With Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat legitimately up for grabs for the first time in nearly 40 years, the three challengers to succeed her — Scott Wiener, Connie Chan, and Saikat Chakrabarti — duked it out at a candidate forum Wednesday night.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi has been an absolutely groundbreaking and legendary legislator, but she’s been the only congressional representative San Francisco has seen since freaking 1987. And at 85 years old, it's probably time.

So Pelosi has announced she’s going to retire soon, which finally opens up her seat for a new representative. And “barring any lunacy” (in the words of Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi), Pelosi’s seat will be won in November either by state Senator Scott Wiener, D1 SF Supervisor Connie Chan, or former tech executive and AOC/Bernie staffer Saikat Chakrabarti.

Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi made that assessment Wednesday night when the three candidates faced off on the same stage for the first time at UC Law San Francisco. It was a “candidates forum” (technically not a debate) sponsored by the California Working Families Party, Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, and the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club. And you can watch the entire two-hour affair below, though we’ve picked out the good parts to give you a Cliffs Notes version of what happened Wednesday night.

The forum doesn’t really start until the 8:45 mark, and naturally, begins with a moment of silence for Wednesday’s ICE shooting victim Renee Nicole Good. The forum was moderated by the Bay Area Reporter’s Cynthia Laird and Joe Eskenazi, who hilariously started with the first question “What is the role of a San Francisco congressperson – oh, Jesus Christ!" (an expletive he muttered upon realizing he forgot to allow the candidates to give their opening statements).

As the Chronicle points out, these three far-left candidates completely agree on almost every national issue. "They all support Medicare for All,” as the Chron points out. “They would all like to break Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s monopoly and allow municipalities to adopt public power. They all think the Supreme Court should be expanded and that Justice Clarence Thomas and President Donald Trump should be impeached."

But if there was a single standout memorable moment from Wednesday night, social media sure thinks it was during the lightning-round “hold up a Yes or No sign” segment. The question was “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?” and Chan and Chakrabarti immediately held up their Yes signs. Scott Wiener sat there frozen and did not move, let alone indicate Yes or No.  

As the SF Standard tells it, “Audience members shouted ‘Shame on you,' ‘Sellout,’ and ‘Free Palestine.’” Mission Local describes the bedlam as people yelling “‘Answer the question Scott!,’ ‘Shame on you! Shame on you!,’” and says that “Several waved keffiyahs from their seats.”

Wiener tried a little cleanup on Aisle Seven in post-event remarks. “Hamas should not be running Gaza,” Wiener told the Standard afterward, but added that the Israeli government’s level of violence, “is an absolute moral stain and horrifying to me.” The Standard asked him point-blank if it was genocide, and Wiener said, “People can label it whatever noun or adjective they want to put on it.”

Supervisor Chan managed to localize all of these issues more than the other two (she even dropped a Sophie Maxwell reference!), emphasizing that Democrats need to improve their message “on our agenda, we have not delivered for working people.”

“San Francisco’s rent is too high, and the cost of living is too high, and that’s the most pressing thought on many of us living in San Francisco,” she said. Chan claimed she had “beat back billionaires, twice” (referring to her two D1 electoral victories, both in which the YIMBY/tech class came at her hard).“We cannot take back Congress by cozying up to billionaires,” Chan said Wednsday night.

Saikat Chakrabarti also leaned hard on an anti-establishment message. "We’re going to have to take on not just MAGA republicans, but corporate money, and the failed democratic establishment,” he said at the forum. “We need to completely change the direction and leadership of the Democratic party."

Though as Mission Local notes, “When asked about his supportive vote for Prop C after the debate, Chakrabarti said that he knew Prop C was a municipal bond but couldn’t remember what it was about specifically, looking it up on his phone."

And Wiener went after Chakrabarti pretty ruthlessly for his lack of involvement in anything resembling SF local politics. “It’s not enough to just to have good opinions or a lot of hot takes, or go on a lot of podcasts, or spend six months on Capitol Hill and then leave,” Wiener said, clearly singling out Chakrabarti's recent resume. “You’ve got to show that you are up to the task of building the broad-based coalitions that we need.”

As the Chronicle also notes, each of these candidates would be a “first”: Wiener would be the SF’s first openly gay congressperson, Chan would be the first Asian-American, Chakrabarti would be the first Indian-American.

Regardless, only two of these candidates will survive the June 2, 2026 primary election. Those two survivors will then face off to take Pelosi's US House seat in the November 3, 2026 general election.

Related: Connie Chan Officially In, London Breed Out In Race For Pelosi's House Seat [SFist]

Image: CA Working Families Party via Youtube