(WASHINGTON) — As tributes pour in for former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi after she announced Thursday that she would leave Congress in January 2027 at the end of her current term, it’s an open question who will replace her.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission as of Thursday morning, six Democratic candidates besides Pelosi and two Republicans have registered campaign committees for the June 2026 primary for California’s 11th Congressional District, the San Francisco-based congressional seat Pelosi represents.
California uses a “top-two” primary system where the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, advance to the general election.
The filing period for California’s congressional primary does not open until February 9, 2026, and closes on March 6, so there is still plenty of time for other challengers to enter the ring.
Two of those candidates had already been gaining attention and some prominence.
Both are decades younger than Pelosi, and now could be among the continued wave of generational change within the Democratic Party — similar to how U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., announced his retirement in September and is likely to be succeeded by one of the numerous younger candidates who have launched bids.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener announced in October, weeks before Pelosi’s announcement, that he would run for the seat. Weiner had previously indicated he would wait for her to announce her plans.
Wiener, 55, was first elected to the California state Senate in 2016 and previously worked in San Francisco city government and as a lawyer.
In his announcement video launching his congressional bid, he said he was running “to defend San Francisco, our values, our people, and the constitution of the United States with everything we have … Trump and his MAGA extremists don’t scare me.” According to federal campaign finance filings, his campaign had nearly $870,000 on hand as of the end of September.
Wiener, in a statement on Thursday, called Pelosi “an icon of American politics,” and praised her work on health care, the economy, climate policy, and “fighting for the marginalized … At the height of the AIDS crisis, when so many others wanted to push LGBTQ people under the rug, Nancy Pelosi fought proudly for us to be treated with dignity.”
Speaking about his own experience coming out as gay around the time Pelosi came to Congress and said she was there to fight AIDS, Wiener added, “It was a terrifying time to come of age as a gay man, and Nancy Pelosi stepped up and used her voice and platform to fight for people like me.”
Asked on Thursday by ABC station KGO-TV how more challengers might enter the race now and how that impact his campaign, Wiener said he didn’t want to speculate on who else might enter.
“Today, this is really just about honoring Nancy Pelosi, her leadership, how much she delivered for our city and our country. And then we will certainly have plenty of time to talk about the campaign,” he said.
Separately, former Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Saikat Chakrabarti had well beforehand launched a primary campaign to Pelosi, with a progressive platform that includes tuition-free public college and universal health care.
Chakrabarti, 39, a founding engineer of the online payment platform Stripe, was New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager during her 2018 primary upset against incumbent Joe Crowley, which kicked off Ocasio-Cortez’s meteoric rise.
He also worked as her chief of staff in Congress for the beginning of her first term and got his start in politics working on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
In a statement on Thursday, Chakrabarti thanked Pelosi “for your decades of service that defined a generation of politics and for doing something truly rare in Washington: making room for the next one. Our campaign is ready to build on that legacy by fighting to create a San Francisco and an America that works for everyone.”
Speaking with ABC News on Thursday, Chakrabarti said that challengers in the race and Pelosi’s decision to retire “doesn’t change what my campaign’s about, because I still believe we need to change the Democratic Party. I’m still calling for people to run all across the country to build this new movement.”
Asked if he’d want Pelosi’s endorsement, Chakrabarti said he would if she’s willing to endorse him but that it’s her decision to make.
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