Pass the Popcorn: Dem Civil War In … San Fran Nan’s Turf?

So much for succession planning, eh?

Whatever else one thinks about Nancy Pelosi, no one can doubt the power she exerted over the Democrat Party over the last four decades. Her fundraising prowess has been legendary, and so has her ability to use it to force unity and compliance among Democrats. When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried to partner with Justice Democrats to run socialist challenges to Democrat incumbents in 2018, Pelosi shut that down hard, a stark contrast to the weak-kneed ‘leaders’ currently running the Democrats’ House and Senate caucuses.

Now that Pelosi has finally decided to retire, however, her ability to instill discipline has entirely evaporated. The incursions of the Democratic Socialist candidates poaching incumbent Democrat seats demonstrate that well enough. However, it turns out that Pelosi may have lost her power even in her home district:

Members of California’s congressional delegation and top Democratic donors are getting dragged into San Francisco’s bitter race to succeed Nancy Pelosi — a contest dividing party leaders far beyond the city.

Tensions have escalated as Pelosi pours resources into electing her favored successor, Supervisor Connie Chan, and publicly attacking her opponent, state Sen. Scott Wiener. Meanwhile, Wiener is turning his fire on Pelosi and other top Democrats backing Chan.

In recent days, Wiener’s campaign attacked Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna after he campaigned with Chan at a union hall in the city. Joe Arellano, Wiener’s spokesperson, responded by promoting a New York Times article that identified Khanna and Pelosi as the most prolific stock traders in Congress. He added, “Working families don’t trade stock thousands of times.”

Khanna shot back, accusing Wiener of “echoing false right-wing attacks on Speaker Pelosi for over a year.” He added, “It’s an odd strategy to launch character attacks on the most successful speaker in a generation and expect to succeed her.”

And that’s after Wiener’s comments criticizing Pelosi for opposing his 2024 legislation to create AI-safety guardrails and another instance where he alleged that the former House speaker “has basically taken over Connie’s campaign.”

This has mainly flown under the radar this year, but the fight goes all the way back to January. Wiener and Chan have been sniping at each other for months, but as Republicans had zero chance of even getting on the ballot for Pelosi’s soon-to-be-vacated seat even before the June primary, no one has paid much attention. Now, though, the infighting has gone national in a way that Pelosi would never have allowed while still in control. 

Just this past month, Wiener has had to pull an AI chatbot he used to attack Chan, a weird idea in itself after Pelosi blasted him for it:

Wiener, who is running to replace former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco’s 11th Congressional District, announced Friday his campaign would remove ConnieChan.ai, along with the ads directing voters to it.

The chatbot was created as a campaign attack on Chan, portraying what Wiener said was her record on housing, public transportation and other issues.

But the stunt quickly became a political headache, with Pelosi and a coalition of Democratic politicians and organizations condemning the use of artificial intelligence to imitate Chan.

Wiener said his campaign had intended the chatbot to be an unconventional way of drawing attention to what he characterized as Chan’s record of “delay and obstruction.”

That, however, created a backlash against Pelosi and Chan after some women called accusations of sexism “totally absurd.” The chair of the city’s Democrat Party rebuked Pelosi last week for “fake outrage” over the chatbot:

But powerful female leaders in San Francisco are now questioning Pelosi for her accusations, they told the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday.  A “Women for Scott” rally is being held on Saturday.

“It feels like there’s a lot of fake outrage about this chatbot,” said Nancy Tung, the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party.

“I suppose you know that’s part of the political game – to put as favorable a slant as you want to for your own purposes for each campaign,” she added.

Famed women advocate Susie Tompkins Buell labeled Pelosi’s cries of sexism as “totally absurd.”

“He is the most non-sexist, non-racist person. I don’t know who would even say that,” Buell said on Wiener. “But if it was (Pelosi), it was careless and not appropriate and not true.” … “Nobody can give a good answer of why she’s doing this,” Buell said. “It’s just a mystery to so many people. Whatever it is, it is rooted in pettiness.”

If you had “chair of the San Francisco Democrat Party openly attacks Nancy Pelosi” on your 2026 midterm Bingo card, collect your winnings. You might want to buy a lottery ticket or two, and not just to afford electricity in California. If you also had “famed women advocate [whatever that means] calls Pelosi petty” on the card, be sure to have it bronzed. 

The best part of this story: There is no upcoming primary. Thanks to California’s all-in primaries, Wiener and Chan will fight this out to the bitter end in November. They haven’t even gotten to Labor Day yet, and the contest is already nearly reaching the Godwin’s Law level. Trans radicals are attacking Wiener on the street, feminists are shredding Pelosi by name in public, and Chan’s crying about AI chatbots. Pelosi has tried to put a lid on this since at least May, and it’s only getting worse. By October, we might see a full-blown hippie war on the streets of San Francisco. 

Republicans don’t have any real stake in this fight, except as entertainment. Enjoy it while you can. 

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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