California Senator Scott Wiener Enters Race for Pelosi’s Seat

SAN FRANCSICO — State Sen­a­tor Scott Wiener has announced his offi­cial bid for Con­gress, run­ning for the seat cur­rent­ly occu­pied by Speak­er Emeri­ta Nan­cy Pelosi.

The move sets the stage for what could be a high-pro­file and com­pet­i­tive pri­ma­ry.

This news of Wiener, who rep­re­sents San Fran­cis­co, offi­cial­ly run­ning for the seat is com­ing while it’s still unclear if Pelosi will seek reelec­tion.

How­ev­er, as some polit­i­cal experts have said, Wiener does­n’t have time to wait for her announce­ment one way or the oth­er.

“I’m run­ning for Con­gress to defend San Fran­cis­co, our val­ues, our peo­ple and the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Unit­ed States with every­thing I have,” Wiener said in an announce­ment video. “I’ve stood up to vio­lence and hate my entire life. Trump and his MAGA extrem­ists don’t scare me.”

This has already been an active race.

For months now, a pro­gres­sive new­com­er named Saikat Chakrabar­ti has been aggres­sive­ly cam­paign­ing against Pelosi.

Last week, when it was only rumored that Wiener would be run­ning

“I’m not sure if it’s a good move or a bad move, but it’s the only move he feels that he can make right now,” Mati­er said. “Basi­cal­ly, he has a choice: he either gets into the fray and takes on one of the most pop­u­lar and pow­er­ful politi­cians in the Bay Area and in Cal­i­for­nia, or he sits on the side­lines while the new­com­er comes in and does it. The prob­lem for Scott Wiener is that the win­dow is only gonna be open for so long. He’s col­lect­ed a mil­lion dol­lars for the run. He either gets in this race or he sits on the side­lines.”

Lau­ra Foote, a long­time Wiener ally, said sup­port­ers are hope­ful that he could help nation­al­ize the pro-hous­ing YIMBY (or Yes in My Back Yard) move­ment that aims to remove local reg­u­la­tions stymieing devel­op­ment.

“I am opti­mistic about the prospect of a younger, pro-hous­ing leader bring­ing new ener­gy into Con­gress,” said Foote, who leads the advo­ca­cy group YIMBY Action. “More than any oth­er indi­vid­ual he has dri­ven change in Cal­i­for­nia hous­ing pol­i­cy.”

Wiener, while known as a pro-devel­op­ment mod­er­ate in San Fran­cis­co, is also a light­ning rod for the right. He has rou­tine­ly sparred with con­ser­v­a­tive influ­encers like Geor­gia Rep. Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene and com­men­ta­tor Tuck­er Carl­son over his efforts to expand LGBTQ+ rights.