by Randy Shaw on July 14, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi will be 86 at the November 2026 election. Elected in 1987, Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress for nearly forty years. Is it time she gave someone else a chance?
A Younger Democratic Party?
Nancy Pelosi is arguably the greatest Democratic Party politician of her time. We hear none of the stories of declining faculties that accompany other politicians of her age or younger.
Yet there is a widespread post-November 2024 election critique that the national Democratic Party needs new leadership. Pelosi’s successor,Hakeem Jeffries, soon turns 55. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is 74 and his number 2, Dick Durbin, is 80. Durbin is not seeking re-election in 2026.
I don’t see calls for Pelosi not to run again as casting doubts on her abilities. Rather, after nearly forty years as San Francisco’s only Congressmember shouldn’t she give others a chance? It’s been long rumored that should Pelosi not run the battle for her seat would be between State Senator Scott Wiener and Christine Pelosi, Nancy’s daughter. Wiener will be 56 and Pelosi 60 at the November 2026 election.
Nancy Pelosi’s lengthy tenure has caused the city to skip a generation of congressional representation.
Saikat Chakrabarti, a 39-year-old former chief-of-staff for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is running against Nancy Pelosi if she runs in November 2026. He’s gotten a lot of media attention. He has zero chance of defeating Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi ran in 2024 expecting to help President Kamala Harris. The logic of her running in 2026 is that with rising prospects of Democrats taking back the House she could provide invaluable counsel to incoming Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.
There’s always a political rationale for staying in office. That’s why it has been so hard to inject the Democratic Party with new leadership.
The strongest argument for Pelosi running in 2026 might be that it avoids San Francisco Democrats spending money in the city instead of in swing Senate and House districts across the nation. A race for Pelosi’s seat could be seen as diverting millions of dollars away from elections with a far greater national impact.
Multiple Contested Races?
Should Pelosi not run in 2026—some suspect that she will wait until the last moment to give her daughter a head start—this decision will trigger multiple contested races next June.
The marquee race will be the Wiener-Pelosi- Chakrabarti election. If Wiener wins, many believe Assemblymember Matt Haney will run for Wiener’s State Senate seat. They reason that Haney would prefer having three four-year State Senate terms rather than remain in the Assembly until 2034.
I’ve never talked to Haney about his future races. And I understand that politicians like rising to bigger jobs (the State Senate district is larger than Haney’s Assembly district). But Haney has been extremely effective in the Assembly. He holds key positions and is tight with leadership. He’d be giving all that up to start at the bottom in the State Senate.
Board President Rafael Mandelman is likely to run for either Haney’s Assembly seat if Haney moves on or Wiener’s seat if Haney stays in the Assembly. Based on the fiercely fought Kim-Wiener 2016 State Senate race and the 2022 Haney-Campos Assembly contest, Mandelman. is likely to face one or more well-funded,well-known candidates.
The Engardio recall triggered a June election for D2 Supervisor. Appointed incumbent Steven Sherrill is expected to face multiple challengers, adding to what could be an unusually busy June ballot. Whoever wins the D2 race in June still must face voters again in November.
Nancy Pelosi filed to run in 2026 in order to collect campaign donations. She has until March 6 to withdraw. If she waits that long —which I doubt—it would be an all-out sprint to the June election.
If Nancy Pelosi decides not to run in 2026 she should announce this soon.
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.
