, but it could help her edge out Chakrabarti, a wealthy ex-tech executive and former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Congressional candidate Connie Chan campaigns alongside Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi during Saturday’s “Get out the vote” rally in San Francisco.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
On Saturday afternoon, team Wiener met at Grattan Playground in Cole Valley before spreading across the district to knock on doors, and Chakrabarti’s team hosted one of their phone bank sessions.
Pelosi kicked off her last rally tour before the primaries Friday afternoon at the Joe DiMaggio Playground outside the North Beach Branch Library, where she was greeted warmly by a crowd of a few dozen union members and current and former elected officials. Alongside ex-Mayor Willie Brown and former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, Pelosi spotted former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell. She said Maxwell’s mother was one of earliest supporters for her first race for Congress in 1987.
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After the event, Pelosi said is excited to be campaigning for a fresh voice.
“It’s thrilling because you know what it’s about: the future,” she said. “Elections are about the future.”
Congressional candidate Connie Chan, left, takes a group photo next to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi during Saturday’s “Get out the vote” rally in San Francisco to build support for Chan to replace Pelosi in the house.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
Pelosi said she “looked around that crowd to see so many people who had done so much and were pinning their hopes on Connie.”
“She would just be so fabulous,” Pelosi said. “I’m so excited about her.”
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While much has been made about the challenge of following in the footsteps of a boundary-shattering pioneer in Pelosi, John Doherty, the business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 6, told the audience Friday that “many will say that Chan has ‘a very big pair of shoes to fill’” but that “Connie Chan has her own shoes.”
And those shoes, he said, were going to “walk the halls of Congress for us in her district.”
On Saturday, Pelosi picked up on Doherty’s sentiment.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives at Saturday’s “Get out the vote” rally in San Francisco to support Supervisor Connie Chan’s campaign for the House.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
“Connie walks in the shoes of all of her constituents,” she said. “She walks in the shoes of working moms. She knows their challenges. She walks in the shoes of immigrant families. She walks in the shoes of laborer families.”
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Pelosi has said she endorsed Chan, who has a son, in part because she wants someone who faced the same challenges she did as a working mother in the position. Pelosi’s daughter Christine shared that reasoning in her support for Chan in her role as a mother and politician, calling her a “unifying” and “wholesome voice.”
“We need a mom who can change our representation in the country, who can tell everybody’s story,” Christine Pelosi said.
That wasn’t part of Pelosi’s calculus when she tipped the scales in a race for an open U.S. Senate seat in California in 2024. Then she endorsed one of her top Capitol Hill lieutenants, Adam Schiff, over two women — single mother of three Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, who also raised her children as a single mom. Lee would have been only the fourth Black woman to serve in the Senate, but two more have been elected since. Schiff won the primary over his two female rivals as Pelosi’s endorsement immunized the then-63-year-old white male candidate from concerns that if he won, California would be represented for the first time since 1991 by two men: Schiff and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla.
Pelosi was unrepentant in her choice, pointing to how there were only 12 women in the House when she entered Congress. There are 129 now.
“I don’t apologize to anyone for my endorsements,” Pelosi said before introducing Schiff at a San Francisco campaign rally during the campaign.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said she endorsed Connie Chan to replace her in the House in part because of Chan’s experience as a working mother.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
Schiff also appeared at the rally Friday to support Chan, whom he has endorsed. Pelosi referred to Schiff, who led the impeachment of President Donald Trump during his first term, as “the person that Donald Trump fears most.”
On Saturday, Pelosi sat beside Chan. She squeezed her hand in support and celebration. When Chan began a well-known union chant by saying, “When we fight,” Pelosi answered back with the crowd shouting, “we win,” while throwing her arms in the air.
“When you’re out there fighting for Connie Chan,” she later told the crowd, “you’re fighting for San Francisco.”
Chan, for her part, said she thinks voters should thank Pelosi “for the legacy she built for San Francisco.”
“But I think Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s legacy is San Francisco,” Chan said.