Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as speaker of the House, on Monday threw her significant clout behind a woman in the race to succeed her: Connie Chan, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors.
Ms. Pelosi, who last fall announced she would not seek another term in Congress, had previously stayed quiet on the contentious race to replace her.
Ms. Pelosi released a snippet of a video that will be distributed in full on Tuesday in which she sits with Ms. Chan, a fellow Democrat, in front of an image of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“I know and love this district,” Ms. Pelosi says into the camera, patting a beaming Ms. Chan on the back. “I know the Congress, and I know Connie. I’m proud to endorse Democrat Connie Chan and ask you to join me in electing her to Congress.”
Ms. Chan is running in the June 2 primary, and is seen as a leading contender in a field of candidates that includes Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator known for pushing for the development of far more housing and for advancing gay and transgender rights.
Mr. Wiener has consistently ranked highest in polls, while Ms. Chan and another Democrat, Saikat Chakrabarti, are seen as vying for second place. Under California’s open primary system, the top two contenders, regardless of party, will compete in the November election.
Ms. Pelosi, 86, has represented San Francisco since 1987 — when Ms. Chan, 47, was nine years old. Ms. Pelosi became one of the most powerful women in American political history, pushing the Affordable Care Act and climate change legislation through Congress and serving as a persistent antagonist to President Trump.
After all this time, it has been hard for some San Franciscans to imagine anybody but Ms. Pelosi representing them in Washington, D.C. Others thought that she should have retired far earlier to make way for a younger generation of Democratic leaders.
Whoever wins the seat will have immediate access to a very wealthy donor base, national prominence and huge media attention — and Ms. Pelosi’s endorsement is expected to be a big boost for Ms. Chan.
But the endorsement may be as much about Ms. Pelosi’s dislike of the other options as it is about her support of the supervisor.
Mr. Chakrabarti, who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars from his early work at Stripe, a payments processing company, briefly worked as the chief of staff for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He left the job after angering mainstream Democrats, including Ms. Pelosi, with social media posts accusing them of not doing enough to stand up to Mr. Trump or help working-class Americans.
Ms. Pelosi also has little affection for Mr. Wiener, who made no secret of coveting her job long before she had decided to retire.
That left Ms. Chan, who shares Ms. Pelosi’s ties to organized labor, as the obvious choice for the prized endorsement. In the script of the video that will be distributed Tuesday, Ms. Pelosi said Ms. Chan would lead San Francisco with “compassion and strength.”
“She’s a mom who knows her power and knows her why,” Ms. Pelosi says in the video. “She has fought tirelessly to rebuild our middle class, strengthen our safety net and protect our rights.”
Ms. Chan was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood with her family when she was 13. She held a variety of positions in City Hall before being elected in 2020 to represent the Richmond District, just north of Golden Gate Park, on the Board of Supervisors, which operates like a city council.
Ms. Chan’s critics, including Mr. Wiener, have asserted that she blocks progress. They note that she has vehemently opposed turning the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean into a car-free park and voted against new housing development.
Ms. Chan has argued that she is fighting for the best interests of her constituents, who she says are tired of City Hall politicians upending their lives without listening to them.
In a statement, Mr. Wiener said, “Whoever wins in November will have giant stilettos to fill,” nodding to Ms. Pelosi’s love of fashionable footwear.
He seemed to take a dig at Ms. Chan’s political track record by adding, “It’s essential San Francisco send someone to Congress who, like Speaker Emerita Pelosi, has the ability to deliver for our city and for our country.”
Mr. Chakrabarti’s team was more blunt in its assessment of the endorsement, continuing to stress his opposition to mainstream Democrats, not his embrace of them.
His spokeswoman, Tiffaney Bradley, said, “While the other candidates in this race are focused on political insiders, we’ll continue talking directly with voters about the issues that matter most to them.”
Heather Knight is a reporter in San Francisco, leading The Times’s coverage of the Bay Area and Northern California.
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