California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, launched a campaign on Oct. 22 to unseat U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the former speaker of the U.S. House.
“I’ll fight day and night for our city—against Trump’s takeover, for our values, and for real progress,” Wiener stated in his social media announcement.
Pelosi has held the seat for nearly 40 years and is still widely considered a top party leader for the Democrats.
Wiener is considered part of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, holding more extreme views on social issues than Pelosi, who is considered a member of the party’s old guard.
Pelosi, 85, filed paperwork last year to run for her 19th term in 2026.
When asked about Pelosi’s reaction to Wiener’s announcement, her spokesman, Ian Krager, said she is focused on her work.
“Speaker Pelosi is fully focused on her mission to win the Yes on [Prop] 50 special election in California on November 4th,” Krager told The Epoch Times in an email. “She urges all Californians to join in that mission on the path to taking back the House for Democrats.”
While in office, Pelosi has overseen the passage of historic legislation, including the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare), stimulus bills, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and COVID-19 relief. She also served two terms as House speaker and was the first woman to hold the office.
Wiener was first elected as a state senator in 2016 and has focused on housing, transportation, civil rights, and clean energy. Before that, he served on San Francisco’s board of supervisors and as chair of San Francisco County’s transportation authority.
The state senator has sparked controversy in the past over some of his legislation, including his push to legalize psychedelic drugs and allow public drug sites.
Most recently, Wiener authored a bill to ban masks for federal immigration officers in California. The bill was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Federal officials have said that the law does not apply to them, however.
He and Newsom have agreed on most issues, but Wiener has also publicly criticized the governor in the past. In March, Wiener criticized Newsom after the governor agreed with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during an interview on March 6, six months before Kirk was assassinated.
In the interview, Newsom broke with others in his party, saying it was “deeply unfair” for male athletes who identify as transgender to compete with females in college and youth sports.
Wiener stated in March that Newsom’s “standing with [Kirk] on this issue is profoundly disturbing.”
“They’re painting trans young people who play sports as a threat to women’s sports, which they are not,” he said.
Five days after Kirk’s assassination, Wiener continued posting criticism of Kirk on social media, although he also said that “Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die.”
Wiener also wrote a bill to prevent immigrants from being forced to disclose their immigration status in open court and a law to prevent landlords from using immigration status as leverage against tenants in evictions.
“As a gay man who came of age as a teenager during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1987, Scott knows our community has seen dark days before,” the bio on his website states.
He said the epidemic of HIV/AIDS inspired him to volunteer for an HIV crisis hotline in North Carolina and advocate for transgender-identifying people as a student at Harvard Law School in the 1990s.
Wiener worked as an attorney for 15 years, which included a 10-year stint as deputy city attorney for San Francisco. He worked in private practice before entering politics.
“My family escaped fascism in Europe,” Wiener said in his video announcement on Oct. 22. “San Francisco has always been on the right side of history—standing on the side of democracy and civil rights, even when it’s hard.
He said that if he is elected, he will defend San Francisco, its values, its people, and the Constitution of the United States.
“I stood up to violence and hate my entire life,” he said. “Trump and his MAGA extremists don’t scare me.”
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