San Francisco’s long-simmering housing debate has become the defining fault line in the race to fill Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, pitting two self-described progressives against each other in a contest that says as much about the future of California’s Democratic Party as it does about who will represent the city.
While much of the country watches insurgent left-wing candidates like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani energize voters, San Francisco’s own version of that political moment looks different. Here, the choice isn’t between establishment and outsider — it’s between two Democrats who both claim the progressive mantle but disagree fundamentally on how to solve the city’s housing affordability crisis.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who has Pelosi’s backing, has cast herself as a champion of working-class renters and small businesses, someone unswayed by corporate money or the tech industry dollars fueling her rival’s campaign. She has repeatedly labeled state Sen. Scott Wiener — a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate who drew national attention for legislation aimed at unmasking ICE agents — as a “corporate Democrat bankrolled by billionaires.”
But Chan’s record of blocking housing developments and resisting zoning reforms in her district may not sit well with younger or newer voters who see unchecked rent increases as the more urgent crisis. San Francisco has a long history of favoring neighborhood preservation over new construction, a pattern many observers say helped create the shortage the city faces today. Rents have climbed to record highs amid the Bay Area’s artificial intelligence boom, with one industry report putting the median one-bedroom rental above $4,000 a month.
“Progressivism in San Francisco has really become very tied to this identity where it doesn’t say ‘yes’ to a lot of stuff,” said Jane Natoli, a housing advocate who lives in Chan’s district and supports Wiener. “For whatever reason, especially on issues such as housing, San Francisco progressives have largely said ‘no.'”
In June’s primary, voters passed over former Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aide Saikat Chakrabarti, who drew enthusiasm from younger, more left-leaning voters with a message that blended Bernie Sanders-style populism with strong support for new housing construction. Alex Vanscoy, who served as Chakrabarti’s field director, said he appreciated the candidate’s approach because it combined an anti-corporate stance with support for building more homes. Now Vanscoy backs Chan, who has pledged to refuse corporate PAC money. “Taking money from lobbyists is a huge issue to me,” Chan has said.
Wiener and Chan both agree that affordability tops the list of concerns for San Francisco residents and that the city needs more housing at every income level. Where they diverge sharply is on what role state and federal government should play in getting that housing built.
Wiener argues local governments — particularly ones that have long slow-walked new development — need to be held to their housing commitments, not simply allowed to promise progress without delivering it. As one of the state’s leading voices in the “abundance” and Yes In My Backyard movements, he authored legislation, since signed into law, that streamlined permitting for certain housing projects. City officials have told state lawmakers the changes cut typical permit wait times from years down to three to six months.
Chan, by contrast, has consistently opposed development and zoning changes she believes threaten existing tenants and neighborhood small businesses. She has pointed to the destructive “urban renewal” of the Fillmore District in the mid-20th century — displacement that devastated the city’s Black community — as a cautionary tale she doesn’t want repeated elsewhere. That history, in fact, helped shape the very brand of progressive politics now on display in this race.
“I think we’re starting to see the real divide show up,” said Eric Kingsbury, who chairs the San Francisco Democratic Party’s county committee and backs Wiener. “I would really expect to see a lot of discomfort, because if you are pro-housing and you’re an otherwise progressive person, you have a candidate in this race, and it’s Scott Wiener.”
Chan, among the board’s most left-leaning supervisors, recently voted against Mayor Daniel Lurie’s rezoning plan, a state-mandated effort to allow taller, denser housing near transit corridors. She previously supported a lawsuit challenging the state’s housing mandates as unfairly targeting San Francisco, and she has said her opposition to Lurie’s plan stems from its lack of protections against the loss of rent-controlled units and the displacement of tenants and merchants.
“We can still have accountability, we can still have environmental review and improve government efficiency at the same time,” Chan said.
Former Supervisor Norman Yee, a Chan supporter, pushed back on the idea that she opposes growth altogether. “I think for people to say that she’s anti-development is kind of ridiculous,” Yee said. “All she wants is to make sure that number one, tenants don’t get displaced, and two, to make sure that community concerns are addressed.”
Still, Chan’s record includes helping derail a proposed 500-unit mixed-income project near a BART station in 2021 — a decision that prompted a scathing San Francisco Chronicle editorial accusing the board’s progressive majority of undermining nearly every serious attempt to address the housing shortage. She has also opposed transit improvements, including a dedicated bus lane on Geary Boulevard, over concerns about lost parking and disruption to nearby businesses. The city’s transit agency approved the project regardless.
Chan maintains that state intervention in local zoning serves corporate developers and Wall Street real estate interests more than everyday residents, an argument Wiener dismisses as unfounded and outdated. She points to her support for a 98-unit affordable senior housing project — built on the site of a vacant funeral home, meaning no renters were displaced — as evidence she isn’t opposed to development done the right way. “I always make this joke that if anybody got evicted from the site, it was a ghost from the funeral home,” Chan said. In campaign materials, she has promised to “build real affordable housing, not the Sacramento version that destroys our neighborhoods.”
Wiener counters that the same project was made possible in large part by his own Senate Bill 35, a state law designed to speed up housing approvals, along with roughly $60 million in state funding. “If you’re trying to make it harder and more expensive to build housing, or even impossible to build, then that’s not progressive,” Wiener said. “That’s conservative.”
Whether the roughly 18% of primary voters who backed Chakrabarti will now side with Chan or Wiener remains an open question heading into November.
Housing isn’t the only flashpoint in the race. Wiener, who is Jewish, drew criticism from some progressives after initially declining to describe the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a genocide. Following a heated candidate forum and mounting public pressure, he reversed course, explaining his shift in a video posted to social media. That reversal proved costly: he stepped down as chair of the Legislative Jewish Caucus after backlash from members of the Jewish community, while others dismissed the change as insincere. Months later, pro-Palestinian demonstrators confronted him so forcefully at the city’s trans march that he left the event early.
Kaizen Betts-LaCroix, another former Chakrabarti staffer now supporting Chan, said Wiener’s shifting position on Gaza has damaged his credibility with younger voters, adding that Chan’s firm opposition to military aid for Israel and her refusal of corporate PAC money were key reasons for their support.
Wiener’s campaign has also faced its own controversies, including repeating a since-debunked claim that Chakrabarti actually lived in Maryland, and launching a satirical AI chatbot mimicking Chan that mocked her housing record. Pelosi quickly condemned the chatbot, rallying several prominent Democrats — including seven congresswomen and former Mayor Willie Brown — in opposition. “Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,” Pelosi wrote on social media. “We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.” Within days, Wiener’s campaign took the chatbot offline, removed related billboards and apologized, acknowledging the effort had “missed the mark.”
Original source: CalMatters
