Marie Hurabiell

• Office: House of Representatives, District 11
• Election Date: June 2, 2026
• Candidate: Marie Hurabiell
• Due Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026
• Printable Version

Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the June 2, 2026 primary election! GrowSF believes in a growing, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government.

As a candidate for federal office, your day-to-day responsibilities in office will affect not just San Francisco, but California and the United States as a whole. As a representative of the people of California and of San Francisco, the policies you bring to Washington should reflect the best of what we have to offer.

The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco and have the expertise to enact meaningful policy changes.

We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by Thursday, March 12, so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

• Your Policy Goals
• Your Leadership
• The Issues
• Personal
• Thank you

Special Note

Although this questionnaire is for a federal office, we are limiting our questions solely to issues that affect San Francisco directly. Our expertise is in local, city-scale issues, and not in international relations or national issues.

In your responses, please try to apply a San Francisco lens. We are interested in your answers as a representative of San Francisco, and how you will represent the interests of the City.

Your Policy Goals

We’d like to get some details about your high-level goals and how you intend to use your elected office to achieve them.

What San Francisco or California specific policies do you hope to change or preserve by running for House of Representatives, District 11? Please be specific, and list them in order of priority.

1. Protect SF’s AI industry from poorly designed regulation while prosecuting actual harms, federal preemption of state patchwork, criminal penalties for AI-enabled crime. Establish federal leadership on AI that protects innovation and prosecutes harm. San Francisco is the global capital of artificial intelligence. Congress needs a member who understands this technology, not to slow it down, but to make sure it benefits every San Franciscan and that bad actors face real consequences.

2. *This vies for #1, but this is a national problem and since you have specified SF/ CA priorities, I put AI for the #1 spot.*
   Address the affordability crisis. Out of control pricing is hitting all aspects of daily life. San Francisco families with two young children face a participation cost of $144,000 to $192,000 per year before taxes. Housing is a big piece of that, while childcare ($30,000 to $62,000/year), healthcare, energy, and groceries are the other major budget items. A serious affordability agenda addresses all of them. Universal Basic Income can help some families but other measures are necessary such as larger child tax credits.

3. Invest in workforce preparation at City College and through Individual Transition Accounts. The pathway to affordability is earning power - transform City College into a launchpad for the economy of the future.

4. Public safety and drug crisis, securing federal enforcement resources, treatment funding, court-ordered care

5. Bring common sense to immigration. Secure the border. Provide a pathway to legal status for long-term residents who have built lives here, paid taxes and not committed further crimes. Create a functional visa system for seasonal and skilled workers. End the political theater that has prevented reform for decades.

Why those policies?

Because they address the real daily lives of real San Francisco families. The progressive conversation in this city often centers on the margins, the most ideologically fraught questions, while families are quietly being priced out, one childcare payment at a time. A representative who can lower childcare costs, preserve healthcare access, prepare workers for a changing economy, stand up for public safety and bring San Francisco's most important industry into responsible federal law will have done more for more people than any amount of floor speeches.

These policies also reflect the Pelosi legacy. She fought for healthcare, for working families, for this city's economic vitality, and for America's standing in the world. These priorities carry that fight forward with the tools of this era.

Explain why your #1 goal is your #1 goal.

1. San Francisco has more at stake with AI policy than any city in America. This is where the technology is created, where the companies are headquartered, and where the jobs are. As we’ve experienced recently, if CA gets policy or regulation wrong at the state level, or supports anti-business policies, those jobs move. Get it right, and San Francisco leads the most transformative economic shift since the internet. Frustratingly, one of my opponents spent two years trying to make tech companies fill out safety reports. That would not stop a single criminal from misusing AI, it just makes it harder for the startups that are the essential base of this economy to get a foothold. I want to prosecute the people who cause harm,prepare every San Franciscan for the future and create the regulatory clarity that lets our startups and established companies innovate with confidence. That’s a serious response to a serious issue.

2. And - as my “co-number 1” issue: Affordability is the number one concern of most Americans right now. I will fight for the ordinary Americans being squeezed by rising costs in a myriad of ways, including tax credits, UBI and fighting inflation through fiscal responsibility. The businesses that drive our economy need workers who can afford to live here. When a software engineer making $150K can't afford a one-bedroom apartment, or a teacher can’t find a place within budget, that's not just a housing problem, it becomes a talent retention crisis. My affordability agenda helps businesses keep the workforce that makes SF competitive globally.

As a junior Congressperson, you will lack the network, political capital, and experience of your peers. Describe your experience cultivating relationships and building political capital. How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal? What obstacles will you face, and how will you overcome them? Will the power of the office of House of Representatives, District 11 be enough to achieve this goal?

I’ve spent six years building coalitions in San Francisco, not from a political perch, but from the ground. ConnectedSF works across all eleven supervisorial districts. I have sat with small business owners in the Sunset, with parents frustrated with SFUSD in Noe Valley, with tech founders in SoMa, and with immigrant families in the Excelsior. That is not a political operation, it is a network of people who know that I will show up for them. I helped lead the DA recall and the school board recall by building alliances that cut across traditional political lines. That’s the skill set Congress needs: finding the people who agree with you on the problem, even if they come from different political traditions.

On AI specifically, there’s genuine bipartisan energy: both parties want American leadership and a member from San Francisco has unusual leverage. No other congressional district contains as much of the industry. The ability to convene industry, law enforcement, and civil society, and to draft legislation that reflects technical reality is a genuine advantage that turns district identity into policy power.

Will the power of the office of House of Representatives, District 11 be enough to achieve the other goals?

Some, yes. Others, only partially, and only with coalition support.

On affordability, federal levers are real but partial. The federal government controls healthcare subsidies, childcare tax credits, tariff policy, and community college funding. What it cannot control is the California regulatory environment that makes childcare artificially expensive or the local permitting process that slows housing. A congresswoman can fight the federal cost drivers while being honest that Sacramento and City Hall own the rest.

On workforce development, federal seed funding and tax incentives can catalyze public-private partnerships. For example, City College's transformation does not require a massive federal appropriation, it requires smart partnership design and a champion in Congress who understands how to structure it.

No single congressional seat is enough to solve San Francisco's affordability crisis. But a member who is strategic, credible, and willing to do unglamorous legislative work will move the needle.

What is an "out there" change that you would make to state/local government policy, if you could? For the purpose of this question, you are not constrained to the office of House of Representatives, District 11.

A change I’d make, unrelated to being a Congressperson, as noted: I would eliminate the certification requirements that prevent qualified workers from doing jobs they are fully capable of doing. California has hundreds of occupational licensing requirements that exist primarily to protect incumbents, not the public. A person who has completed a rigorous training program at City College, in healthcare, construction, early childhood education, or technology, should be able to work without a years-long credentialing process designed by the industries they are entering.

The single policy change with the most leverage on both affordability and opportunity: dramatically streamline occupational licensing and create automatic reciprocity for licenses held in other states. It would reduce childcare costs, increase housing construction speed, expand the healthcare workforce, and let every San Franciscan who invests in their own skills actually use them.

Your Leadership

We’d like to learn more about your leadership style and plan to execute effectively once you assume office.

Why are you running for House of Representatives, District 11?

Because no other moderate entered the race.

This is my hometown. I love it dearly and I’m tired of career politicians using us for their personal agendas while the quality of life goes down and costs go up. This district creates more jobs, more innovation, and more economic value than almost anywhere on Earth, and we need representation that understands how to protect and expand that. We're not just the AI capital of the world; we're the job creation engine for the entire Bay Area. When San Francisco thrives economically, it funds the schools, transit, and social programs that make this a great place to live for everyone.

I believe politics should be both values-driven and honest about results. If a program isn't working, fix it. If a technology is transforming the economy, prepare people for it. If a regulation costs more than the harm it prevents, change it. That is the Common Sense Democrat perspective I bring.

I started my political path in Nancy Pelosi’s office as a college intern. I’ve spent the last six years fighting for this city: school board recall, DA recall, public safety, school reopening, getting algebra back in our schools, stopping the decriminalization of fare evasion on BART, increasing police presence at the Palace of Fine Arts, ensuring more balanced and legal supervisor districts, securing police funding, advocating for treatment first and arrest of fentanyl dealers, and so so so much more. I built ConnectedSF into a very influential moderate grassroots organization in San Francisco because I was tired of watching ideologues fail our city.

The three other candidates in this race do not reflect the pragmatic, results-oriented legacy Nancy Pelosi built. I do.

And none have my record on public safety, education, technology, fighting for women and girls, and fighting for regular San Franciscans everyday.

What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?

I’m the only candidate who combines private-sector experience in law and technology with a proven track record of grassroots political leadership. I’ve clerked for a federal judge, practiced at one of the world’s top law firms, and held senior roles in media and tech. I left the private sector to fight for the city I love, to found ConnectedSF. I’m also the only candidate who can credibly speak to the AI industry, not as a regulator looking to add paperwork, but as someone who understands what’s at stake for San Francisco’s economy and has a framework that protects innovation while prosecuting harm.

In addition:

First, I understand this district's most important industry. I am not an engineer, but I am a lawyer who has spent years working at the intersection of technology, AI and civic life, close enough to understand the real risks and the real opportunities, not so close that I have lost perspective.

Second, I have built real relationships across all eleven supervisorial districts through ConnectedSF, not political relationships, but trust built through showing up and doing work. The coalition I need to win this election is the coalition I have been building for years.

Third, I am a native San Franciscan running as a genuine Common Sense Democrat in a field of candidates who are all ideological progressives. My combination of authentic values, honest pragmatism, deep local credibility is what this moment requires.

What principles will guide you when you must vote against your party or political allies?

The one question I will always ask: does this policy actually help the people I came here to represent?

I am a Democrat because I believe in healthcare access, women's rights, workers' rights, and a government that takes seriously its obligations to people who are struggling. Those are not negotiable. But that doesn’t mean that government programs are always the best solution, or that we should be unwilling to say when a policy has failed.

If I vote against my party, it will be because the policy in question costs more than it delivers, creates bureaucracy without accountability, or contradicts the evidence. I will explain my vote publicly, I will not pretend it was anything other than a disagreement, and I will be ready to defend it to constituents who disagree.

Whether it’s the school board recall, the DA recall, or backing Daniel Lurie, I do what works for San Franciscans, even if it’s not the party line. I didn’t do those things because I’m a rebel. I did them because San Franciscans deserved better. I’ll apply that standard in Congress regardless of who’s proposing the policy.

Give an example of how you’ve built coalitions or negotiated compromise to advance a goal — and how that experience will shape your approach to federal policymaking.

The DA recall. We built a coalition that included crime victims, small business owners, parents, and neighborhood leaders from every corner of the city, people who had never worked together before and came from very different political backgrounds. What united them was a simple conviction: the policy wasn’t working, and San Franciscans deserved better. That’s the model I’ll bring to Congress, find the people who agree on the problem, build from there, and focus on results.

What three measurable outcomes should San Franciscans use to evaluate your success after your first term in office?

1. Affordability: Whether measures I have worked on have genuinely made their lives more manageable in terms of costs.

2. Workforce: Whether the City College Innovation Hub has launched, how many San Franciscans have enrolled, and what the job placement rate is. Not a ribbon-cutting, actual outcomes for actual people.

3. AI Policy : Whether federal law permits innovation while also clearly criminalizing AI-enabled fraud, deepfakes used for harm, and AI-generated CSAM, and whether federal prosecutors have the resources to enforce it. The measure is not how many pages of regulation I passed. It is whether the country prospers and bad actors face consequences.

What do you most want voters in San Francisco to understand about your approach to representation and how it differs from other candidates?

I’m a Common Sense Democrat. I share our party’s values of opportunity, fairness, a strong safety net. But I measure success by outcomes, not intentions. I’m not interested in ideological performance or political theater. I’m interested in whether San Francisco families can afford to live here, whether our streets are safe, whether our kids get a great education, and whether this city remains the innovation capital of the world. I will work with anyone who wants to solve those problems.

That distinction matters. Too many politicians today don’t think critically and just follow a fixed party line. I am not that candidate. We need independent and critical thinking that is focused on outcomes.

The Issues

Next, we will cover the issues that voters tell us they care about. We hope to gain a better understanding of your policy positions, and we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

How would you use your role in Congress to make housing more affordable in San Francisco?

Housing affordability in San Francisco is a federal, state, and local problem, and the federal levers matter. Today’s passage of HR 6644 should be very helpful in advancing this goal.

Federal incentives for housing production, expanded tax credits for affordable and market-rate construction and NEPA reform to speed environmental review. I support streamlining the regulatory burden that makes building in so expensive. I’ll work with anyone who’s serious about building more housing, and I’ll add the federal tools that Sacramento can’t provide on its own.

For all certain people’s focus on this issue, we still have significant problems that need to be addressed. We need real solutions, not more of the same loud activity that has not ultimately led to better outcomes.

The regulatory framework at the state level makes California housing construction particularly expensive. From your position in Congress, what reforms to state and federal housing policy or incentives would you support to lower housing construction costs for high‐cost urban areas like San Francisco?

Starting with NEPA reform, environmental review for infill housing in a built-out city shouldn’t take years. Investing in construction workforce development, we can’t build housing if we don’t have the workers. And fight the tariffs that are driving up the cost of steel, lumber, and every other building material.

The federal government cannot tell Sacramento what to do with its labor laws or its environmental review process. But it can create powerful incentives that change state and local behavior.

I will support housing finance reform that lowers the cost of construction lending. The federal government controls a significant portion of the housing finance market through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA, and those instruments can be redesigned to reduce carrying costs for high-density infill projects in expensive markets. I will push for LIHTC reform that makes affordable housing tax credits more accessible to small and mid-size developers who are currently crowded out by the complexity of the program.

I will also use the bully pulpit. A congresswoman from San Francisco who publicly calls out Sacramento regulations that inflate construction costs by 30% is having a conversation that needs to happen, even if the resolution comes from the state legislature, not from Congress.

What else would you do to support more housing to be built in San Francisco?

Federal tax incentives for office-to-housing conversions, San Francisco has millions of square feet of empty office space that could become homes. Let’s use AI to accelerate permit processing. My Smart SF proposal (using AI to improve San Francisco’s city government) would clear the city’s permit backlog in months, not years. I also support local zoning reform to take advantage of empty lots, abandoned light industrial and unused public land throughout the city with federal incentives rather than mandates. Taking advantage of available lots is much more consistent with getting housing built quickly than efforts that require extensive demolition and displacement of renters, adding as much as years to the timeline.

How would you use your role in Congress to generally make San Francisco more affordable?

By ensuring that conversations around affordability focus on the entire picture, not just housing. Housing is a large part, but it is not the only large line item for families with young children. A San Francisco family with young children faces $144,000 to $192,000 a year in basic costs, and the single biggest line item often isn’t rent, it’s childcare at $31,000 a year. That is a massive expense that I am pleased to see Mayor Lurie attacking, we need to solidify support. I’ll restore the ACA premium tax credits Nancy Pelosi fought for. I’ll push to remove regulatory barriers that make childcare artificially expensive. I’ll fight tariffs, which are a hidden tax on every family. And I’ll push for healthcare price transparency so families can actually see what they’re paying for.

Energy costs in San Francisco far exceed the national average. How would you use your role in Congress to ensure cities like San Francisco are not disadvantaged by outdated systems or high costs?

San Francisco families pay some of the highest energy costs in the country, and that’s unacceptable. I support an all-of-the-above energy strategy: renewables, nuclear, and natural gas, because the fastest way to bring costs down is competition and supply. I’ll push for federal oversight of PG&E’s rate practices and grid modernization investment. San Francisco is the AI capital of the world, we need an energy infrastructure that supports that without crushing household budgets.

Note: I do not support a city take over of PG&E. The PUC currently runs power on Treasure Island, 500 homes, and it is an on-going disaster, the city does not have the competence to run our grid. As importantly, the math does not work. While established public power may be less expensive, for SF to purchase the grid, isolate, run it and assume all liabilities going forward, will cost $5B+++ which ratepayers (us) will be on the hook for. There would be only cost increases for the first 15 - 20 years and no guarantee of savings after that.

On the clean energy transition: We must do this and do it intelligently; the transition must lower costs for ratepayers, not raise them. A clean energy agenda that doubles electricity bills is not sustainable and is not actually serving the families it claims to help.

Both housing and energy costs push companies out of the state, threatening jobs and economic vitality. What federal economic development, tax, or workforce policies would you advocate for to help keep and grow jobs in San Francisco?

First & foremost I would urge that we don’t place unbelievably shortsighted propositions on the ballot that drive trillions of dollars out of California.

Next: Keep the regulatory environment competitive. Federal AI preemption prevents a state-by-state patchwork that drives companies to friendlier jurisdictions. Create the City College Innovation Hub as a public-private partnership for AI workforce training. Establish Individual Training Accounts, a tax-advantaged “GI Bill for AI” that lets any worker retrain for the new economy. And make sure our regulatory approach doesn’t create moats for big incumbents that shut out the startups that are San Francisco’s lifeblood.

The pro-prosperity frame matters. San Francisco should not be embarrassed that it is home to enormous wealth and world-changing companies. That wealth is the foundation of the tax base that funds everything else. Policies that treat economic success as suspect are not progressive, they are self-defeating.

How would you use the tools at your disposal - federal oversight, funding authorization, or legislation - to address the drug and public health crises in San Francisco? Please name two metrics you’d use to judge success locally.

The drug crisis in San Francisco is a federal supply problem as much as it is a local treatment problem. Fentanyl is manufactured overseas and trafficked across the southern border. I will support aggressive federal prosecution of fentanyl trafficking networks, enhanced border interdiction technology, and diplomatic pressure on source countries, not as political performance, but because the supply chain has to be disrupted. I’ve been fighting for public safety in San Francisco for six years. I helped lead the DA recall because our streets weren’t safe.

Federal dollars for treatment beds and mental health facilities, San Francisco cannot fund this alone. I support court-ordered treatment for people in crisis who cannot help themselves. I will insist on accountability for outcomes. San Francisco has spent enormous sums on this crisis without adequate results.

Two metrics: (1) Fentanyl overdose deaths per 100,000 residents in San Francisco, tracked annually against a declining baseline. (2) Treatment program completion rates, not enrollment, completion, for federally funded programs in the district. Numbers that do not move mean the program is not working and should be canceled.

Congress controls appropriations. How would you use your role on congressional committees or caucuses to direct more federal resources to high-cost urban areas like San Francisco?

Seek committee assignments where I can direct resources to San Francisco, Appropriations and Energy & Commerce are clear priorities. Push for cost-of-living adjustments in federal funding formulas so high-cost cities like San Francisco aren’t penalized by per-capita allocations designed for national averages. Nancy Pelosi delivered hundreds of millions in federal dollars to this city. I intend to continue that tradition and I’ll build alliances with representatives from other high-cost urban areas to make that case together.

What is your approach to regulating emerging technologies like AI, data privacy, and platform accountability at the federal level?

Regulate the use, not the tool. Prosecute harm, not the act of building.

On AI: I support federal preemption of the state-by-state patchwork,to replace potentially 50 inconsistent frameworks with a single clear standard. That standard should impose criminal liability for AI-enabled fraud, deepfakes used to cause harm, non-consensual intimate images, and AI-generated child sexual abuse material. It should fund DOJ and FBI enforcement. It should not require frontier AI developers to file compliance paperwork as a substitute for accountability.

On data privacy: the United States needs a comprehensive federal data privacy law. The current patchwork, California's CCPA, sectoral federal laws, and nothing else, is inadequate. I will support a federal standard that gives consumers meaningful control over their data, establishes clear rules for data brokers, and preempts the state patchwork while preserving the ability of states to exceed the federal floor.

On platform accountability: Section 230 reform is overdue, but the conversation has been dominated by people who want to use it as a political weapon rather than a policy instrument. I support targeted reforms that increase accountability for platforms that algorithmically amplify demonstrably harmful content, while preserving the basic liability protection that allows the open internet to function.

I will always fight to protect America’s dominance in technology and AI and oppose misguided, harmful ideas such as SB1047.

What role should Congress play in accelerating the clean-energy transition — particularly for urban transit fleets, port electrification, and building decarbonization?

Invest in the transition without sacrificing affordability or reliability. Federal funding for transit fleet electrification and port decarbonization, both directly relevant to San Francisco. Grid modernization to handle the growth of AI data centers. Building decarbonization through incentives, not unfunded mandates. And a strategic energy plan that includes renewables, nuclear, and natural gas, because the fastest way to fail on climate is to make energy so expensive that you lose public support.

How should Congress reform immigration policy to better meet the talent and labor needs of cities like San Francisco?

With common sense. Which means two things that should not be controversial: secure the border, and build a system that actually works.

San Francisco's economy depends on talent from around the world. The H-1B visa backlog, the green card waiting lists for highly skilled workers from India and China, and the absence of a functional startup visa are all Congress-made problems that Congress can fix. I will support a significant expansion of employment-based visa categories, fast-track green card processing for workers who have been in the country legally for years and have employer sponsorship, and a startup visa that keeps the founders we train here from being forced to build their companies elsewhere.

On labor needs beyond the tech sector: I support expanding seasonal agricultural and hospitality visa programs to meet actual labor demand, because the alternative is a black market that serves no one well.

And on the people who are already here: long-term residents who have built families, paid taxes, contributed to their communities and not committed violent crimes should have a pathway to legal status.

Personal

Tell us a bit about yourself!

How long have you lived in California? What brought you here and what keeps you here?

Born and raised here, multi-generation San Francisco family. I registered to vote here when I turned 18 and have never been registered anywhere else.

The majority of my family and extended family still lives here and my family has participated for over a century in building this incredible state. My roots are deep. I am raising my family here and my daughter sweetly told me last year that she is so grateful that I and the ConnectedSF team work hard to fix SF since she wants to come back here after college because it is the best city in the world. I agree.

I love everything about this city and the people who live here and I feel insanely blessed that I get to have my entire family here. My family, friends, the beauty, the variety of people from all over the world, the food, and the vibe all keep me here.

What do you love most about California and/or your hometown?

I love everything about SF. A couple specifics: 1) that we were able to rally the troops and push back on bad policies and harmful people with the recalls (of which I’m the only candidate that supported and dedicated my time to), 2) natural beauty, 3) charming neighborhoods, 4) GG bridge, 5) Presidio, 6) skyline at night, and 7) childhood memories with my grandparents around the city.

What do you dislike the most about California and/or your hometown?

That we’ve let ideology get in the way of results. San Francisco has been governed by people who would rather be right than be effective. We have the wealth, the talent, and the energy to solve every problem in this city, and instead we’ve spent a decade arguing about process while families leave. That ends with me.

Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)

(Current/ recent):

• ConnectedSF (which engages me daily in SF civic life at every level)
• CSF Institute
• SOAR
• Foreign Policy Association Local Discussion Group
• Garry’s List
• SF Ballet
• Restorative Pathways Advisory Board
• Holy Family Day Home
• State Bar Association
• Stop Crime SF
• SF Charter Reform Task Force
• Georgetown Parent Leadership Council
• McDonough School of Business Parent Advisory Council
• University Terrace Association

Thank you

Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!