Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has hand selected her successor to take her seat after nearly four decades of building one of the most powerful donor cash machines in Democratic history. On Monday Pelosi finally revealed who she is naming to run it for her.
The 86-year-old House Speaker Emerita endorsed San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Connie Chan on Monday, just 15 days before the June 3 primary that will determine which two candidates advance to November’s general election.
“I know and love this district. I know the Congress, and I know Connie,” Pelosi said, sitting alongside Chan in an endorsement video. “I’m proud to endorse Democrat Connie Chan and ask you to join me in electing her to Congress.”
The move ends months of deafening silence as Democrats lined up to appease Pelosi and win her support. Pelosi had resisted endorsing anyone since announcing her retirement in November. She appeared at a Chan fundraiser in Washington and allowing her photo to be used in campaign materials but stopping short of a formal commitment. She told NBC News in November that endorsing a successor was “not my current plan.”
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi has shown by example what we can do when we stand together,” Chan said in a statement Monday. “We will now fight to make sure our beloved city remains a place of opportunity for all San Franciscans, and the conscience of our nation.”
Chan is a radical leftist that supports socialized medicine, housing, and strengthening worker unions — a platform that is firmly in the mainstream of San Francisco’s Democratic electorate.
The endorsement reshuffles a three-way race that has been running for months. State Sen. Scott Wiener entered the contest before Pelosi even announced her retirement and entered June as the frontrunner in fundraising with more than $2.6 million in cash on hand.
Chan had just $156,000 on hand as of late March, and will surely take full advantage of Pelosi’s friends’ deep coffers.
The third candidate, Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy tech executive who served as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first chief of staff, has spent nearly $5 million of his own cash in the race. AOC has stayed silent on the race, a notable absence given her history with Chakrabarti. Pelosi’s distaste for him is well-documented: when Chakrabarti worked for AOC in 2019, he publicly accused Pelosi of being “outmaneuvered” by Republicans and helped push the freshman congresswoman toward confrontations with House leadership.
“The biggest challenge I face if I’m elected is I am not Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi,” Chan joked at a candidate forum two weeks ago.
Political consultants told Politico that Pelosi’s endorsement was timed in the shrewdest possible way.
“If you endorsed six months ago, it’s old news. But you endorse now, it’s big news,” said political consultant Jim Stearns.