Scott Wiener

June 2, 2026 Primary Election

• Office: House of Representatives, District 11
• Election Date: June 2, 2026
• Candidate: Scott Wiener
• Due Date: March 4, 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 March 4, 2026 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. Housing production: Pass sweeping federal legislation to build 8 million homes over the next 10 years, including a $1.2 trillion Social Housing Program, expanded Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, universal Section 8 rental assistance, and a Prohousing Incentive Fund that rewards cities for building. These proposals complement the work I’ve done in the Legislature to require cities to zone for more homes and to streamline permits.

2. Civil rights: Champion a national LGBTQ civil rights law and hold federal agencies and agents accountable when they violate people’s rights, including the rights of immigrants.

3. Expand access to mental health and addiction treatment: In the Legislature, I passed California’s mental health parity law — the strongest in the country, requiring insurance companies to cover behavioral health treatment the same as they cover physical health — and we need to take this work national, so that all health plans are covered.

4. Protecting Bay Area transit systems: Secure federal capital and operating funding for Muni, BART, and Caltrain, and defend the IRA's transit electrification programs.

5. Permitting reform so we can build things: Our country, like San Francisco and California, has erected many barriers to building the things we need to make people’s lives better and
lower the cost of living. Whether housing, transportation systems, clean energy, or child care facilities, we’ve made it way too hard. Streamlining and reforming our permitting systems will be a high priority for me.

Why those policies?

San Francisco is experiencing a slow-motion affordability exodus. People who built their lives here — teachers, nurses, artists, small business owners — are being priced out. Our housing shortage is the root cause: When there aren't enough homes, everything gets more expensive and people get pushed out.

Immigrants and LGBTQ people are part of San Francisco’s heart and soul, and they’re being brutally targeted by this Administration. It’s essential to pass civil rights reforms at the federal level to ensure this kind of targeting never happens again and to hold perpetrators accountable.

Mental health and addiction are huge challenges for our community and so many others. Our society has deprioritized treatment for behavioral health, and we see the results every day on our streets, in our schools, and all across our community. We must expand access to treatment.

People also need to be able to get around efficiently, and public transportation is essential to allow people to do so. In the Legislature, I’ve been California’s top champion for transit funding, to avoid service cuts and make the systems better, and I will take that work national to ensure the federal government is doing its part to make transit more expansive, more reliable, safer, and cleaner.

Permitting reform is an essential piece of the puzzle to get the U.S. back into the business of quickly and efficiently building the homes and infrastructure we need to succeed.

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

Housing is the foundation. Every other problem San Francisco faces — the affordability crisis, homelessness, the business exodus, the loss of our working and middle class — connects back to the fact that we don't have enough homes. I've spent the last decade in Sacramento passing laws to legalize more housing, cut permitting delays, and stop the abuse of environmental review to block desperately needed homes. We've unlocked tens of thousands of new homes statewide and nearly 5,000 affordable homes in San Francisco alone. But state tools alone can't close an 8-million-home national gap. Congress controls the tax incentives, the capital programs, and the regulatory frameworks that govern how housing gets built in this country. Housing is my #1 goal because without it, nothing else works.
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?

In my time in public life, I’ve shown over and over again that I know how to build successful coalitions to pass tough laws that were previously thought impossible. I've been building political coalitions since my first day in San Francisco politics. As a Supervisor, I worked across ideological lines to pass the city's paid family leave ordinance, started the process of legalizing new ADUs, and expanded access to health care.

In the Senate, I've passed over 100 bills into law, including transformational laws to revamp California’s approach to housing, force insurance companies to cover more mental health and addiction treatment, enshrine net neutrality in statute, crack down on abuses by pharmacy benefit managers that drive up drug costs, and more. These coalitions have been bipartisan. While Democrats and Republicans have many disagreements, there are numerous issues that cross party lines. As a Senator, I make it my practice to have relationships with all of my colleagues from both parties in both houses. We have a responsibility to work together when possible to get the job done for our constituents.

I’ll take the same approach to Congress. I’ll establish broad relationships, both with other members and with key advocates, to advance critical policies. Congress is a tough environment, for sure, but it’s possible to succeed there with the right skills. I’m the only candidate in this race who has demonstrated the skill set to pass tough policy into law.

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

Congress has enormous power to move the dial on key issues, whether clean energy, housing, transit funding, health care reform, child care access, and countless other critical needs. One member of Congress can’t do it on his or her own. You have to build coalitions and find ways to move together on the hardest of issues. That’s what I’ve done in the Senate, and it’s what I’ll do in the House.

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.

If I could wave a magic wand, I'd launch a generational national investment to build tens of millions of homes and completely rebuild American transit — not incrementally, but at scale. Think of it like the Interstate Highway System, but for housing and public transportation: hundreds of billions of dollars flowing to cities and states to build subway
lines, light rail, rapid bus lines, and housing in walkable, transit-served neighborhoods across the country. Not just incremental line extensions but whole new systems in cities that need them. Pair that with a complete overhaul of federal permitting so that transit and housing projects that would take 15 years under current law can be built in 5. Our country built the interstate system in a generation. We can do the same for housing and transit if we have the political will.

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?

I've spent my career fighting to make San Francisco and California more affordable, more livable, and more just — and I've delivered. I've authored over 100 laws. I've helped unlock tens of thousands of homes statewide and nearly 5,000 affordable units in San Francisco. I passed the nation's strongest net neutrality law, the nation's first AI safety law, and the nation's first corporate greenhouse gas disclosure requirement. I played a key role in the effort to save Bay Area transit not once but twice. Now, the challenges facing San Francisco and California require federal action: the housing shortage needs federal capital and incentives, the fentanyl crisis needs federal interdiction, and our transit infrastructure needs federal investment. I'm running because I know how to get things done, I know San Francisco, and I'm ready to take this fight to Washington.

What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?

Three things set me apart. First, a proven legislative record: over 100 laws passed in California on housing, healthcare, climate, technology, and civil rights, against entrenched opposition, not with it. Second, deep roots in San Francisco: I've lived in the Castro for 29 years. I understand this city not as a campaign backdrop but as home. I've seen up close and personal the aftermath of the AIDS crisis on my community, fought for every affordable home we built, and seen what happens when the city fails its most vulnerable residents. Third, the courage to take on hard fights: I don't author the easy bills. I took on Big Tech, Big Oil, the telecom industry, health insurance companies, and pharmacy benefit managers, and I won. When you represent San Francisco in Congress, you must not only hold strong progressive values, you must be fearless in pushing for them, and you must show you are able to deliver real, transformative wins. I am the only candidate who has shown all three qualities.

What principles will guide you when you must vote against your party or political allies? Results over rhetoric. My job isn't to maintain ideological purity; it's to improve people's lives. The clearest example from my Sacramento record: I've supported housing bills over
the opposition of some progressives who prioritized process over production. I've voted to streamline permitting even when neighborhood groups I respect disagreed. I'll do the same in Congress. I'll vote for good housing policy whether it comes from a Democrat or a Republican. I'll push back on my own party when it lets procedural concerns block real progress. The test I apply: does this make it easier for people to afford to live in San Francisco? Does it make the city safer? Does it help working people? If yes, I'm voting for it.

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 best example is Bay Area transit. In 2023, Muni and BART were staring down a fiscal cliff — billions in deficits, threatened service cuts, potential system collapse. The politics were nightmarish: different counties had different priorities, labor wanted operations funding, environmentalists wanted capital investment, business groups wanted reliability improvements, and suburban riders had different priorities than urban ones. I built a coalition that unified all of these constituencies around a shared survival argument: if the transit system collapsed, everyone lost. We secured $400 million in emergency state funding, and then I led a regional revenue measure to create long-term stability. I had to compromise on timelines, on which projects got prioritized, and on the revenue structure — but we saved the system.

In authoring and passing the regional transit funding authorizing law, I spent enormous time and energy convening Bay Area counties and transit operators, mediating between business and labor, and ensuring passage of this very difficult yet essential law.

That's the model I'll bring to Congress: build the broadest possible coalition around the clearest possible outcome, and be willing to negotiate the details.

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

1. Federal housing investment secured: Did I help deliver direct federal funding — through LIHTC expansion, Social Housing appropriations, or Prohousing Incentive Funds — that resulted in new affordable housing starts in San Francisco?

2. Healthcare expansion: Did I deliver in a meaningful way on expanding access to healthcare for Americans?

3. Transit service preserved or expanded: Did Bay Area transit — Muni, BART, Caltrain — maintain or improve service levels, in part through federal capital and operating assistance that I helped secure?

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

I come to this race with a record, not a résumé. I have spent 16 years helping govern San Francisco and California — as a Supervisor, and as a State Senator. It’s really easy to make slick campaign ads and go on podcasts to pontificate. It’s a heck of a lot harder to actually pass critically important policies into law in order to make people’s lives better.

To me, leadership is about listening to the people I represent — and I do that on a daily basis in the community — and also being willing to push the envelope and break glass even when it’s uncomfortable and even when people are mad at you for it.

San Francisco deserves a representative who has proven they have the skills and the backbone to deliver. I have done so over and over again.

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?

Through a five-part federal housing strategy:

(1) Social Housing Program — $1.2 trillion to build 4 million permanently affordable homes in public and nonprofit ownership, modeled on Montgomery County's Housing Opportunities Commission.

(2) National Housing Investment Fund — expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (+1.5M homes), repeal the Faircloth Amendment so housing authorities can build again, and invest $170 billion to rehabilitate 900,000 units of deteriorating public housing.

(3) Create a national housing accelerator fund to create revolving financing for housing (4) Expand access to low-cost financing for multi-unit construction

(5) Stabilize the skilled construction workforce via counter-cyclical investment during economic downturns to end our boom-bust construction workforce cycle. When we allow mass unemployment of construction workers during economic downturns — instead of
keeping them employed building the housing and infrastructure we need — we ensure a workforce shortage when the economy recovers.

(6) Prohousing Incentive Fund — pay $10,000 per new housing unit to cities that are actually building.

(7) Universal Rental Assistance — expand Section 8 to cover 8 million more families (currently, only 1 in 4 eligible households receives a voucher), and ban landlords from refusing voucher holders.

(8) Ban algorithmic rent-setting systems, eliminate junk fees that function as hidden rent increases, and streamline FHA multifamily programs that make it cheaper to finance affordable housing in high-cost cities like San Francisco.

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?

I've spent 10 years in Sacramento fighting regulatory barriers that make housing expensive to build. We’ve had significant success around both permitting and zoning. At the federal level, I’ll push for: Reform NEPA —Like CEQA, the National Environmental Policy Act can be weaponized to block climate-friendly infill housing and other projects; I'd push for categorical exclusions for transit-oriented development and infill projects that meet basic environmental criteria. Reduce or repeal tariffs on building materials — tariffs on lumber, steel, and other construction inputs add thousands of dollars per unit. Modernize construction regulations — update federal standards to facilitate modular and off-site construction, which can dramatically cut costs for multi-family projects. Create a HUD data unit — track which policies and jurisdictions are driving or blocking housing production so we can target incentives precisely. Fund apprenticeship programs — we can't build 8 million homes without the workers to build them.

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

I'd direct HUD to provide technical assistance to San Francisco’s planning and permitting departments to help accelerate timelines. I'd push to expand the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund model — which has produced 3,500+ affordable homes in SF since 2017 through a revolving loan fund — into a national program that HUD could replicate. I'd fight to preserve federal housing subsidies in San Francisco when threatened by budget cuts: the city has thousands of units whose affordability depends on Section 8 contracts and federal financing that must be renewed. And I'd advocate for regulatory clarity on projects that face conflicting state and federal requirements, which creates costly delays for developers trying to build affordable housing in high-cost markets.
How would you use your role in Congress to generally make San Francisco more affordable?

Affordability isn't just about housing costs, though housing is the biggest driver. I'd also push for universal healthcare. Medical bills are a primary driver of financial insecurity; I'll co-sponsor Medicare for All but critically fight for immediate steps including Affordable

Care Act expansion, pharmaceutical pricing reform, forcing insurance companies to cover more kinds of treatments, and to require prior authorization for fewer, and instituting drug co-pay caps. We also need to dramatically expand access to affordable early childhood education/childcare and to implement a federal paid family leave program. We also need to dramatically ramp up clean energy generation — via subsidies and permitting reform — modernize our outdated grid, and empower distributed energy generation. As we electrify everything, we need to do it in a way that drives down energy costs.

We also need to reverse Trump policies that drive up costs, including overbroad use of tariffs; to reinstate the enhanced child tax credit enacted under President Biden, and fight anti-consumer corporate consolidation, junk fees, and other corporate behaviors that raise people’s costs

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's high energy costs stem partly from aging grid infrastructure and a high cost utility environment, but Congress can address the federal dimensions directly. I'd defend and expand the IRA's clean energy incentives, including direct pay provisions, investment tax credits, and production credits, making it dramatically cheaper to deploy solar, storage, and distributed energy resources; rolling them back would increase costs for San Francisco residents and businesses. I'd advocate for federal investment in grid modernization. The Western grid needs significant transmission upgrades to reduce congestion costs and deliver cheaper renewable energy more efficiently to urban centers. I'd support Community Choice Aggregation expansion and federal support for public power models that give municipalities more control over energy procurement. The cheapest electricity in the long run comes from solar and wind, and San Francisco’s clean energy transition is also a path to lower costs.

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?

The best economic development policy is addressing housing. If workers can afford to live here, companies will stay. But beyond housing, I’ll work to robustly fund federal science
investment, which has huge benefits for humanity and for innovation industries. I’m championing science funding in the Legislature, and I’ll take that work to Congress. We must hold PG&E and other utilities accountable for exorbitantly high energy costs and also egregiously long interconnection time periods, both of which drive businesses away. Workforce development — expand federal apprenticeship programs, community college partnerships, and sector-based workforce training so that San Francisco residents can access good jobs being created here. Child Tax Credit and social supports — companies can't retain workers who are financially stressed; the CTC and childcare assistance reduce turnover and improve quality of life. Small business — fight for robust SBA programs, especially for small businesses in high-cost cities that face disproportionate rent burdens. Tariff relief — I oppose tariff wars that raise costs for manufacturers, retailers, and consumers; San Francisco’s small business community is hurt by trade policy whiplash.

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.

San Francisco's fentanyl crisis is a genuine public health emergency requiring action on multiple fronts simultaneously. On supply: work with DEA and other agencies to strengthen interdiction of fentanyl and its precursors, and press for greater cooperation with China and Mexico on manufacturing and trafficking networks. On treatment: push for a massive expansion of SAMHSA treatment funding and remove barriers to medication-assisted treatment — particularly buprenorphine, which is proven to reduce overdose deaths but faces unnecessary regulatory hurdles; make naloxone universally available OTC and without cost. On harm reduction: defend federal harm reduction funding and push to permanently repeal the federal ban on using federal dollars for syringe service programs. On accountability: use federal oversight to ensure San Francisco is deploying treatment resources effectively and documenting outcomes. Two metrics: (1) Annual overdose deaths per 100,000 residents (2) Number of San Francisco residents in evidence-based treatment with substantial growth year over year.

We also need to expand access to mental health and addiction treatment for people with insurance. I went to war with the health insurance industry to pass the strongest mental health parity law in the country, Senate Bill 855. This law significantly expands access to behavioral health treatment. We need to take this law national.

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?

On transit, I’ll work hard to expand federal investment in transit — both capital and operations — dramatically. I’ll fight to ensure federal formula funding accounts for the higher operating costs of urban systems in high-cost cities, as the current formula
penalizes dense cities like San Francisco, where service is essential but costs more to operate. On housing, I’ll push for tax credit allocation formulas that account for land costs, as high-cost metros should receive higher per-unit allocations because building affordable housing here costs more. On CDBG and HOME, I’ll fight to preserve and increase Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnership funding, which San Francisco relies on heavily. Beyond committee work, I'll build relationships with Appropriations Committee members and work to insert San Francisco-specific funding priorities into annual spending bills.

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

Technology benefits humanity in so many ways. It also brings risk. My approach is to foster innovation — which is one of the pillars of San Francisco’s economy and culture — while also understanding and getting ahead of risks to the public.

Net neutrality: I authored California’s net neutrality law, and I’ll push to enact a federal net neutrality law. Net neutrality — which stands for the basic notion that we should all get to choose where we go on the internet and not have that decision made for us by internet service providers — is essential for our democracy, for our economy, and for competition.

Data privacy: I supported California’s data privacy law, and I will push to enact a federal data privacy law. It’s outrageous that in 2026, there’s no such federal law.

Social media: Social media is powerful and has many benefits. It also has created huge risks, including for children. I support reasonable regulation of social media and its algorithms that can lead to severe mental health problems and tear apart our democracy. While I understand the purpose of Section 230, it is too broad and, in practice, entirely insulates social media platforms from accountability no matter the scale of harm or their culpability in that harm.

Artificial intelligence: AI has the potential to make life better for people in so many ways. It also brings risk, including catastrophic risk, algorithmic discrimination, deepfakes, misinformation, and rapid and broad job loss. Over the past nearly three years, I’ve worked hard with a diverse coalition to address catastrophic risk, resulting in a law that requires transparency around safety protocols, a requirement to notify authorities when critical incidents occur, and provides whistleblower protections to lab employees. The law also includes a new public cloud, called Cal Compute, to democratize compute access and foster innovation and competition. In 2024, TIME named me one of the 100 most influential people in the AI space, based on my policy work.

Competition: We’re seeing increased consolidation in the tech sector, with the largest companies in the history of the world at times squashing smaller and mid-size rivals. This is
bad for innovation and for humanity. I’m not against companies succeeding and becoming large. But I am against them doing it in a way that leads to near-monopolies. For example, self-preferencing by the mega platforms is very harmful to competition, innovation, and consumer choice.

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

Congress should be investing at scale and removing barriers. I am a TIME100 Climate Champion. On transit electrification: the IRA and IIJA included significant funding for zero emission transit buses; I'll protect and expand that funding and reform federal procurement rules so transit agencies in high-cost cities can access it more easily. On port electrification: the Bay Area's port complex is a major source of diesel emissions; I'll advocate for EPA and DOT programs that fund shore power infrastructure, electrified cargo handling, and zero-emission freight vehicles. On building decarbonization: defend and expand IRA tax credits for heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and building envelope improvements; I'm already authoring state legislation on heat pump permitting and balcony solar — that approach belongs at the federal level too. Above all: I will fight aggressively against any attempt to rescind the IRA's clean energy provisions. Rolling back those incentives would increase costs for San Francisco residents, slow the clean energy transition, and damage an industry creating thousands of jobs in California.

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

Since our nation’s founding, immigration has fueled our success and growth. We should embrace immigration, provide a clear path for people to come here and become citizens, and stop demonizing immigrants. Trump’s reign of terror against immigrants is both horrifying and highly destructive to our economy and our nation’s fabric. It must end. As a State Senator, I’ve passed various laws to support immigrant communities — including stopping harassment of immigrants who testify in court, banning federal agents from wearing face masks, and a bill I’m now advancing to allow federal agents to be sued for violating people’s constitutional rights — currently it’s almost impossible to sue them, no matter how egregious their behavior.

San Francisco's economy depends on immigrants: as engineers, entrepreneurs, healthcare workers, teachers, restaurant workers, janitors, security guards, construction workers, and so many other professions. The current system fails all of them. For high-skill workers: reform H-1B and O-1 visa processes to reduce wait times, and eliminate the absurd backlog that leaves highly skilled workers from India and China waiting decades for green cards. For construction and service workers: establish a realistic legal pathway for undocumented workers who are already here and essential to our housing production and service economy — particularly in construction, where we need them to build the 8 million homes I'm
fighting for. We should ban ICE raids at work sites, at schools, and at health care facilities. For international talent: staple green cards to advanced degrees from U.S. universities. For all immigrants: create a path to citizenship for DACA recipients and the broader undocumented community. Abolish ICE and replace it with a professional immigration enforcement agency that operates transparently and doesn't terrorize communities. That agency should be moved back to the Department of Justice, with DOJ having more independence from the President. I also strongly support cities' rights to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Personal

Tell us a bit about yourself!

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

I've lived in California, specifically San Francisco, for 29 years. I moved to the Castro in 1997, fresh out of Harvard Law School and a judicial clerkship, drawn partly by the job and partly because San Francisco was, and remains, one of the most remarkable places on earth: a city at the forefront of social change, a hub of innovation, and a genuinely diverse community that takes seriously the idea that everyone deserves to live a full, authentic life. San Francisco is also an epicenter for the LGBTQ community, and as a young gay man, I was absolutely drawn to this city’s profound global leadership for our community.

What keeps me here is simple: I love this city. I've watched it through its darkest times: the tail end of the worst of the AIDS crisis, the dot-com bust, the 2008 recession, the pandemic, but also through its most remarkable moments. I've built my life in the Castro, in a small condo I bought as a young lawyer. My neighbors, my community, my history is here. San Francisco is imperfect and occasionally maddening, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

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

San Francisco's capacity for reinvention. This is a city that has faced catastrophes — the 1906 earthquake, the Milk/Moscone assassinations, Jonestown, the AIDS public health disaster, the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic — and our city always bounces back. The world loves writing San Francisco’s obituary, and we always prove them wrong. What I love most about our city is the people: the activists, the artists, the engineers, the healthcare workers, the innovators, the small business owners, the families who have been here for generations, and the people who arrived last week with a suitcase and a dream. San Francisco, at its best, is a city that takes care of its most vulnerable while making room for its most ambitious, and that combination is genuinely rare in the world.

What do you dislike the most about California and/or your hometown? Our failure to match our values with our outcomes on housing. California has the most progressive values in the country and the worst housing shortage. For decades, we said we cared about working people and then made it nearly impossible for them to afford to live here. We said we cared about the environment and then used environmental review laws to block dense, transit-oriented housing that would actually reduce car dependence. We said we cared about homelessness and then refused to build enough homes to house people. I've spent the past 15 years fighting to change this, and we've made real progress. But there is still an enormous gap between what California says it believes and what California actually builds.

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

I've been a Muni rider for 28 years — not as a political statement, but because I live in San Francisco and Muni is how I get around. I'm a member of the Castro community and have been involved with LGBTQ organizations in the city for nearly three decades, including the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, which I helped build, the LGBTQ lawyers association, the Castro/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association (where I served as President), and Castro Community on Patrol (which I co-founded. I’ve been deeply involved in the Democratic Party, including chairing the Democratic County Central Committee and co-chairing the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club. I remain deeply engaged with housing advocates, transit organizations, environmental groups, and labor unions across San Francisco and the Bay Area. And I continue to serve in the California State Senate representing District 11.

Thank you

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