Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision not to seek reelection next year could open the floodgates on the race to replace her.
Pelosi, who has served in Congress since 1987, already had two primary challengers ahead of her Thursday announcement: Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff to US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic California state Sen. Scott Wiener.
Chakrabarti launched his bid to unseat Pelosi earlier this year as part of a wave of younger Democratic challengers who argued the party needed candidates with new ideas to reshape it in the wake of Republicans’ 2024 electoral wins.
Wiener, who has represented much of the city in the state Senate since 2016, previously said he wouldn’t challenge the former House Speaker. But he argued that it was necessary to get in against Chakrabarti, a self-funder who made his millions in the tech industry.
“I never wanted to run against Nancy Pelosi. I have enormous respect for her – I think she walks on water,” Wiener said in an interview. “But there are limits to how long you can wait. At some point, you need to get into the race and start making the case to the voters.”
Other candidates are expected to announce their own bids. San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan has been floated as a potential candidate and former San Francisco Mayor London Breed told Politico Friday she is considering running.
Already, the field of prospective and declared candidates has sparked discussions about what kind of leader the district should elect to represent a rare, solidly blue open seat. Pelosi won re-election to the San Francisco seat in 2024 with 81% of the vote.
“We’re really seeking authentic and courageous leadership for working families across the country, and San Francisco deserves no less,” Jane Kim, the California director for the Working Families Party, told CNN. “It is a generational chance for a bold new voice in Congress for the city by the bay, and we look forward to a robust endorsement process.”
Here’s how the field is shaping up so far:
A tech millionaire and progressive activist
Chakrabarti launched his campaign to unseat Pelosi in February, arguing that while he respected what she had accomplished during her career, the Democratic Party needed new leaders who could meet the current moment. He helped kick off a wave of young challengers who argued the party needs to be completely overhauled.
He praised Pelosi for deciding not to seek reelection.
“I think it’s a continuation of her leadership, to actually step down from power,” he said in an interview. “It’s a very rare act of leadership in Washington, DC.”
Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY., right, and her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, left, walk back together after joining other members of the freshman class of Congress for a group photo on Capitol Hill in Washington on November 14, 2018. – Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
A software engineer by trade, Chakrabarti made his fortune as a founding engineer at the payment platform Stripe. He went on to work on independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, helped found Justice Democrats, a progressive group that backs primary challenges against centrist Democratic incumbents, and managed Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 congressional campaign. As her chief of staff, he helped author the Green New Deal, the left’s sweeping climate policy legislation.
Chakrabarti has pointed to that resume as proof of his progressive bona fides after facing criticism from some San Francisco progressives, particularly over his endorsement of a more centrist Board of Supervisors candidate who ousted a Democratic Socialists of America-backed incumbent last year. He said he’s been attacked from both the left and the right over the course of the campaign.
“In San Francisco, I guess I’m in the center somewhere, and I hope that means the majority of the city is with me,” he said.
A longtime state senator
Wiener has focused on housing policy and LGBTQ rights during his nearly 10 years in the state Senate. He’s also set up a robust fundraising operation – his campaign announced that it had raised more than $730,000 on the day he launched his bid last month, before Pelosi announced her plans to retire.
State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from California, during the Bloomberg BNEF Summit in San Francisco on January 31, 2024. – David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Wiener said the presence of a self-funder like Chakrabarti in the race, and a looming filing deadline, spurred him to jump in.
Dan Newman, a San Francisco-based Democratic strategist, said that his decision to jump in early was “risky” but proved to be smart.
“People understood that he couldn’t wait forever,” he said.
A wide open field
California’s congressional filing period doesn’t begin until early next year, at which point several Democrats and few Republicans could enter the race.
Chan, who was first elected as a supervisor in 2020 and views Pelosi as a mentor, could garner support from progressives and labor leaders. Pelosi has not endorsed in the race, but political observers have noted the former Speaker and Chan worked together to pass Democrats’ redistricting push, Proposition 50.
Supervisor Connie Chan is shown during a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting in San Francisco on January 9, 2024. – Jeff Chiu/AP
“This moment is about thanking Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for her legendary public service, and honoring her and her family for their extraordinary commitment to San Francisco and to bettering our entire country,” Chan said in a statement.
The latest congressional hopeful to signal interest was Breed. The former mayor led the city from 2018 until 2025, after losing her re-election bid to incumbent Mayor Daniel Lurie.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed smiles at a Halloween event while campaigning in San Francisco on October 26, 2024. – Jeff Chiu/AP
“It’s important that San Franciscans have options,” Breed told Politico. “I want to explore whether I could potentially be one of those options.”
Another open question is whether Pelosi’s daughter, lawyer Christine Pelosi, will enter the race. Newman said that, for years, conventional wisdom held that the younger Pelosi would pursue the seat when her mother retired. That certainty has faded, he said.
Whoever Pelosi eventually backs would become a frontrunner.
“If Nancy picked somebody off the street, then that gives them a little bit of instant credibility,” Newman said.
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