Saikat Chakrabarti kicks off bid to unseat Nancy Pelosi

The Facts

Nancy Pelosi has a new challenger for Congress in 2026: Saikat Chakrabarti. He was a founding engineer at Stripe, where he made his fortune, but is more well known as the former chief of staff to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and architect of the Green New Deal.

According to Josh Koehn at The Standard, Chakrabarti has a "populist message, which focused on the cost of living and promoted the “abundance” housing movement."

The Context

Nancy Pelosi was first elected in 1987 and has held office for longer than many of the readers of this newsletter have been alive. She remains a powerful leader and unmatched fundraiser among the Democratic establishment, but has seen her support wane in recent years as younger voters have become more influential. The GrowSF poll from February 2025 showed her support at just 52% among San Francisco voters.

State Senator Scott Wiener is another potential challenger to Pelosi, but he has repeatedly affirmed in the press that he will not run against her.

The GrowSF Take

GrowSF focuses on local San Francisco issues, so we plan to remain neutral on federal elections like Congress. But in the spirit of informing our readers, here's our neutral analysis on the state of the race:

We think Chakrabarti might have a shot at winning—or, at least, a better shot than any challenger in many years. Her last challenger, DSA member Shahid Buttar, lost badly in 2020 with just 22% of the vote. But Chakrabarti is a well-known figure with a national profile, and he has a lot of money to spend on his campaign.

Pelosi is polling at 52%, which might sound low but is actually fairly high for a longtime incumbent. Chakrabarti may be able to chip away at her support by capturing younger voters. Indeed, his inaugural kickoff event drew lots of young supporters, but younger voters also tend to not vote in the numbers that older voters do, so Pelosi's support among older voters and universal name recognition will be a major advantage. Pelosi is sure to lock up endorsements from everybody who is anybody in the Democratic establishment and deploy her extensive network of donors to supplement her massive war chest of campaign funds.

Early campaign rhetoric indicates that Chakrabarti will run "from the left" (that is, on a more progressive platform than Pelosi), but even in San Francisco most voters are moderate. Chakrabarti would do well to focus on the issues that matter most to San Franciscans, like housing affordability, homelessness, and public safety.

Overall, it's an uphill battle for anyone running against the most powerful woman in American politics.

We look forward to a spirited campaign season, and hope that it will be a positive discussion of the issues facing San Francisco and the country.