Nancy Pelosi Is Attempting to Sabotage the Front-Runner to Replace Her in Congress: Report
When former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement after nearly 40 years of service, it was widely assumed that California state Sen. Scott Wiener would be the man to replace her.
However, in a plot twist in what would normally be a ho-hum race, Pelosi and the machine that she’s built has turned against Wiener, a progressive mainstay, in favor of San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan.
According to a Monday Politico report, Pelosi and her team have been working behind the scenes for weeks to try to derail Wiener’s candidacy, an effort that became very public after a spat over a chatbot campaign stunt on Wiener’s part that Pelosi insisted was sexist.
Wiener, known for his advocacy on behalf of “sex workers” and transgender procedures for children, among other hot-button social issues, jumped into the race last year before Pelosi announced that this would be her last term. It was widely assumed that he would cruise to victory.
However, in California’s jungle primary system, the top two vote-getters advance no matter what party they belong to — and given that Pelosi’s San Francisco-based 11th Congressional District is heavily Democratic, Wiener will face Chan in November despite outdrawing her 40.7 percent to 29.7 percent in June’s primary.
Polling in the race is sparse, but favors Wiener. However, his refusal to call Israel’s war against Hamas a “genocide” has already created friction on the far left.
While Pelosi and Wiener have been outwardly friendly before the race to replace her was underway, there was friction boiling under the surface.
Wiener has embraced the so-called “YIMBY” movement — effectively, building more housing and reducing zoning restrictions to drive prices down. Pelosi, meanwhile, has nurtured deep ties with labor, including in the building trades, who see Wiener’s ties to real estate moguls and the potential to weaken union protections as a threat.
In addition, Wiener has made enemies with teachers’ unions, another loyal Pelosi constituency.
Chan, who has been far more cautious with development during her time on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, has also maintained good ties with teachers’ unions.
However, labor leaders said that this substantive friction is effectively cover for an ego clash.
“Pelosi is the vintage powerbroker here,” one pro-Wiener labor organizer, speaking anonymously, said.
“Let’s be real about what this is: It’s more a personal retribution. It’s about Pelosi being able to continue to broker power in San Francisco.”
Pelosi was unhappy that Wiener announced his candidacy before she announced she would be bowing out. The state legislator has made no secret of the fact that he covets Pelosi’s seat over the past few years, and the timing apparently irked the sitting congresswoman and her allies.
“He said he had no intentions of running against Nancy — one week later he announced against Nancy,” former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told Politico. “And I’ll never forget that.”
The announcement “really got underneath her skin because it was all about fighting Donald Trump, but he wants it to be all about him,” Pelosi ally Kim Tavaglione, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, remarked.
“You’re talking about someone who was speaker of the House and her legacy,” she added.
Whatever was happening behind the scenes quickly moved to center stage last week when Pelosi and other prominent Democrats slammed Wiener over an AI chatbot which highlighted what Wiener’s team said were Chan’s anti-development, anti-affordability measures on the Board of Directors.
Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power.
We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths. pic.twitter.com/B6Vlu1ww3V
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) August 6, 2026
“Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,” Pelosi wrote in the letter. “We should not have to fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.”
“Using AI to fabricate a woman’s voice for ridicule or attack is a gross misuse of technology and reflects a disturbing willingness to erase women’s agency and reinforce the sexist tropes that have long been used to undermine women in public life,” she continued.
“When the target is a woman of color, those harms compound with racial stereotypes that have historically been used to question women’s credibility, leadership, and belonging. This includes a repetition of harmful racial tropes that echo Trump birtherism.”
In addition, members of Chan’s team said that the chatbot returned sexist and racist responses regarding Chan’s Asian heritage; Politico was not able to replicate these results with the bot, although Chan’s team did share screenshots of the purported offensive material.
For his part, Wiener has painted the imbroglio as one last run for Pelosi in all but name.
“Nancy has basically taken over Connie’s campaign,” he told Politico. “I’m running an independent campaign with enormous grassroots support, and no one has taken over my campaign.”
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