“As an adjudicated insurrectionist, Trump is an illegitimate president according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and therefore every official act as president will be illegitimate.”
–Mike Zonta, co-editor of OccupySF.net
The 14th Amendment states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Call your Congressperson and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121
Vertical Apr 13, 2026 In the chaos of post-Soviet Russia, rising KGB officer Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) joins forces with master manipulator Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) to reshape life behind the Iron Curtain, using violence and deception to change the world forever. Putin and Baranov’s reign of chaos begins with lies and corruption, and quickly escalates to assassinations, tyranny, and eventually all-out war. Starring: Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright, and Jude Law Directed by: Olivier Assayas Release Date: May 15, 2026
Harry S. Truman was the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953). As vice president, he succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died less than three months after he began his fourth term.
During World War I Truman served as an artillery officer. After the war he became part of the political machine of Tom Pendergast and was elected a county judge in Missouri and eventually a United States Senator. After he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt’s running mate in 1944.
As president, Truman faced challenge after challenge in domestic affairs. The disorderly reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win re-election in 1948, largely due to his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his re-election he was able to pass only one of the proposals in his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to begin desegregation of the U.S. armed forces and to launch a system of loyalty checks to remove thousands of communist sympathizers from government office, even though he strongly opposed mandatory loyalty oaths for governmental employees, a stance that led to charges that his administration was soft on communism. Truman’s presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the end of World War II and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of NATO, and the Korean War. Corruption in Truman’s administration reached the cabinet and senior White House staff. Republicans made corruption a central issue in the 1952 campaign.
Truman, whose demeanor was very different from that of the patrician Roosevelt, was a folksy, unassuming president. He popularized such phrases as “The buck stops here” and “If you can’t stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen.” He overcame the low expectations of many political observers who compared him unfavorably with his highly regarded predecessor. At one point in his second term, near the end of the Korean War, Truman’s public opinion ratings reached the lowest of any United States president, but popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency became more positive after his retirement from politics and the publication of his memoirs. He died in 1972. Many U.S. scholars today rank him among the top ten presidents. Truman’s legendary upset victory in 1948 over Thomas E. Dewey is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates.
Oliver Milman, Environmental Reporter – The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Based on my precognitive remote viewing research, and what I have seen in the science journals, I have been telling you for over a decade (see SR archive) that a time was coming when millions of Americans would be forced to internally migrate away from coastal areas and out of drought-ridden areas because of climate change. Well, here is proof that what I predicted is coming to pass.
Ongoing sea level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, a new study concluded. Credit: Reuters
The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.
Ongoing sea-level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”.
Low-lying southern Louisiana faces multiple threats, with rising sea levels driven by global heating, compounded by strengthening hurricanes, also a feature of the climate crisis, and the gradual subsidence of a coastline that has been carved apart by the oil and gas industry.
Southern Louisiana is facing 3-7 metres of sea-level rise and the loss of three-quarters of its […]
Protesters gather blocks away from where the Met Gala is being held in Manhattan on May 4, 2026 in New York City.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders noted that the billionaire spent $10 million on the Met Gala, $120 million on a penthouse, and $500 million on a yacht while “planning to throw 600,000 Amazon workers out on the streets and replace them with robots.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in recent weeks has come under fire for a wide variety of reasons, including his involvement with the 2026 Met Gala and his plans to build a robot workforce.
A Monday report from The Hollywood Reporter noted that Bezos, despite being a lead sponsor of this year’s Met Gala, did not make an appearance at the event’s red carpet as he had in past years.
Bezos’ sponsorship of the Gala has been hit with heavy criticism in recent weeks, as many activists slammed the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art for taking the tech mogul’s money despite his company’s labor practices and reported involvement in helping US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, other critics “accused the billionaire of buying influence with the major event and speculation swirled that some stars may boycott the event due to his involvement.”
In addition to not appearing at the Met Gala red carpet, Bezos is reportedly trying to lower his profile by selling his $500 million luxury yacht.
The New York Post reported on Monday that Bezos has decided that the 417-foot vessel has become “too recognizable,” and is also a headache to maintain, costing an estimated $30 million per year to operate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday argued that Bezos’ lavish spending and his plan to build an army of robots to replace human workers was symbolic of American capitalism in 2026.
“The reality of American life today,” Sanders wrote in a social media post. “Jeff Bezos, worth $290 billion, spent: $10 million on the Met Gala, $120 million on a penthouse, $500 million on a yacht. Meanwhile, he’s planning to throw 600,000 Amazon workers out on the streets and replace them with robots. Unacceptable.”
Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ staff director, similarly made the case that Bezos’ spending spree was yet another argument for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
“Jeff Bezos, who paid $10 million for the Met Gala,” Gunnels wrote, “got $62 billion richer since [President Donald] Trump was elected and spent $500 million on a yacht to sail to his $55 million wedding in Venice to give his wife a $5 million ring because his tax rate is less than 1%. Four words: Tax the damn rich.”
Labor unions, which have long clashed with Bezos over Amazon’s aggressive union-busting tactics, held their own rival “Ball Without Billionaires” on Monday evening to protest the Bezos-funded Met Gala.
As reported by Democracy Now!, the gala featured “Amazon, Whole Foods, Washington Post, Starbucks, and Uber workers” who “walked the runway in looks by immigrant designers.”
April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union, said the Ball Without Billionaires was “not just about fashion” but “about power” and “telling the truth that people who sew and care and drive and cook and clean and secure and those that create are the ones who make everything possible.”
Workers at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, who earlier this year voted to unionize, registered their own disapproval of this year’s Met Gala, posting a message on Instagram informing followers that “91% of hourly Met staff in our unit earn less than a living wage.”
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Saikat Chakrabarti delivers a speech to a packed room of supporters at The Chapel in the Mission District on Wednesday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
On the homepage of congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti’s campaign website there is no criticism of Republicans or President Donald Trump.
Instead, his choice words are for the Democrats: “I’m running for Congress because Democratic Party leaders in D.C. are unfit to lead the world as it is today.”
That’s not because Chakrabarti supports Trump; far from it. It’s because he thinks establishment Democrats are at fault for allowing Trump’s rise and return.
“People want something different,” Chakrabarti told Mission Local, pointing to a March 31 poll that showed that the Democratic Party as an institution polls worse than Trump — 35.3 percent approval for the Democrats, 41.1 percent for Trump.
“I believe the way you win in this moment is not to present something that’s a compromise, it’s to present a different vision of a future that goes bigger.”
His vision is of a Democratic Party that ends funding for wars and weapons, provides healthcare for all Americans, funds free public college, transitions America to clean and renewable energy sources, and more.
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But his plan for achieving that is through confrontation: Primarying moderate Democrats, including party leaders; pressuring representatives to hold firm against funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cuts to Medicaid; and going around House leadership to force votes on “popular” issues, like banning Congressional stock trading (though House Democrats including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are already working on a plan for that).
It’s an aggressive strategy that’s already familiar to many on Capitol Hill. During his tenure as chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he frequently made national headlines for his scathing criticisms of fellow Democrats.
But Ocasio-Cortez preferred a less confrontational approach and, after eight months, Chakrabarti departed.
“I left AOC’s office at the end of 2019 after ruffling a few too many feathers in D.C,” he told Jacobin Magazine last July.
A former colleague of Chakrabarti, who declined to be identified because his current employer has not authorized him to speak to the press, said that he, Chakrabarti, and other staff members had the “wrong expectations” coming into the job.
“We came in like, ‘We’re here to call people out on their bullshit and burn this place to the ground and be radicals and be flamethrowers and call it like we see it,’” he said. Ocasio-Cortez “had a different strategy that involved not pissing everybody off, her colleagues and leadership, which is entirely reasonable.”
“After a while, it became clear to [communications director] Corbin [Trent] and Saikat that they weren’t going to be able to practice politics the way that they thought they would and the way that they wanted to,” the staffer added. “They sort of gradually made their way out.”
Now Chakrabarti’s hoping to get back to Washington, D.C., this time as the representative himself. He’s using the millions he made in tech in his 20s to self-finance his campaign against State Sen. Scott Wiener and Supervisor Connie Chan. If he makes it to D.C, though, he has no plans to ease up on the Dems.
“I am running to change the Democratic Party,” Chakrabarti said at a recent debate, “and that’s going to ruffle some feathers. If you want someone who’s going to get along to go along, then I’m not your guy.”
Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, has repeatedly declined to endorse her former staffer or even comment on the race. ❮❯
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‘You’re about to blow up your entire political career’
Chakrabarti’s start in politics came in 2015 at the age of 29, when he joined Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. He had just quit his job as one of the first engineers at the financial-technology company Stripe after becoming disillusioned with tech.
Chakrabarti and some of his Bernie colleagues soon realized, though, that Sanders’ platform would need allies in Congress. So they founded Justice Democrats to replace moderate and corporate-aligned Democrats with progressives, and in 2018 recruited candidates across the country to primary Democrats.
Justice Democrats soon concentrated resources on one: Ocasio-Cortez. Chakrabarti became her campaign manager, and she won 57-43, beating Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful congressional Democrats at the time.
When Ocasio-Cortez arrived in Washington later that year — with Chakrabarti working as her chief of staff — she cemented her reputation as a political firebrand before she was even sworn in. Ocasio-Cortez walked into Pelosi’s office to join a climate-change protest arranged by the Sunrise Movement, which had been organizing for years.
“As a member, I want to thank you all because you are giving us as a party the strength to push,” she said, standing in the center of Pelosi’s office surrounded by a ring of seated protesters holding bright yellow signs.
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It is the kind of action Chakrabarti hopes to emulate if he’s elected. As he sees it, a direct line can be drawn between Ocasio-Cortez calling for a Green New Deal at that protest and the climate provisions in Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.
“It made a huge difference, because that’s what blew it up in the media,” he said. From there, Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal, which influenced the climate policies of candidates in the 2020 primary, he said.
But joining the sit-in came with risks.
“Everyone was telling her, ‘you’re about to blow up your entire political career by doing this,’” Chakrabarti said.
And indeed, the protest did not earn Ocasio-Cortez any fans in Pelosi’s office, who felt that they had already agreed to protesters’ main demand: creating a congressional climate-change committee.
“Showing up at a Pelosi protest, it was not thought out,” said Drew Hammill, who was Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff at the time.
‘Who is this guy?’ the Democratic caucus demanded
As Ocasio-Cortez settled into her new role, Chakrabarti and her other staffers kept up the aggression. Chakrabarti himself made a habit of firing off provocative tweets about other Democrats.
That included attacking the Blue Dogs, a moderate Democratic caucus, which backed a bill providing $4.6 billion in emergency humanitarian aid to the U.S.-Mexico border — but without provisions that other Democrats wanted, including reducing funding for ICE and requiring the administration to provide a higher standard of care in detention centers housing migrant children at the border.
“Instead of ‘fiscally conservative but socially liberal,’ let’s call the New Democrats and Blue Dog Caucus the ‘New Southern Democrats,’” Chakrabarti tweeted. “They certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the ’40s.”
He deleted that tweet within an hour, but soon followed up with others that were no less provocative.
“Can we stop calling the Blue Dog Caucus ‘fiscally conservative but socially liberal?’ I missed the part of fiscal conservativeness or social liberalness that includes wasting $4.5 billion of taxpayer money to put kids in concentration camps,” he tweeted, calling out Sharice Davids, a Native American congressperson from Kansas.
“You can be someone who does not personally harbor ill will towards a race, but through your actions still enable a racist system. And a lot of New Democrats and Blue Dogs did that today.”
“Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color?” the official Twitter account of the House Democratic Caucus replied.
Meanwhile, Chakrabarti also had a few choice words about Pelosi. “All these articles want to claim what a legislative mastermind Pelosi is, but I’m seeing way more strategic smarts from freshman members like @AOC, @IlhanMN, @RashidaTlai and @AyannaPressley,” Chakrabarti tweeted July 6.
“Pelosi is just mad that she got outmaneuvered (again) by Republicans.”
Chakrabarti’s tweets set off turmoil within the Democratic caucus that went on for weeks — with some calling for Chakrabarti’s firing, according to Politicoreporting from the time.
Chakrabarti stands by those tweets. But to Hammill, they were counterproductive.
“If you’re just pissing on people who are on the same side of the aisle as you, you’re not going to get support in committee, on the floor,” he said. “You’re going to make your own political grandstanding a liability for your constituents.”
Infuriating other Democrats, Hammill added, could make it hard to get desired committee assignments. And as bills work their way through committee, those Democrats — plus their allies — may be reluctant to entertain amendments or funding requests.
Chakrabarti, for his part, thinks that many will be grateful that he is willing to be the one to stick his neck out.
“They’re excited to see somebody take the first step,” he said.
A true believer
Ocasio-Cortez eventually decided that a confrontational approach on every issue was not what she wanted.
She and another representative were all set to oppose a 2019 bill favored by Intuit and TurboTax that included a clause preventing the IRS from creating free tax-filing software, for example, until they realized that Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon, was the bill’s sponsor.
“They kind of realized that they were going to have to stand up and debate John Lewis and object to his bill and accuse John Lewis of carrying water for H&R Block and TurboTax,” the former staffer said. “They both just kind of were like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’”
If Chakrabarti makes it back to Congress, though, people who worked alongside him think that he would stick to the confrontational approach. Several called him a “true believer.”
Chakrabarti, for his part, said he would have handled that tax bill differently. His plan, he said, would be to incite public outrage to counter the companies’ lobbying efforts.
“Create pressure on the outside, actually get people to notice this and then get that amendment out” would be the plan, he said.
That confrontational approach has its pitfalls, warned Peter Loge, a longtime congressional staffer and associate professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.
“If you want to win a primary, especially a crowded primary in a liberal area, you want to sound as liberal and righteous as you can,” he said. “But once you get to Congress, self-righteousness doesn’t tend to get you very far.”
“What he will do is demonstrate he’s somebody the Democrats can’t rely on and the Republicans can’t trust,” Loge said. “Because he’s the one who’s always shouting into the wind.”
The equation could change, Loge said, if Chakrabarti can build a coalition. “The power that he could have is, if there are enough members of Congress who agree on an issue to hold something up that matters,” Loge said.
Loge pointed to the Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right Republicans who have forced their way on a number of issues, including the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
Chakrabarti has been working on just that. One of his big lessons from his stint with Ocasio-Cortez, he said, is that it’s important to go into Congress with relationships already in place with like-minded Democrats. He’s been connecting with other progressive Democrats running for Congress, like Nate Blouin in Utah, to create a plan of action.
Still, he acknowledges, his plan is risky.
“If I do go after party leadership, I try to do the political revolution there, and it doesn’t work then, yeah, I’m not going to have a long career in Congress,” he said. “But I think that’s okay.”
This May we have a $50K match!
Mission Local is growing its local coverage: We’ve long covered the whole city but we are now designating reporters to five neighborhoods — the Tenderloin, Richmond, Sunset, and Bayview — and keeping one in the Mission District, which has been our home for the last 18 years.
Having reporters on-the-ground and asking questions is what makes Mission Local stand out — it’s our biggest strength and what we intend to bring to every neighborhood we cover.
Our goal is to raise $125,000 — the price of adding coverage in one neighborhood for one year. If you donate to our fundraiser today, your gift is doubled thanks to the match.about:blank
Io is a staff reporter at Mission Local covering city hall and S.F. politics. She is a part of Report for America, which supports journalists in local newsrooms.
Io was born and raised in San Francisco and previously reported on the city while working for her high school newspaper, The Lowell. She studied the history of science at Harvard and wrote for The Harvard Crimson.
The former San Francisco mayor’s support gives Steyer a marquee Bay Area endorsement weeks before the June primary
By Aidin Vaziri,Staff WriterUpdated May 5, 2026 (SFChronicle.com)
Gift Article
California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaks after a debate on April 22 in San Francisco. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has endorsed Steyer.Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has endorsed Tom Steyer for California governor, giving the billionaire climate activist a high-profile Bay Area boost as he tries to convert a massive self-funded campaign into votes in the state’s crowded June primary.
Steyer’s campaign announced the endorsement Tuesday, casting Brown’s support as a vote of confidence from one of California’s most recognizable Democratic power brokers. Brown, 92, served for decades in the Legislature, including as Assembly speaker, before becoming San Francisco’s mayor.
“In my more than six decades in public life, I have had the opportunity to meet with many individuals seeking public office, taking time to understand their ideas, their judgment, their depth, and their ability to lead. After doing exactly that in this contest, I am proud to endorse Tom Steyer for Governor of California,” Brown said in a statement.
He added, “California needs a governor who is fully informed, independent in thought, and focused on what serves the public best, and I believe Tom Steyer embodies those qualities and offers real benefit to the state’s future.”
The endorsement adds a prominent San Francisco name to Steyer’s growing list of supporters, which already includes labor unions, progressive groups, environmental organizations and elected officials.
Steyer’s campaign has announced support from SEIU California and IFPTE Local 21, and his website lists endorsements from the California Nurses Association, the California School Employees Association, United Domestic Workers, YIMBY Action and several environmental organizations.
Why Willie Brown’s endorsement matters
Willie Brown speaks during a Feb. 17 ceremony celebrating the first day of Lunar New Year under steady rain at Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. The ex-San Francisco mayor has endorsed Tom Steyer for California governor.Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Brown’s endorsement came after two of Steyer’s rivals had publicly highlighted their own meetings with him.
Former Rep. Katie Porter posted a photo with Brown on April 27, writing that she was “grateful for his wisdom, his sharp wit, and a deep dive into the future of our state.” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan posted on April 23 that he had a new “pre-debate ritual: lunch with Willie Brown.”
Porter and Mahan have been polling in the single digits, while Steyer has been trying to hang on as the leading Democratic alternative amid increasing support for former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Brown’s endorsement gives Steyer support from a politician long seen as a mentor and kingmaker in San Francisco politics, with ties to the rise of prominent Democrats including Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
Steyer’s campaign pitch
Steyer, 68, has never held elected office, but he has been a major Democratic donor and political organizer in California for more than a decade. He founded Farallon Capital Management, a San Francisco hedge fund, before turning much of his political focus to climate change, voting rights and progressive ballot measure campaigns.
He is now running as one of the most progressive candidates in the race to replace Newsom, who is termed out.
In a recent interview with the Chronicle, Steyer called for tripling electric vehicle credits, raising taxes on oil companies and commercial properties, creating a state-funded single-payer healthcare system and using a tax on artificial intelligence companies to help fund worker protections and a state sovereign wealth fund.
“California’s progress has always been shaped by leaders who understood how to turn bold ideas into action and deliver for working people,” Steyer said. “Willie Brown helped define that tradition through decades of public service, breaking barriers as the longest serving Speaker of the California State Assembly and as San Francisco’s mayor. His support reflects a shared commitment to service, effective governance, and pragmatic, ambitious leadership. I am grateful for his confidence as we work to move the state forward.”
Steyer has tried to make his lack of government experience part of his pitch, arguing that his years of funding and organizing ballot measure campaigns show he can take on powerful interests.
In his Chronicle interview, he said he had taken on “three huge, well-funded corporate special interests: the oil companies, the tobacco companies and out-of-state companies that weren’t paying fair state income taxes, and beaten them every time.”
A costly race for governor
That argument is also central to how Steyer is trying to define his wealth. He has spent more than $146 million of his own money on the campaign, according to figures cited in the interview, surpassing the $144 million Republican Meg Whitman spent on her unsuccessful 2010 campaign for governor.
The spending has made Steyer one of the most visible candidates in the race, but it has also given rivals and critics a clear line of attack. Democratic opponents have accused him of trying to buy the election, while business groups have warned that his proposals would raise costs and drive investment out of California.
At the same time, Steyer has won support from progressive organizations that might otherwise be skeptical of a billionaire candidate. Our Revolution, the group that grew out of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, endorsed Steyer, citing his support for single-payer healthcare, higher taxes on extreme wealth and limits on corporate power.
The top two finishers in the June 2 primary will advance to the November election, regardless of party.
Hasan Piker has met with Tom Steyer and shared a meal with Saikat Chakrabarti
Streamer Hasan Piker, left, shows his phone on a live Twitch stream as producer Mauricio Miranda films during a campaign event for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
By Anabel Sosa, Senior California politics reporter May 6, 2026 (SFGate.com)
Hasan Piker, a controversial streamer who has become nationally recognized for his political commentary and high-profile interviews on the livestreaming platform Twitch, is now entering the California political arena.
Piker has a boy-next-door appeal: He’s a casual-spoken, 34-year-old millennial who was born in suburban New Jersey and raised in Istanbul. He graduated from Rutgers University and started his career as a commentator on the populist left-wing streaming show “The Young Turks.” He’s gone on to become one of the most influential online political voices for teenagers and members of Generation Z through Twitch, where he has acquired millions of subscribers, and he now has a visible presence on the campaign trail as progressives across the country place bets in the primaries.
Last month, Piker made a splash while making public appearances with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. He also attended a “Tax the Rich” rally with Bernie Sanders in March and separately spoke with Rep. Ro Khanna on his show. Khanna received criticism over it but argued Democrats should engage with political influencers to help win future races. Piker is what some are calling a “midterm surrogate” and is sparking outrage from Democrats like Sen. Brad Schneider from Illinois, who said he is concerned about Piker’s anti-Israel stance and said Democrats are losing credibility. There is a long trail of criticism that continues to follow Piker wherever he goes, but he has remained unfazed, calling the attention from the Illinois senator “very flattering.”
Piker is anti-imperialist and pro-welfare and has become popular for his criticisms of the Democratic playbook, particularly after the 2024 presidential election. He has been considered the progressive version of podcaster Joe Rogan and was once even called a “gateway drug” to the left. Indeed, he has also made comments — some now retracted — that raise questions about his political views. That includes statements like “America deserved 9/11,” that Hamas is “1,000 times better than Israel” and that the fall of the Soviet Union was “one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century.”
The fact that he has upset Republicans and Democrats in Washington, who accuse him of antisemitism and being pro-terrorism, along with posing harm to the future of the Democratic Party, could be the very thing that keeps viewers listening: His political commentary has no limits and ranges from vocal criticism of Israel to domestic politics where he challenges establishment Democrats and Republicans. While his beliefs have often been received with skepticism, there is no denying that Piker has sustained steady footing in the political zeitgeist.
Now, he is focusing on California, where he has lived since 2021. Piker spoke in March with Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive-leaning candidate seeking to absorb Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Piker is returning this week to rally beside Chakrabarti, a centimillionaire and former Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez staffer, and former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a signal of his political relevance and power, as the primaries are just a month away.
In April, Piker met with Tom Steyer, a billionaire and one of the leading Democrats in the California governor’s race. It may seem risky to bring a divisive voice like Piker into a campaign so late in the game, but Steyer understands Piker’s influence. A representative for Steyer’s campaign wrote to SFGATE in an email that the candidate joined Piker on Twitch as “part of an effort to reach younger audiences and meet voters where they are.”
“While they don’t agree on every issue, Tom believes leadership requires showing up, listening, and engaging Californians in every corner of our state,” they said. Piker and Steyer discussed lowering electricity costs via Steyer’s vision to dismantle PG&E. They also talked about the billionaire wealth tax, which Steyer supports, and why capitalism has failed Americans.
After the interview, Piker sang Steyer’s praises.
California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer in conversation with Hasan Piker on his show in April 2026.Screenshot via YouTube
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think he’s the most interesting candidate with viability right now,” Piker told Mother Jones. He went on to say Steyer is “probably a little more responsive than the rest of the candidates are.”
As for Chakrabarti, he first earned his fortune as a founding engineer for Stripe. After leaving Silicon Valley, he went on to volunteer for Sanders and later became the chief of staff for AOC, who has avoided chiming in on the race. He is rumored to have been fired; however, in an April 2025 interview with SFGATE, Chakrabarti said he always planned for the role to be temporary, and his wife’s pregnancy was a reason for his departure. After those stints, and before he decided to run for Pelosi’s seat last spring, he ran a nonprofit group called Justice Democrats that helped elect progressive candidates.
Chakrabarti, who is only a little behind leading Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener in the polls, and ahead of San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, is placing his bets on Piker. The pair are going to be speaking together at a rally this week.
He said Piker, who has gotten millions of young people interested in politics, was an intentional add-on to his campaign, even in the eleventh hour. He said Democrats risk losing reelection if they don’t engage with figures like Piker.
“After the 2024 election, we saw many disaffected young voters end up voting for Trump. Many of them did so because they see a current political and economic system that’s failing them, and Trump promised change,” Chakrabarti said in a text statement to SFGATE. “If we want to win young people back, we need to be willing to engage with them on the platforms where they’re paying attention.”
Piker previously had dinner with Chakrabarti, which was posted on YouTube in mid-April. They talked about how to win voters over, why voters want to oust mainstream Democrats, and how voters might actually want a “Bernie-crat” like Chakrabarti in office.
“He has really, really solid politics,” Piker told Mother Jones. “… What I have realized … is that all of those guys that we’re voting for on the Democratic Party side, the establishment Democrats, they represent the interests of billionaires and millionaires regardless, even if they themselves are not.”
A year ago, Chakrabarti entered the race with little to no name recognition for the average California voter. Even Steyer has needed to make a name for himself this campaign season. And that’s considering he ran an eight-month-long presidential campaign and came in third in the South Carolina primary, only to suspend his campaign.
But through their multimillion-dollar self-funded campaigns, they each have used their fortunes to get their names out. Steyer went from polling at 1% at the start of his run last fall to now being a leading Democratic candidate, along with former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has only recently risen in polls. Chakrabarti might need some more help, as he trails in the polls behind Wiener, who has been a state senator for a decade and already has powerful endorsements behind him.
Now, with an influential voice like Piker in their corner, it could help get them the support they’re looking for. And while it’s unclear if Piker will aid or hinder Chakrabarti’s and Steyer’s campaigns, it will almost certainly give them the exposure they’re looking for.
Anabel Sosa is the senior California politics reporter at SFGATE. She previously covered the statehouse and elections for the Los Angeles Times. She has a masters degree in investigative journalism from UC Berkeley. You can reach her at anabel.sosa@sfgate.com.
Tom Steyer is one of the leading Democratic candidates for California governor. Photo: From Facebook
I’ve been struck by the renewed vitriol aimed at billionaire candidates in the 2026 race for California governor, particularly Tom Steyer. Some of the loudest criticism has come from the progressive wing of the party, yet even U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) – long a leading voice against wealth inequality – has taken a more pragmatic view, endorsing Steyer in recognition of his commitment to public policy and climate action. That shift should give pause to those who would reduce the conversation to a simple rejection of wealth, rather than a more thoughtful evaluation of how it is used.
Steyer’s record deserves that more nuanced look. Unlike many wealthy individuals who remain on the sidelines, he has devoted significant personal resources to advancing environmental causes, funding efforts to combat climate change, supporting clean energy, and holding polluters accountable. He has helped build political infrastructure around these issues, often filling gaps where public funding or political will has lagged. At a time when California faces existential climate challenges – from wildfires to sea level rise – this kind of sustained, mission-driven investment is not only relevant, it is essential.
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The real question is not whether someone is wealthy, but what they choose to do with that wealth. There is a stark contrast between individuals like Steyer and people like President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly been accused of using public office to enrich himself, raising serious constitutional concerns, including potential violations of the Emoluments Clause. Wealth in and of itself is not disqualifying – history shows that voters are capable of evaluating leaders on their merits. From Democrats like former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to Republicans like former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as newer leaders like San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, voters across the political spectrum have elected wealthy individuals who have gone on to serve effectively. The common thread is not their net worth, but their willingness to use their resources, experience, and leadership to advance the public good.
Wealth has never been a reliable measure of leadership. George Washington was among the wealthiest Americans of his time, yet he helped found a democratic system built to outlast him. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, born into privilege, led the nation through the Great Depression with the New Deal – creating Social Security, establishing the National Labor Relations Board, and reshaping the relationship between government and working people. Former President John F. Kennedy brought generational energy to the presidency and guided the country through moments of profound tension and change.
On the other side of the ledger, some of the richest yet least effective presidents in American history – Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Millard Fillmore – demonstrate that poor leadership has little to do with personal wealth. The lesson is clear: character, judgment, and results matter far more than financial status.
If Democrats want to win in 2026, the focus should remain on results – on climate action, economic fairness, and governance – not on reflexive attacks rooted in personal wealth. Voters are sophisticated enough to distinguish between those who use their resources to build something meaningful and those who use power for personal gain.
Michael Colbruno, a gay man, was a 2026 delegate to the California Democratic Convention where he supported Betty Yee for governor. He was an aide to former San Francisco mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. and former assemblymember Carole Migden (D-San Francisco). He is a founding partner of the Bay Area government affairs firm the Milo Group of California.
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