This week in the Candidate Corner we interviewed Connie Chan: Immigrant, mom to a teenage boy, Libra, and current member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She advanced to the general election in California’s 11th Congressional District after a very competitive primary you definitely saw on your screens. She’s secured the endorsement of both Nancy Pelosi, who after nearly four decades in Congress is vacating this seat, AND Saikat Chakrabarti, her former opponent who made waves as a political outsider. In this next phase, she’s got momentum and an unlikely team…
Big Three Issues: Immigration, Healthcare, Education
DF: What brings you to running for office? It’s a big calling. People don’t know what a big responsibility it is on you, and your family, and the people who care for you. So why make the choice?
CC: You know, I first started running for office in 2020, but it was really a long journey. I was born in Hong Kong. I came to San Francisco’s Chinatown when I was 13 years old. I didn’t speak a word of English with my single mom and a younger brother. So, I mean, I can tell you this, like running for office, it was a far, far away dream. My mom didn’t think that someone like me and someone from that background would be running for office and getting involved. But I landed my first job in City Hall when I was 26 as a legislative aide to former supervisor Sophie Maxwell. I’ve been working in city government since then, and when I first ran for office in 2020 as a supervisor it was really because the former supervisor decided not to run for re-election. And she was looking around and saying you know, we need more women leaders on the board of supervisors, and who’s ready to run. So, she and I had a conversation, and the rest is history.
DF: When I decided to launch my congressional run, I was 24 at the time, but there were so many things that I just didn’t know. I’d been through all the candidate trainings. I had worked on campaigns, but actually being in it, there are so many pieces that you just can’t anticipate. What’s the thing that’s been most unexpected? Maybe something positive or something that’s harder about this run or running for office as an immigrant, as a woman of color, as a mom.
CC: You know what it is. I don’t know if you have the similar experience, like if you’re a firefighter, like my partner, or an OBGYN like one of my really good friends. Her husband is a CFO. We were having a conversation about our jobs and I was running for office, but even as elected. We’re the only people that most likely from your community and your neighborhood that people always have an opinion about your job.
No one is going to tell a firefighter how to put out a fire, or how to tell an OBGYN how to deliver a baby, or a CFO how to crunch the numbers, but definitely, as a supervisor, or a candidate running for office, like, everyone has an opinion how you should be doing your job.
DF: That’s real. It’s even more pronounced when you are a woman and a woman of color, most definitely. I was endorsed by ASPIRE PAC (they support AAPI candidates), so are you, that’s actually how we got connected. So many strategies aren’t built for candidates like you or like me. But I wonder, what is the worst campaign advice you’ve ever gotten?
CC: I can tell you this. I got a lot of campaign advice from a lot of people. This one is… I wasn’t sure what they were joking about. No, they were serious. They were serious. They were like, you need to, like, trim your eyebrows.
DF: Now that’s an interesting one. Who’s noticing that, right? And who’s gonna go pay for me to go do that, by the way?
CC: But as a woman of color, right? Like, as a woman and woman of color, and you’re running for office, there was a lot of, like, fashion campaign advice that I was getting. The one personally, I think is the worst is, like, go shape your eyebrows. I’m like great. Thank you very much. Sure thing.
DF: And when the campaign every minute matters, you’re like, who has time to go do that? I remember for me, it was, I always wore longer nails, but the idea of trying to find time to go get them filled was impossible. You catch flak for not having your hair trimmed, the makeup done, the nails done. It’s like, where does that fit into everything? It’s definitely an additional time responsibility.
Okay, so looking at the race you’re in now, give me a little snapshot. Where are we at? What are we doing? Where are we headed? Give us the play-by-play.
CC: We’re heading to a really good place. As women, in a space with predominantly men, and definitely I was in a race where my opponents were men… I call them the boys sometimes. But during that time, when it was like all three of us going into the primary, they were always trying to count us out. They’re like, oh, she’s behind in polls, she’s behind in fundraising. And so when we came on top as top two and we beat the $10 million one of my opponents spent, and frankly, their opponents also spent a huge chunk of money and only came in 10 points apart. I knew that we showed what we got. We see that there’s a solid path to victory. We’re very excited about that.
DF: You have some big shoes to fill in this seat, right? No doubt. How do you respond to that? How are you thinking about that legacy of this seat?
CC: One of the leaders from San Francisco building trades, IBEW, electrical worker leaders, he did make the mention about how, and it’s true, oftentimes people ask me, oh, big shoes or big heels, big pumps. Speaking about Nancy Pelosi, he said something really profound, and I was really deeply touched. So many people ask Connie Chan, like, you know, how is she going to fill the big heels or the big shoes, you know, following? And he said, I know Connie Chan, and Connie Chan has her own pair of shoes.
I love that. I was so touched, I was so moved, and he’s so right. You know, it is… like, I really appreciate Speaker Madame Nancy Pelosi, but really, we’re moving forward to a trajectory that belongs to the new generation, and I’m really excited about that.
DF: So with that in mind, thinking about generational change, what’s one thing that you’re doing differently in your race or that you would do differently as a member of Congress?
CC: Yeah, I have to say I’m a first generation immigrant. I speak Chinese fluently, and this is really one thing I think fundamentally that I would do differently, and with the understanding about first-generation immigrant women and women of color, not just for Chinese Americans, but understand all across AAPI and Latina, and just having that understanding Black women and women of color and how it actually is different and what it means to have representation in DC. Over the last four decades and more, there has been a lot of women trying really hard to change that dynamic, but you cannot deny the fact that still… majority of them still men, and how do we continue to push that change? But also understand that there’s a disconnect between white women and women of color, even among us. There’s still a dialogue and disconnect. And so, those are the things we’re probably gonna do differently, as we’re gonna be in Congress and in D.C.
DF: What are the 3 big issues that you’re looking at, that you’re running on, that you’re hearing from folks on the ground in SF?
CC: Healthcare. Healthcare has really been burdensome to a lot of households, and it doesn’t matter whether you are middle income or low income. We want to make sure that it’s accessible and affordable.
Affordable childcare, fully funded K through 12 classrooms. We have Free City College in San Francisco, where residents who live here can have free higher education for the community college that is located in San Francisco. We want that.
San Francisco is a sanctuary city and California is a sanctuary state. Immigration policy, we want to see affirming birthright citizenship and naturalized citizenship. The immigrant community is still very much under attack. And we want to make sure that we have sanctuary everywhere.
DF: And if there are young people who are watching your race or others all around the country as we head into these midterms, what’s your word of advice for them to get involved?
CC: Oh, starting with registering to vote. They have to register to vote, and get the friends to register to vote. Let’s start with 5 friends at a time. Have the other 5 friends to get their 5 friends. So register yourself to vote, register your friends to vote, and have your friends register other people to vote.
And once you register to vote, I think many of us will start to be able to get ready to knock on doors and phone banking, but those are three things, register to vote, phone banking, and knocking on doors are really key. And you don’t even have to knock or phone bank a lot, just starting with five, right? Like, starting with five is something that we can do, and then when you can do more, do more.
Election Day is November 3rd, but, in San Francisco, ballots drop 30 days before election, so we say vote early and vote Connie.
I’ll see you at College Democrats of America National Convention 2026 in DC on 7/17-7/19. These youth organizers are bringing leaders and changemakers from all across the country together ahead of the 2026 midterms. But they need your help to fund travel stipends for delegates from underrepresented states.
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