Staff members stood on the corner of the congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti’s meet and greet at his new office, ready to meet attendees. Students and some residents slowly filed into the building, talking with staff and picking up a slice of pizza before heading to their seats to engage with Chakrabarti. He began with a brief introduction, and audience members were called on to ask the candidate questions.
“College Night with Saikat” was held at his new campaign office on the corner of 9th and Irving streets on Thursday evening. The politician offered a Q&A session for college students and an opportunity to hear his story as he and his staff begin the fight for California’s 11th congressional district ahead of the primary.
Chakrabarti is entering the race as a first-time congressional candidate. He began his career as an early engineer at Stripe, an artificial intelligence financial processing service, and later as the co-founder of Justice Democrats, a federal political action committee. He then served as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019.
Students from San Francisco State University, University of San Francisco and San Francisco residents filled the office, eager to ask the candidate questions.
The congressional candidate started the night by explaining his campaign goals and his hope for a future victory. He said the current flow of Democrats entering the congressional race is not doing enough and that his love for San Francisco has inspired him to run for Congress.
Rather than floating ideas, Chakrabarti focused on speaking about structural changes, including affordable housing, universal healthcare, public financing, taxing the rich and moving public power in San Francisco.
“It boils down to three big buckets of things,” Chakrabarti said. “One is we have to make life affordable, especially for young people coming out of college. The second big thing is we have to tackle political corruption. And the third big piece is we have to tackle crazy levels of wealth and income inequality that exist in our society.”
While Chakrabarti discussed congressional visions for the city, students questioned his personal values and what his potential as a congressman would look like, since he began his career at Stripe.
Chakrabarti “ended up making a decent amount of money” at his time with Stripe, which inspired him to join the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016 because he said he felt he had a better understanding of how the economy works.
“You can work hard for a couple of years and win the lottery and never work again, or you have everybody else, who is actually running society, who will spend their entire lives never being able to afford a home or secure retirement,” Chakrabarti said. “So yes, the taxes I’m talking about will be on myself.”
Before Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi announced her resignation in November, Chakrabarti and State Sen. Scott Wiener stood as the two leading contenders. District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan joined the race shortly after Pelosi’s resignation.
A number of just six staff members were helping out at the event. Staff member Mallory Christensen moved to San Francisco from Utah in June and said she actively started volunteering for Chakrabarti because he stood out as a candidate more than Wiener and Pelosi.
As a field organizer for the congressional politician’s campaign, Christensen said she knows what qualifies as a good democratic candidate.
“I’m over established democrats and money in politics… I think that’s really what corrupts our system,” Christensen said. “[Chakrabarti] has so much experience with people that I really respected for a long time, and even just talking to him about those experiences makes me realize how well equipped he is to implement change.”
All runners for this seat are Democrats, but they have different approaches to what it means to run for Congress.
“San Francisco has always belonged to the people — not the powerful. And people in our city are struggling. Families are hurt by high costs, communities are devastated by Trump policies,” Chan wrote in a press release to announce her run. “I’m running for Congress to build coalitions, build up our communities and bring our voices to Washington.”
SFSU student Alex Vanscoy was in his senior year studying political science when he dropped out to work on Chakrabarti’s team this semester.
Vanscoy was a member of the Young Democratic Socialists of America when the pro-Palestinian encampments and tuition-hike protests were at their peak, which contributed to the importance politics holds for him.
“Donald Trump was elected for the second time and I saw that authoritarianism was really a thing now, it’s not intellectual, it’s actually here,” Vanscoy said. “There are thugs that are coming to our doors and dragging people away and those thugs are the federal government.”
Vanscoy has worked and volunteered for various political campaigns for the past three years.
“We all have to do whatever we can to stop it,” Vanscoy said. “I love learning about political science, but in this moment, I think that we need action, so I couldn’t just sit in the classroom anymore.”
One of Chakrabarti’s priorities is to uplift youth and college students, citing that they’re the rising generation most affected by today’s politics.
“I think it’s a matter of priorities,” Chakrabarti said. “Do we want to just keep increasing our defense money every year and spend it on bombs, or do we want to use it for our education? To me, the answer is very clear.”
