FILE: California state Sen. Scott Wiener rides during the 53rd Annual San Francisco Pride Parade and Celebration at Civic Center in San Francisco on June 25, 2023.
Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images
State Sen. Scott Wiener announced Wednesday he will run for Congress in 2026, despite previously saying he would wait until longtime representative Nancy Pelosi retired.
“I’m running for Congress because San Franciscans deserve a leader who can stand up to Trump’s extremist agenda,” Wiener said in a statement Wednesday. “This moment demands backbone and hard work that delivers results and makes people’s lives better. That’s what I’ve brought to every fight in my decades of public service in San Francisco and Sacramento, and that’s what I’ll bring to Washington.”
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In a phone call with SFGATE on Wednesday morning shortly after his public announcement, Wiener said his previously stated intention to not run against Pelosi “wasn’t a promise.” He said he has talked to the congresswoman recently, but he would not disclose details of their conversation.
“The world has changed,” Wiener told SFGATE. “We’ve seen the rise of an authoritarian regime, in addition to all the other challenges we have as a nation around housing and health care.” He added that San Francisco needs “forward-looking leadership, and I’ve shown that I can deliver on these issues.”
In a video posted to social media, Wiener highlighted how he’s been a target of death threats and pledged to “to defend San Francisco, our values, our people and the constitution of the United States.”
Wiener grew up in New Jersey and moved to San Francisco in the 1990s after graduating law school. He owns and lives in a small condo in the Castro District, the city’s historically LGTBQ+ neighborhood. He was elected to the state Senate in 2016 and before that served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing the same district as Harvey Milk. He went on to forge a reputation in the state Legislature as an advocate for affordable housing, and he has pushed boundaries on tech regulations, climate policy, restrictions on ICE officers and recreational and prescription drugs.
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Pelosi has held her seat in Congress for nearly 40 years after first being elected in 1987. Despite repeated questions, she has not commented on whether she’ll seek reelection in 2026. In an interview with the San Francisco Examiner this week, Pelosi focused on drawing attention to passing Proposition 50 in California.
“I won’t make any announcement until we get through Nov. 4. That is everything to us,” she told the outlet.
In an interview with KQED on Wednesday, Wiener said he could not wait any longer to see what Pelosi would do.
“This really isn’t about Nancy Pelosi,” Wiener told KQED. “Nancy Pelosi has moved mountains for the country and for San Francisco, and I think the world of her. She’s not said whether she’s running again and we’re now to the point where we’re just a few months out from the filing deadline. And so it was time to enter the race.”
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Wiener isn’t the only challenger for Pelosi’s seat. Saikat Chakrabarti, a 39-year-old tech millionaire and a former senior staffer for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announced he was running earlier this year.
Chakrabarti has plans to largely self-fund his campaign. His war chest largely comes from the wealth he made as an early programmer for Stripe, the multibillion dollar payment services platform.
“Listen, I’m not a wealthy person,” Wiener told SFGATE when asked about his fundraising plans. “I come from a very middle-class existence, and I am not worth hundreds of millions of dollars like Saikat is. But good for him.” Pelosi is also very wealthy.
Wiener said that from the beginning he could see that Chakrabarti “knows how to run a campaign,” but he argued Chakrabarti has “little to no connection to the San Francisco community.” He added that it’s important for someone who deeply knows San Francisco to represent it.
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“I’ve never won by writing a big check in my campaign,” Wiener said. “I’ve won by working really hard.”
This breaking news story has been updated.
