Overview
- Pelosi, who is retiring after 20 terms, endorsed Supervisor Connie Chan on Monday in a video preview that Chan’s campaign plans to release Tuesday.
- California’s top-two system will advance only two candidates to November, and recent polling shows Scott Wiener leading with about 40% while Chan and Saikat Chakrabarti are nearly tied around the high teens.
- Campaign watchers say the endorsement could lift Chan into the runoff, and prediction markets moved Chan’s chances from about 55% to 71% after the news.
- Chan enters the final stretch with support from major labor groups such as the California Labor Federation, the California Teachers Association, and National Nurses United, while Wiener has the state party’s backing and Chakrabarti is heavily self-funding.
- With only about 5% of mailed ballots returned so far, the next two weeks will hinge on turnout efforts as Wiener praises Pelosi’s legacy and Chakrabarti argues voters, not endorsements, will decide the race.