{"id":41278,"date":"2025-05-16T11:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T18:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41278"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T18:46:12","slug":"39-year-old-bernie-bro-challenging-nancy-pelosi-for-her-sf-congressional-seat-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/39-year-old-bernie-bro-challenging-nancy-pelosi-for-her-sf-congressional-seat-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"39-Year-Old Bernie Bro Challenging Nancy Pelosi for Her SF Congressional Seat in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30-1024x683.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41280\" srcset=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30-1024x683.png 1024w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30-300x200.png 300w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30-150x100.png 150w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30-768x512.png 768w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30-225x150.png 225w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-30.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>15 MAY 2025\/<a href=\"https:\/\/sfist.com\/politics\/\">SF POLITICS<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/sfist.com\/author\/joe-kukura\/\">JOE KUKURA<\/a> (SFist.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former Silicon Valley engineer and one-time AOC chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti is lodging a longshot bid for Nancy Pelosi\u2019s congressional seat, with a sizable personal fortune, but very little name recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any intrigue about Nancy Pelosi\u2019s future in Congress generally involves&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sfist.com\/2023\/09\/08\/nancy-pelosi-not-retiring-will-run-for-re-election-in-2024\/\">whether she will finally retire<\/a>&nbsp;after a historic 38 years in the House of Representatives, and whether at that point she will be succeeded by state Senator&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sfist.com\/2023\/03\/03\/scott-wiener-takes-first-official-steps-toward-a-run-for-congress\/\">Scott Wiener or Pelosi\u2019s daughter Christine Pelosi<\/a>. And it frankly may be time for that conversation, as the elder Nancy Pelosi will be 86 years old at the end of her current term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But a new political upstart has different ideas. KTVU has a new interview with a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvu.com\/news\/saikat-chakrabarti-launches-campaign-challenges-nancy-pelosi-house-seat\">Pelosi challenger who has already officially thrown his hat in the ring<\/a>, 39-year-old Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If you want to know how to pronounce his name, and how he excoriates the Democrats\u2019 feckless lack of fight against Donald Trump, check out his NBC News interview below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Saikat Chakrabarti challenges Nancy Pelosi for her San Francisco House seat\u00a0\u00a0\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zOiDuDl0YrE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;[Pelosi] gave an interview, where [a reporter] asked her point-blank, \u2018what did Democrats do wrong,\u2019 and her answer was basically nothing, Democrats don\u2019t need to change,&#8221; Chakrabarti told KGO. &#8220;I really disagree with that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chakrabarti was a founding engineer at Stripe, and KPIX described him in March as a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/tech-millionaire-saikat-chakrabarti-takes-aim-at-nancy-pelosis-seat-in-congress\/\">self-made tech centi-millionaire<\/a>.\u201d But he left the tech racket, and cut his teeth politically as the director of organizing technology in the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. He helped recruit Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress and served as her campaign manager, and when she won, he served as her chief of staff for about eight months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if elected, he&#8217;d be sort of like a male member of \u201cThe Squad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/saikatc\/status\/1887250464133292178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1887250464133292178%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsfist.com%2F2025%2F05%2F15%2F39-year-old-bernie-bro-challenging-nancy-pelosi-for-her-sf-congressional-seat-in-2026%2F\">https:\/\/x.com\/saikatc\/status\/1887250464133292178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1887250464133292178%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsfist.com%2F2025%2F05%2F15%2F39-year-old-bernie-bro-challenging-nancy-pelosi-for-her-sf-congressional-seat-in-2026%2F<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>&#8220;I think people want to see leadership that\u2019s fighting the current administration,&#8221; Chakrabarti added to KTVU. \u201cThis is the reason there are tens of thousands of people coming to these rallies that Bernie and AOC are doing all over the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though if Chakrabarti is really worth $100 million or more, he might not be the best carrier of a populist economic message. But he\u2019s a young and fresh face, and that personal wealth could be an asset against a powerful fundraiser like Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;She will outraise him,&#8221; Sonoma State University political science professor David McCuan told KTVU. &#8220;She will out-endorse him, she\u2019ll probably even outwork him in some ways, because that\u2019s Nancy Pelosi.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\u2026 she will also be 86 years old. So should Nancy Pelosi be concerned about Saikat Chakrabarti\u2019s campaign?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think the Speaker is aware of his campaign,\u201d former Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sfist.com\/2025\/03\/05\/pelosi-has-a-2026-election-challenger-an-aoc-guy-whos-reportedly-worth-at-least-100-million\/\">Pelosi Has a 2026 Election Challenger, an AOC Guy Who\u2019s Reportedly Worth At Least $100 Million [SFist]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image via&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saikat.us\/en\"><em>Saikat for Congress<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>15 MAY 2025\/SF POLITICS\/JOE KUKURA (SFist.com) Former Silicon Valley engineer and one-time AOC chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti is lodging a longshot bid for Nancy Pelosi\u2019s congressional seat, with a sizable personal fortune, but very little name recognition. Any intrigue about Nancy Pelosi\u2019s future in Congress generally involves&nbsp;whether she will&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/39-year-old-bernie-bro-challenging-nancy-pelosi-for-her-sf-congressional-seat-in-2026\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41278"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41281,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41278\/revisions\/41281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}