Outside a packed United Irish Cultural Center, canvassers parade for three prominent local figures: District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti and California state Sen. Scott Wiener as the three candidates sat down to discuss policy, looking to succeed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. 

The forum gave a platform for the candidates to discuss their different visions on how the government should be run. Chan’s style of governance has a more progressive approach, honing in on affordability and community safeguarding. Chakrabarti boasts similar sentiments while pushing for more federal intervention in various industries and wants to “rebuild the American dream.” Wiener holds more moderate views, supporting the development of additional housing — such as mayor Daniel Lurie’s Family Zoning plan —  to ensure affordability. The three candidates had their chance to showcase their beliefs, offering voters a preview of the direction that’s to come.

The forum began at 7 p.m. and opened with a question from moderator and KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny. Topics centered around federal funding, health care, artificial intelligence and LGBTQ+ rights and a large focus on housing.  

Trefny questioned candidates about a potential federal funding initiative that would specifically help San Francisco. Chan was the first to answer the question, focusing on protecting water front infrastructure and investing in the power grid. 

“This requires us to go and get federal funding and federal program and tweak the federal regulations so that we can truly have power in our own jurisdiction,” Chan said. “This is how I see the federal government should play a role in supporting San Francisco.” 

Chan later referenced San Francisco’s blackout late last year, causing 130,000 homes and businesses to be without power — some for as long as eight days —  and Waymo’s fleet of autonomous vehicles to freeze all over the city’s streets.

Barry Hermanson, a canvasser for Chan, used to build workforce housing and agrees with Chan’s movement on healthcare and housing. 

“Supply is really based on what people can pay for and if people can’t pay for market rate, builders aren’t going to build it,” Hermanson said. 

Chan’s outlook on housing is that federal funding must be present before building that housing. Chan is looking for the grants to not only build low-income housing, but to build middle-income housing. 

“If you earn a six digit income in San Francisco, $100,000 annual income as an individual, that today is considered low income. That is insane,” Chan said. “We need to make sure that both low income and middle income for our teachers, firefighters, hotel workers, bartenders can actually stay in San Francisco and be able to afford it. That’s what the government’s role should be.” 

Chakrabarti, on the other hand, discussed the center of his housing plan and how he expects to create a federal funding entity that can directly finance and build affordable housing. 

“When I first moved out to San Francisco in 2009, my first apartment was $500 a month,” Chakrabarti said. “The same place is $1,500 a month today. We have to have federal solutions. My plan calls to bring back the federal finance agency that existed before called Reconstruction Finance Corporation.” 

The RFC was a government agency that was established in 1932 under U.S. President Herbert Hoover to combat the economic crash in 1929. 

“It would have the power to provide local costs of construction boats, affordable housing,” Chakrabarti said. “Private m

arkets won’t build housing, you’d have the power to spin off developers, so directly building.” 

Chakrabarti spoke about his time as campaign manager for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, where he co-founded Justice Democrats, an initiative that challenged Representative Joe Crowley. He then worked as her chief of staff until 2019. 

“The problem of doing any sort of social housing initiative in Congress is the barriers are not just legislative or plans,” Chakrabarti said. “So if you want to pass real structural changes to get the cost of living and cost of housing down, we have to break the corporate strangle on their track card.” 

Wiener touched on how his role in legislation has completely changed how he approaches housing. Wiener’s plan is to make a generational investment for $1.2 trillion over 10 years, paid for as part of his plan to reverse the George W. Bush and Donald Trump tax cuts for rich people and corporations. According to Wiener, this will help build fixed income and social housing, as well as to pay cities $10,000 per home that gets built. 

“Housing, of course, to be successful, has to be complemented by other things. We need more public transportation,” Wiener said. “It’s a priority for me to increase federal investment and have better transit lines. The families who are living in those homes and also taking public transportation, need access to childcare.”

Chloe Young, senior organizer for Wiener’s campaign, was born and raised in San Francisco and has seen family members move out of the city due to unrealistic housing prices.

“[Wiener’s] been able to build over 3,700 new buildings and he’s going to be doing more,” Young said. “He’s been breaking down requirements that the city and government has put in place to have things take longer to build, he’s cutting the time down to get housing built more efficiently.” 

Wiener expanded his approach on housing to building more transportation lines across San Francisco and having the ability for universal access to low-cost childcare. 

“It is outrageous that there are people who have paid 30 to 40 percent of their paycheck for childcare,” Wiener said. “Families shouldn’t have to decide ‘Should I work? Or do I take care of my kid?’”

This congressional debate is to fill Pelosi’s seat. The top two candidates will advance from the June primary to the November 2026 election.