by Randy Shaw on September 8, 2026 (BeyondChron.org)
San Francisco voters have two marquee races in November: the Wiener-Chan congressional contest and the Yekutiel-McCoy D8 Supervisor battle. In both cases the differences between candidates are so clear that voters can easily pick their favored candidate.
Here’s how we see it.
Wiener-Chan
San Francisco’s 2024 mayor’s race had one clear progressive, Aaron Peskin. He ran against four moderates: Mayor Breed, Daniel Lurie, Mark Farrell and Ahsha Safai. Moderates spent millions offering voters non-ideological reasons to back their preferred candidate.
The Wiener-Chan congressional race is different. What separates the two is clear. At this point its less about persuasion than turning out their supporters.
I wrote on October 27, 2025 —- Can Connie Chan Defeat Scott Wiener?— that “Chan will need money to get her message out. Never having run outside of D1, she has nowhere near the financial backing and name recognition as Wiener.” I added, “Nancy Pelosi would not back a candidate in San Francisco and then not ensure the campaign had sufficient funds.”
I sure got that right. But there’s a big difference between Pelosi raising money for Chan and claims that the speaker emeritus is “running” Chan’s campaign.
That accusation has a racist tinge. It suggests that a working-class Asian-American immigrant wouldn’t be doing so well in the polls unless she had transferred control of the campaign to Nancy Pelosi. This racist take ignores that Chan won two elections in D1 when most pundits saw her losing. D1 was then redistricted in 2024 to make sure Chan lost. She still won. Chan obviously knows how to run winning campaigns.
Huge Difference on Housing
Wiener and Chan have dramatically divergent views on housing development. Scott Wiener has done more to promote new housing construction than any legislator in California history. Connie Chan opposed the Wiener upzoning bills.
There are other issues in the race— AI regulation, relationships with tech, and whether the city should elect its first gay or first Asian American congress member. Wiener has always been identified with the city’s moderates and Chan with the progressives, which adds another clear dividing line.
But most voters will pick the candidate who shares their views on housing.
Yekutiel vs. McCoy
This has been a very curious D8 race. The media has focused entirely if not exclusively on Brad Chapin’s allegations that Manny Yekutiel sexually abused him at a party in February 2020.
Where the candidates stand on key D8 issues has been largely ignored. Last week the media lampooned Yekutiel’s proposal for a citywide underground transit system. Yekutiel also wants to see 10,000 new housing units built in his district. Apparently many reporters are suspicious of candidates offering a bold vision for San Francisco’s future.
Yekutiel’s detailed plan to fill retail vacancies in D8 was ignored by most media despite this being a major district issue. It’s as if the media’s quota for D8 stories has already been filled with stories on the claim of sexual abuse.
Those who believe the claim disqualifies Yekutiel have three choices: Gary McCoy, Darshini Patel, and Michael Nguyen. I see this as a Yekutiel-McCoy race. There are vast differences in the careers of these two candidates.
McCoy was the Vice President of Policy & Public Affairs at HealthRIGHT 360 when that group opened the Linkage Center in UN Plaza in 2022. He is among the most high-profile spokespersons for the harm reduction approach to drug activity.
McCoy’s support for a plan to attract drug users from across the city to UN Plaza proved a $20 million disaster for the city. The Tenderloin, Mid-Market and SOMA have yet to fully recover. Some of those who came to San Francisco to enjoy the illegal safe injection site found their way to the Castro. Voters who support opening future safe injection sites in the city have a clear choice for McCoy.
Manny Yekutiel is best known for Manny’s, a politically-oriented social gathering space in the Mission. Manny has raised millions of dollars for San Francisco through his Civic Joy Fund, which he started with Daniel Lurie. He is running as a small businessperson focused on boosting public safety, building housing and growing the city’s economy.
As with Wiener-Chan, the D8 race revives the longstanding progressive-moderate split. Voters who identify with either political faction have a clear choice.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.
