People gather at Sen. Scott Wiener’s election party at his campaign headquarters on election night in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.
Gabrielle Lurie/S.F. Chronicle
State Sen. Scott Wiener greets Assembly Member Buffy Wicks at his election party in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.
Gabrielle Lurie/S.F. Chronicle
State Sen. Scott Wiener arrives at his election night party at his campaign headquarters in San Francisco June 2, 2026.
Gabrielle Lurie/S.F. Chronicle
Congressional candidate Connie Chan, who is vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, addresses her supporters at El Rio in the Mission on Election Night in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Congressional candidate Connie Chan, who is vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, addresses her supporters at El Rio in the Mission on Election Night in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, center, greets a supporter in Chinatown on Election Day in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, center, greets voters in Chinatown on Election Day in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Saikat Chakrabarti, candidate for CA-11, gestures to the crowd as he speaks to those gathered during an Election Night Celebration with supporters, volunteers, organizers, and community members in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Saikat Chakrabarti, candidate for CA-11, left, speaks with supporters during an Election Night Celebration with supporters, volunteers, organizers, and community members in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Supporters look at results coming in before Saikat Chakrabarti, candidate for CA-11, spoke to those gathered during an Election Night Celebration with supporters, volunteers, organizers, and community members in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Saikat Chakrabarti speaks to the press on election night in San Francisco on June 2, 2026, in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Saikat Chakrabarti, Connie Chan and Scott Wiener debate at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/AP
State Sen. Scott Wiener was leading Tuesday in the race to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress, with votes left to be counted. Wiener had 41.2% of the vote in early results.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan had 28.6% of the vote, and former tech executive and House staffer Saikat Chakrabarti trailed with 14.9%. All three of the top candidates are Democrats. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to the November general election.
The person who wins in November not only has to replace an icon in Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House and the architect of the Affordable Care Act’s passage, but will hold outsize power in representing one of the bluest districts in the country — and the home of many deep-pocketed Democratic donors. Pelosi has raised more than $1 billion for Democrats over the past two decades.
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A Wiener-Chan matchup would likely focus on housing and labor. In the Legislature, Wiener has focused on passing legislation to make it easier to build housing in California. Chan, meanwhile, is heavily backed by organized labor. Some of the building trades unions have scrapped with Wiener in the past over legislation aimed at boosting California’s housing stock, and whether it should include provisions requiring construction workers to be paid so-called prevailing wages.
Wiener promised supporters at a party Tuesday night at his Upper Market campaign headquarters that “when we get to Washington — and we’re going to Washington — as anyone who had watched me in City Hall or in the state capital will tell you, I am not going to sit quietly and politely.”
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“Tonight the people of San Francisco sent a very clear message,” Wiener told the audience. “And the message has been received, San Franciscans are ready for bold, forward-looking leadership, for real results, not just words. And a new generation of leaders, a new generation ready to take on the hardest issues facing our country. That is what San Franciscans told us tonight.”
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Chan arrived to booming applause at her party at the El Rio bar as she stood in front of black banner with the words: “Workers over billionaires!”
“How does it feel to beat $10 million?” Chan asked the crowd, referring to the millions of dollars of his own money Chakrabarti poured into the race.
Chakrabarti was not ready to give up hope of making the top two at his election night gathering Tuesday night at The Chapel in the Mission District. He said he wasn’t conceding. “I’m still hopeful. They haven’t called it and I’m going to wait until they count all the ballots and see where we are,” he said.
Wiener has been eyeing the seat for years though he remained publicly deferential to Pelosi, and said he would only run once she retired. At a 2023 fundraiser, Wiener opened his remarks by thanking guests “for choosing to be here for a race that’s not happening.”
But in late October 2025, Wiener decided he could not afford to wait any longer and announced he was running. Pelosi did not make her decision to retire official until November 2025.
Chakrabarti, on the other hand, had no qualms about waiting for Pelosi’s retirement and announced he would challenge her directly in early 2025. Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral campaign was catching the attention of Democrats nationally, and Chakrabarti and some of his supporters sought to cast him as part of the same wave.
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He had masterminded New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset of one of Pelosi’s former House lieutenants, Rep. Joe Crowley, in 2018. He knew the blueprint for how those sort of young-outsider-versus-the-establishment races worked in a liberal district.
Yet Chakrabarti’s campaign was dogged by Ocasio-Cortez’s refusal to wade into the race on his behalf. Neither she nor Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed him. Still, Chakrabarti became a factor in the race by tapping a virtually unlimited bank account amassed from his time as an early employee of Stripe. He raised $9.2 million ($8.8 million from his own pocket) for the race, enabling him to introduce himself to voters. He raised twice as much as Wiener and more than 10 times as much as Chan.
Earlier this month, Pelosi endorsed Chan for the seat she has held since 1987. Pelosi spent the last weekend of the campaign barnstorming the district with Chan, who was also accompanied at a Friday campaign rally in North Beach by Sen. Adam Schiff, who has endorsed her.
Pelosi touted Chan’s background as a mother, an immigrant and a woman of color at a North Beach rally last week. Chan was born in Hong Kong, attended grade school in Taiwan and immigrated to San Francisco’s Chinatown when she was 13.
“Connie’s story embodies the American dream,” Pelosi said. “I know Connie’s voice will be heard.”
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She is in her second term on the Board of Supervisors, where she chairs the Budget Committee.
Chan has championed herself as “the voice of working people” in the race, and pledged to focus on securing more federal funding to build more low- and middle-income housing. “Relying on corporate developers to build affordable housing hasn’t worked,” her campaign website says.
Meanwhile, San Francisco YIMBY, a pro-housing organization, has endorsed Wiener. In the Legislature, Wiener has been a major champion of measures to alleviate California’s housing crisis, improve public transportation and to safeguard the rights of the state’s LGBTQ residents.
Chan was endorsed by the California Teachers Association, National Nurses United, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and the San Francisco Labor Council.
Wiener’s backers include the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the California Conference of Carpenters, the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Equality California, San Francisco YIMBY, the San Francisco United Democratic Club and the California Democratic Party.
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Chakrabarti was endorsed by the Sunrise Movement of young environmental activists, Gen Z for Change, and two members of the progressive group in the House colloquially known as “the Squad”: Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-MN, and Rashida Tlaib, D-MI.
Whoever wins will represent a historic milestone for the district: Wiener would be its first openly gay representative, Chakrabarti would be the first Indian-American to represent the district and Chan would be the Asian-American to represent the district.
Michael Barba, Sara DiNatale and J.K. Dineen contributed reporting.