by Randy Shaw on December 8, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
Mayor Lurie made a smart choice in picking Alan Wong as the new D4 Supervisor. Three factors support a Wong victory in June.
First, Wong is exactly the type of mayoral appointee capable of winning an election. Unlike past appointees that lost—former Mayor Lee’s choices were 0-3 and Mayor Brown had a mixed record—Wong’s election to the Community College Board shows he knows how to run a winning campaign.
Many San Francisco supervisors are first elected to the School Board or Community College Board. Those campaigns teach candidates how to win. Wong fits that profile. He will hit the ground running for the June election (appointees Wong and D2’s Stephen Sherrill first run in June to finish their predecessor’s term and then seek a full term in November).
Second, Wong has a path to victory that mirrors Lurie’s. Lurie benefited from being the most popular second choice vote for rival candidates. Wong currently faces two announced candidates—Natalie Gee and David Lee—with the potential addition of Albert Chow.
Gee will get most progressives first place votes. Chow will be the conservatives top choice. Wong’s work with former D4 Supervisor Gordon Mar positions him to get the vast majority of Gee’s second place votes. The more conservative Chow’s second place votes will go to either Wong or Lee.
It’s hard to see where David Lee gets support. He moved into D4 after losing multiple races in D1 (unlike Engardio, who was redistricted into D4). Conservative voters will go with Chow and may prefer using their second-place votes to enable Wong to defeat Gee.
The third factor boosting Wong’s chances is his announcement that he voted No on Prop K. That position is a prerequisite for a winning D4 campaign.
D4 is Politically Complex
D4 has long been considered the city’s most conservative district. Yet in 2018 voters elected Gordon Mar, a progressive labor activist.
Mar’s election was seen as an aberration. Here’s why.
In 2018 D4 Supervisor Katy Tang was expected to seek re-election. She would have won easily. But Tang surprised the city by pulling out of the race on the eve of the June filing deadline.
Many thought this late announcement was designed to clear the moderate Chinese-American field for Tang’s legislative aide, Jessica Ho. It did clear that field. But it left the politically inexperienced Ho to run against an activist candidate who knew how to win elections after helping his brother Eric win two supervisor terms.
Gordon Mar also had strong backing from organized labor. He attracted sufficient money and field volunteers to win against Ho, who was in over her head in that contest.
Because many saw Mar’s victory as a fluke, in 2022 he was seen as extremely vulnerable. Joel Engardio had a history of losing supervisor races in the adjacent district but was a committed campaigner whose views were thought to be much more aligned with D4 voters.
Engardio knocked on virtually every D4 door. By all accounts he outworked the incumbent. But despite these factors and the perception of D4 as a moderate to conservative district, Engardio only beat Mar by a 51%-49% margin.
Engardio’s victory was the first time an elected incumbent lost re-election since district elections resumed in 2000. But the fact that it was so close sent a message that D4 is not as conservative as many think.
Mar’s narrow defeat has led many to believe that Natalie Gee can win in D4. But unlike Mar, Gee will likely face two strong Chinese-American candidates. Of the three, Wong’s views appear likely to better reflect the district.
Ultimately, that’s why he’s well positioned to win.
Randy Shaw
<I>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. </I>
