Chakrabarti, Chan, and Wiener Face Off in SF Congressional Debate

Connie Chan was the only San Francisco supervisor to vote against a 2023 measure designed to save Muni and BART from fiscal collapse. At the Sydney Goldstein Theater in Hayes Valley on Tuesday night, State Sen. Scott Wiener made sure the audience knew it.

"You also opposed some of the early funding measures that we tried to do to save Muni and BART from collapsing," Wiener said, pointing to a bridge toll increase that every other member of the Board of Supervisors had backed. The attack crystallized the sharpest fault line in the race to replace Nancy Pelosi: Wiener's record of legislation on housing and regional transit against Chan's progressive coalition built around immigrant legal services, labor endorsements, and local budget priorities. Wiener also argued that a business tax Chan had championed for Bay Area transit would have failed in the legislature, been vetoed by the governor, and prompted two of the five counties involved to withdraw from the agreement.

Chan, who chairs the Board of Supervisors' budget committee and secured city funding for immigrant legal aid, framed her candidacy around the city's most economically exposed communities, from the Richmond to Chinatown.

Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has put more than $1.6 million of his own money into the race, offered a third reading. "In D.C., I've met tons of career politicians and state legislators and saw why they get nothing done," he said. "They go there, they say yes to whatever leadership wants them to do, they sell their votes to the highest bidder and that's why nothing changes." Wiener fired back that Chakrabarti "has spent more of his tech hedge fund money than everyone else combined, including outside campaigns."

The fundraising gap is not abstract. Wiener ended 2025 with more than $2.7 million in the bank. Chan, who entered the race in late November after Pelosi confirmed her retirement, reported roughly $174,000 going into this year. Chakrabarti's self-funding now tops $1.6 million, making the money contest effectively a two-candidate race. Ballots go out in early May for a June 2 primary in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.

Foreign policy sharpened the contrasts further. Wiener said he opposes offensive weapons sales to Israel but supports defensive missile systems. Chan declined to address defensive arms Tuesday. Chakrabarti staked out the furthest ground: "Not only should we not be providing funds to Israel, we should be exploring how to stop this genocide, including looking at sanctions on leaders of Israel." The exchange recalled the race's defining January moment, when Chakrabarti and Chan held up "yes" signs when asked whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza while Wiener refused to answer, a moment that later led him to resign as co-chair of the state's Legislative Jewish Caucus.

The debate, moderated by KQED reporters Scott Shafer and Sydney Johnson and co-hosted by City Arts and Lectures, the Commonwealth Club World Affairs, and Manny's, also produced a reversal from Chakrabarti on Taiwan: he had previously told reporters the U.S. "should defend Taiwan" in the event of a Chinese invasion; he softened that position Tuesday.

Pelosi, 86, has held the seat since 1987. Who inherits it will depend on which of these candidates can convert distinct policy profiles into votes across a city whose neighborhoods divide sharply on the politics of pragmatic housing reform, immigrant advocacy, and Democratic Party insurgency.