Live: Candidates forum for California's D11 congressional seat

Hi folks. I have um, a accessibility seat that I need. Is anyone in the second or third row in reserve seating willing to give up a seat? Perfect. Thank you, Omar. There we go.

Okay. No, that we gave them to them. Let's go. Hi everyone. My name is Asia Nicole Duncan. I'm the VP of Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club for our political action team. And this is my co-president Reed.

Thank you, Asia. Yes, my name is Reed Coggins. I'm a co-president of the Harvey Milk Club. On behalf of the club, we'd like to welcome you to the Congressional District 11 Candidate Forum. We're proud to co-host with the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club and the Working Families Party. Thank you all for being here. Uh, and thank you to everyone who made tonight possible. Thank you all UC Law for tonight's accommodations.

Okay. A forum for an open seat in this district hasn't been done in 38 years. Whoever goes on to represent us in Congress will have big shoes to fill. And we expect this individual to champion the strong progressive values that our club holds and have shaped the city and have resonate across California, our country, and the states. I'm not going to say the world. I'm not going to say the world.

Okay. This year marks Harvey Milk's uh Democratic Club, our 50th anniversary. And tonight's forum kicks off our first event of this year. And now I'm gonna pass it off to Olivia, one of Alice's co-presidents.

[screaming]

Good evening, everyone. Um, and welcome. My name is Olivia Parker. I'm the co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club. Uh, I'm honored to be here tonight. I do want to note that my co-chair, Martin Rawlings Fine, um, sends his regard regrets that he couldn't make join us this evening. Um, Alice is proud to be the oldest LGBT Democratic club in the country. Um, and with a long history of organizing, endorsing candidates and learn more about our work, I encourage you to visit our website at alsbtokas.org.

Uh, I want to offer my synth thanks to everyone who helped make tonight possible from our partner organizations and volunteers to the staff who handled logistics behind the scenes. A special thank you to our moderators for guiding this important conversation with care and rigor. And of course, thank you to the candidates for being here and for stepping up to serve. And to all of you in the audience for showing up, staying engaged, and participating in our democracy. We're grateful for you that you're all here. Um, and I'm going to pass it off to Jose Conrus of Working Famous Party.

Hey y'all. Uh, it's actually Jorge Contreres uh and I'm the interim director with the uh California Working Families Party. Shout out to all of our coalition members and partners here and what on the hundreds of people that are watching on Discord right now. Uh, what an amazing testament to San Francisco that within two days of us uh putting up the mobilized, thousands of San Franciscans signed up to come to this event. So shout out to you all.

So, the California Working Families Party is a new political home for people who want to back who support non-corporate backed candidates, people who are backed by everyday people like you. So, make some noise if you think the corporate Democrats and the corporate Republicans are going to save you in 2026. There you go. That's why we need California WP candidates who don't take corporate money, who are fighting for everyday issues. And our hope is that out of the three candidates, we could find our champion today. We have two other congressional candidates in California that we've endorsed. One of them, Randy Viegas in the Central Valley, who is running against both the Democratic and Republican establishment in in the Central Valley, and my Vang in Sacramento, who is running against the Democratic machine who's held that seat for 50 years.

So, I want to thank you all for coming. If you if you believe in a new system, if you believe in a new party, if you're tired of the same old [ __ ] I invite you to come and and join the California WFP. We're going to be doing an afterparty at the beer hall right down the street. Come talk to us upstairs. Thank you so much. And I'll pass it to the moderators.

Well, thank you kindly for coming out on a Wednesday. I'm Joe Esenazi. To my right is Cynthia Leair. Uh, some quick rules before we get into tonight's activities. Uh, the candidates uh opening statements will be two minutes long. The responses to the moderator questions will be 2 minutes long and if they are referenced by another candidate, they have a right for a rebuttal. Uh, signal to us. Don't just rebut and you will be granted and it will come in nice and smooth. The closing statements will be three minutes long. The speaking order tonight will be first Supervisor Connie Chan, then Senator Scott Weiner, and then Mr. Shroycott Chak Rabardi as determined by the high-tech straw poll prior to tonight's event.

Timekeeping for the candidates. You have two minutes to answer the questions. Uh, keep an eye over here on Jane and Asia. They are your timekeepers tonight. They will hold up a sign that says 1 minute. Then they will subsequently hold up a sign that says 30 seconds. and then they will hold up a sign that says stop. Please stop in a timely way. Now I'll hand this one over to uh Cynthia to speak to the audience.

Hi everybody. Um, we all know that you want to hear from the candidates. So we're asking that you please keep your applause till the end. Um, and no heckling, no holding signs. Uh, you can wave your hands in the air like that if you want to signify your support. Thank you.

One last thing before we get started tonight. Uh, please a moment of silence for Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed today by ICE in Minneapolis. Thank you. Let us begin. The first question is, San Francisco's District 11 has had only one member of Congress since any of the people on this stage arrived in this city. Since nobody else can be Nancy Pelosi, the question is, what is the role of a San Francisco congressperson?

Oh, Jesus Christ. [laughter]

Indeed. So, that will be your first question, but first, there'll be opening statements starting with Supervisor Connie Chan.

That That was good. Like a good icebreaker.

Um, thank you, Cynthia, and thank you, Joe, for uh moderating this evening. Um, we need to take the country back from Donald Trump by and through a Democratic majority in Congress and delivering for the American people. But we cannot take back the Congress uh by coing up billionaires. We can only do that by standing up for the people. And that's what we need to do. Um, and I want to say this that um, this is what we continue to do in San Francisco where I am uh, a supervisor here and as your budget chair that is what we have done together to make sure that our most vulnerable have the resources that they need that they can thrive in San Francisco without selling San Francisco. And that's what's missing in Congress. They are selling out our country by giving aways tax cuts to billionaires and allowing Trump to abuse his power in office. We're not going to let them do that. We cannot let them do that. Let me be clear. Um, I am the only candidate on this stage today that have beat back the billionaires and their pack and won, not once, but twice. And we will continue to do that. And we have built a coalition and we have the tenacity and we're going to bring that to Washington DC and beat back the billionaires and the fascists right now in our White House. and I need to do that with your support and I hope to have your support. I'm Connie Chan and I'm running for Congress to represent you in Washington DC. Thank you.

Remember folks, hold the applause to the end. Thank you kindly, Senator Scott Winner.

Great. Good evening and thank you for having us. Uh, for the last 28 years, I have woken up every day asking myself, what am I going to do for San Franciscans today? Back when I was defending low-income renters who was who are facing eviction, back when we were building our LGBT community center in San Francisco to the work that I've done delivering for this community on the board of supervisors and now as your state senator. I don't just talk, I deliver. Just last week, various laws I wrote came into effect, including a law capping insulin co-pays at $35 a month. A law banning ICE agents from wearing face masks. Two laws protecting trans people from harassment, criminalization, and doxing. And a law to prevent our public transportation systems from collapsing. That's on top of the work that we have been doing, work that I have helped lead to change how we approach housing in California so that we build the housing that we need, including nearly 4,000 affordable homes here in San Francisco. The work we've done fighting the insurance companies to force them to cover more mental health and addiction care. And the work that we've done, the law that I passed to move California in the direction of singlepayer healthcare. We are at a moment in time where we have we need Democrats who don't just talk, who don't just grandstand. Democrats who know how to build the diverse coalitions to turn progressive ideas into progressive laws, who have the backbone, as I do, to stand up to the largest corporations in the world and win as I have, and to stand up to MAGA even when they direct thousands of death threats to you, which I have done, sticking up for trans kids. It would be a deep honor to represent this community in Congress.

[applause]

Thank you, Senator Weiner. Uh, Shy Chakraardi, thank you for hosting this. Look, we're living in unprecedented times right now. AI, climate change, an authoritarian regime that just murdered a protester today. If I told you 10 years ago that we'd be sitting here today, you wouldn't have believed it. But here we are. The only way we defeat MAGA and tackle these huge challenges is to do politics in a way that we haven't done for generations. We need to deliver a fundamentally better life for all. And to do that, we need to perform major surgery on the entire system. We're going to have to take on not just NAGA Republicans, but corporate money and a failed Democratic establishment. We we need to completely change the direction and the leadership of the Democratic Party. And I know this all sounds pie in the sky, but I'm not the only one running to do it. We're in a change moment right now. Zoron just won in New York. And there's candidates all over the country right now challenging the establishment. No, this is the culmination of a movement that started with Bernie 2016 where I served as the director of organizing technology. After that, I started Justice Democrats where we primared corporate Democrats at a time that nobody else won and we elected the squad. I recruited AOC and ran her campaign where she defeated the third most powerful Democrat in the country. And as her chief of staff, I led the creation of the Green New Deal that led to the largest investment in climate in US history. Every time we challenged the system, they told us it was impossible. We changed what possible was. Look, DC isn't Sacramento or city hall where Democrats run everything. I'm the only candidate on stage that's turned big ideas into results in Washington. And San Francisco faces the effects of a broken status quo harder than any ever anywhere. We can't afford more career politicians pitching small reforms. I'm not running to build a career in politics. I'm running because we have a once in a generation opportunity to change what's possible.

[applause]

Thank you kindly. You've gotten the applause out of your system. Please hold it to the end. [laughter] I will reiterate the question that I previewed for you inadvertently. [laughter] Senator Supervisor Chan still gets the lead off. San Francisco's District 11 has had only one member of Congress since any of the people on this stage have arrived in this city. Since nobody else can be Nancy Pelosi, the question is what is the role of a San Francisco congressperson, Supervisor Chan?

Well, you know that I would say it's a similar question that when people ask what does a supervisor do? Um, you know, a congresswoman from San Francisco is to represent San Francisco, the people of San Francisco, and we bring the San Francisco values to Washington DC. Um, and that is what I see the role of a congresswoman um from here and there's so much to be done uh in Washington DC but it is true San Francisco is tough uh if anybody knows San Francisco uh it is a very diverse city with many ideologies and a great spectrum of politics and yet here I am as your budget chair took office in 2011 11 uh uh and 2021 and that I have uh worked with two different mayors, very different working styles by the way and two uh different uh sets of board supervisors. one you would consider probably progressive and the other one considered moderate. And yet here we are uh we're able to pass budget time and again a balanced budget um during the most difficult time when we try to recovery from uh COVID and then to Trump's cruel cruel cuts to our health care and our food security programming. We have delivered. We can be smart and innovative and progressive but also pragmatic. We will bring that very same approach to Washington DC and that is a representative that San Francisco deserves and that is what a Congress member will do from San Francisco when we arrive in Washington DC.

Thank you Supervisor Chan. Same question Senator Weiner.

Great. Um, so when we look at this seat, this is not just any congressional seat. This is San Francisco and San Francisco leads. And what happens here in city hall at the state capital that sends a message for the entire country and it always has. And we have a history of electing members of Congress who have been national leaders, not not just good values, of course, got to have good progressive values, but national leaders who actually get things done and deliver and move mountains. Nancy Pelosi did that. Phil Burton did that. We have a history of sending a highly effective operational people, strategic thinkers to Washington DC. And that's what we need in a member of Congress. It's not enough 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. You've got to show that you are going to be up to the task to build the broad-based coalitions that we need to deliver singlepayer health care and replace this broken health care system to deliver public power to deliver uh for our LGBTQ community to get actually get rid of ICE and replace it with something that's not a terror organization. That's what we need. someone who can actually build the coalition. And when they spend a billion dollars demonizing you, like they've done in Nancy Pelosi, they spend a lot of money against me, too. I was just on Fox News, right? Again, the other day, and the New York Post, they come after me. MAGA comes after me. There's a whole page on my website called Scots MAGA Fan Club. They don't want they don't want me in DC because they know I know how to beat them. That's what we need in Congress.

Thank you, Senator Weiner. Mr. Chuckardi,

Can I have 30 seconds for rebutt?

You may.

So, first off, I wasn't there for 6 months. It's disappointing you're lying about my record and time there. But when we first went to DC in 2019, this is what it takes to make change happen in DC. We there was no climate action being planned by the Democrats. Democrats have given up on climate change. And we said we wanted to introduce a Green New Deal to show Democrats that they needed to up the ambition on climate and treat climate not just as a crisis but as an opportunity to build millions of highways jobs and reverse decades of economic devastation. We did that where AOC did a sit in Nancy Pelosy's office on her first day in DC together with the Sunrise Movement and she risked her entire political career to do that. But that one act changed everything. And through inside outside organizing, we managed to get everybody running for president to respond. And that turned to bill back better, which turned to the IRA and passed and created the largest investment in climate in history. I got to go fast because I'm out of time. But all I have to say is in my time in DC, we changed climate politics entirely. Now, to answer your question, what is a representative from San Francisco uh do first off in 2026, defend San Franciscans? We have to understand that this is a Trump administration that is attacking our citizens. I'm going I when I was representative Okasio Cortez's chief of staff, I helped her build out her constituent services office. And a lot of people don't even realize that this is a function of your congressperson. But if you are attacked by the federal government, you come to your congressperson and we fight for you and it works. I saw how a phone call from even a staffer in that office could get people out of detention, could get a citizenship application moving, could get you a social security check that you missed. So that is going to be the number one priority of anybody from San Francisco. But second, it is the job of anybody from San Francisco to take this potential of change we have right now and push the country forward and turn that into reality. San Francisco has a long history of doing that. The movements in this city have turned into national policy from sanctuary cities, the disability rights movement, the gay rights movement. This city is a place where the representative should be pushing and Speaker Pelosi did that exactly that when she first went to uh Congress. She fought for uh aid for uh people suffering from HIV and AIDS and she got money into a district. So if you send me to Congress, I'll be someone who has the experience of turning this potential for change we have right now and turning that into a movement into the attention grabbing machine that you need to actually lever power in DC and turn that into reality and change the entire Democratic party so that we can have the systemic change that we need.

Thank you, sir. All right, the next question will start with Senator Weiner. Um, Nancy Pelosi kept a pretty good ear to the LGBTQ community during her tenure and long had gay men running her offices in San Francisco and Washington. Yet, so often we see candidates, gay or straight, say they support the LGBTQ community. Then once they get elected, we don't hear any from anything from them in their newsletters or through legislative action. If elected, what is your commitment to the queer community?

Thank you for that question. Uh uh my commitment is deep and I have shown the depth of my commitment to my community, to the LGBTQ community uh back to uh when I first came out uh as a 20-year-old in 1990 in Durham, North Carolina uh and started volunteering immediately on an AIDS crisis hotline when there was no treatment and I had to sit there on the phone talking to gay men who had just tested positive, which was a likely death sentence, and to their families. That was my entry point into this community during another time of darkness. Another time when the federal government had turned its back on us and frankly was wishing for us to die faster. And we rallied as a community to survive. Not everyone survived, but we survived as a community in the face of that hostility. And that absolutely energized me since then to go to the mat for this community, to go to the mat when we built the LGBT community center, to go to the mat on the board of supervisors where I was every year the lead. We would get federal HIV cuts and I was the lead in restoring that. I was the lead on the board of supervisors in working with our departments and advocates to craft the getting to zero strategy, which is a world global model. And as your state senator, I there's a reason why Megan Kelly tweeted after I got in this race saying we cannot let Scott Weiner go to Congress and why Marjorie Taylor Green attacks me so much. It is because I have gone to the mat sticking up particularly for LGBTQ kids and particularly for trans kids including authoring California's trans state of refuge law authoring our HIV decriminalization law authoring law after law to protect our community even when it's not popular even when people in politics come to me and say don't be so vocal about trans people the polling isn't there I don't give a damn what the polling says I will never aband in this community. I will always go to the mat.

Mr. Chakraarti,

The LGBTQ community is a core fabric of San Francisco. And I'm going to keep with my predecessor's tradition of holding regular roundts with the community here. Right now, we're seeing massive attacks on trans people and trans healthcare from this Trump administration. But we got to be clear, this is not going to stop at trans people. They're coming for the entire community. This is about erasing the LGBTQ community from ex from in their mind existing. So, as your representative of Congress, I will absolutely fight for the LGBTQ community and for all healthcare for gay and trans and uh and queer people. And when I was in Congress as AOC's chief of staff, uh one thing I saw is it's not just about fighting the Trump administration. We also have to fight a lot of the corporate CEOs that are enabling them and that are currently holding back healthcare for gay people. Uh, we did a committee hearing where we took the CEO of Gilead and brought him out and it was a strategic meeting. We had to make the legal case for creating generic prep. At the time prep was unaffordable because it was being controlled by Gilead in a monopoly. And the the hearing that we did laid the groundwork that created the pressure that eventually led to Gilead creating generic prep before they lost their patents. And right now we have a new drug, injectable prep, that if you just take a shot twice a year, you are 100% effective against HIV. It has a chance to completely wipe out HIV, but it costs $28,000 a year. So, I'm going to do the exact same thing because Gilead again, I'm I know that guy. I'm going to bring him back. I'm going to put him in the hot seat. We're going to get we are going to get generic injectable prep because this is a na this is a crisis that we have to tackle like a crisis. Now, the last thing I want to say is at the end of the day, I'm out of time, I think, but at the end of the day, uh, this is about forefronting the LGBTQ community. And I have seen a lot of Democrats across the country currently throwing trans people under the bus and saying that trans people are the reason that we lost last election. That's not why we lost the election. We lost the election because people wanted systemic change and they thought Trump would deliver that. So, we need to create a new vision of a party that is inclusive of everybody, that is going to be better for all, that's going to create more more prosperity for all. And that's what I'm going to fight to do, and that's what I've experienced doing in DC.

Supervisor Chan,

Thank you. I do believe that the city's budget is a statement of our values and so is the federal budget and as an ally, if we value our LGBTQ plus community, then we must do so. And we do that in the San Francisco city budget been longstanding that we continue when the federal government reduce and cannot sustain the Ryan White act on a local level. We make sure that we fund it. So when we know that our transgender communities are under attack, we want to make sure that our local health care facility continue to provide HIV and AIDS resources as well as gender affirming care. These are critical health care for our LGBTQ plus community and that we know that when we build parks and when we build our public space, we've got to put in a budget for all gender restroom and those things are the musts. And when I get to Congress as your congresswoman, we going to fight that together. We're going to make sure the appropriation bill and the spending bill, it's going to be what the our values are and hold up that values to say that LGBTQ communities matter. They are important to us. They are part of not just the fabric uh of San Francisco, but the entire country and we're going to make sure the federal government and its funding say so. Thank you.

All right. Um, the next question will start with u Mr. Chuckardi. What are three accomplishments either legislative or otherwise within government that you are most proud of and how have they benefited the lives of workingclass San Franciscans.

Thank you. The number one accomplishment that I'm extremely proud of is the work we did with the Green New Deal. I rushed through the story earlier, but I rushed through the story earlier, but what we did during the Green New Deal fight was after AOC did that sit in in Nancy Pelosy's office together with Sunrise Movement that [clears throat] blew up the Green New Deal in the media and the result of that was all of a sudden everyone had to talk about it and then through continued inside outside organizing. So that sunrise movement is showing up to these presidential town halls on the outside while I was on the inside calling up everybody running for president saying push this idea, push that idea. That resulted in everybody running for president to respond to a green new deal with their own ambitious climate plans including Joe Biden. He responded with bill back better which turned into the inflation reduction act and that passed and created the largest investment in climate change in history. The second piece thing that I am proud of I am very proud about creating uh generic prep. That was an idea that we had in our uh legislative office that we ran through and created generic prep uh in a uh over the course of the next two years. And the third piece during the first Trump administration, we used committee hearings um very strategically. We did a committee hearing with Michael Cohen. He was Trump's lawyer that came into the hot seat. Our goal for that hearing was to try to create the paper trail to actually prosecute Donald Trump and all Cohen's colleagues. And we did manage to get Alan Weiselberg. He was one of Cohen's colleagues and he ended up in jail. So that's the kind of thing that I'm gonna do with my committee hearings in Congress in 2026 to hold this administration accountable and have them face jail time.

Supervisor Chan,

When Trump uh took office this year, um one of the first thing that we know that he is going to do is to really cut funding and support to house people, to care for people. And we know again as your budget chair that what we have to do in San Francisco on a local level. We know that we need to fight back. And so working with Mayor Lurri, working with my colleagues on the board of supervisors, we make sure that we put away $400 million on reserve to fending off Medicaid cuts. Now, please understand this though. $400 million sounds like a lot of money. it wasn't enough because in one year alone, San Francisco received more than a billion dollars of Medicaid funding. So, we know the $400 million is not enough and we have to do more. But last fall, we also then learned that Trump took away SNAP, which is Calresh for us, for our city. that is impacting 112,000 people out of which 48,000 were seniors and 18,000 thousands were children. This is what we're going to do when we're in Washington DC. We're going to make sure that we're going to fight for those funding to be restored. We know that health care is so important to everyday working people. We without our health there's nothing. And we know that there are families that are worrying about should we put food on the table or should we buy medicine and that is the problem that we're facing and we're going to make sure that not only that we restore those cuts, we're going to expand health care because that is where it goes. Medicare for all is what we must do for working people not just in San Francisco or California but across the nation.

Senator Weiner,

Thank you. Um, so, uh, very proud of a few things we've been able to deliver for working people. Uh, first, we've been able to do a lot of work to help new parents. And so, when I was on the board of supervisors because it is so hard to raise kids in this city. It is hard. It's expensive. And working-class families are being pushed out. And people are being pushed out because, god forbid, they have that second kid. So, I authored San Francisco's paid parental leave ordinance, which provides 100% wage replacement for new parents. And then in the Senate, I authored California's lactation access bill so that new mothers uh can have a place to actually lactate and be able to work and provide uh breast milk uh for their uh for their child. Um, the work we've done on housing uh you know that housing intersects with everything in terms of it being so hard for people to survive in this city and we all know people who have been pushed out of San Francisco not because they were evicted. Some of them were evicted, but some of them they just could not find the place that they could afford. And so that's why so much of my life's work has been the idea that we have a massive housing shortage. We need to build more of every kind of housing. And the work that I've helped lead the national movement that we've built has resulted in San Francisco nearly 4,000 affordable homes uh being built. Uh, I'm also very proud of the work uh that we've done around public transportation. two years ago in 2023, um I played a key role in delivering $400 million uh in emergency funding for Bay Area transit systems. Without that money, we would have had collapsed transit systems in the Bay Area. And last year, I authored the legislation to allow for a regional funding measure next November so that BART, MUN, Cal Train, AC Transit don't collapse. That is the last thing anyone and particularly working-class people need to have collapsed transit system. So we went to the mat and I will do that absolutely in Congress on housing on transit support for parents.

Thank you kindly. This question starts with supervisor Chan. Senator Weiner has called for the impeachment of President Trump over his invasion of Venezuela and capture of Nicholas Maduro. Uh, assuming you agree, please explain why this is necessary, especially in light of Republicans holding the majority in both the House and Senate.

Oh, I mean, I think that there are many other charges that we could uh impeach Trump on in addition to this one. Um, I think that this is a moment that uh Democrats have to show that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Can we impeach Trump, but also deliver for the American people? And we have to do both. And yes, sure. Yes, we should spend our time and resources to impeach Trump and making sure that we have someone in the White House 2028 and earlier if we can um, you know, to to to do that. But the reality is the American people are looking to us. San Franciscans are looking to us. They're looking to us to deliver for them to make sure that we can rebuild the middle class, that we can lower the cost of living, that we can have better wages, that we can actually love whoever we want to love and be wherever we want to be and not be afraid um and not have to think that one day we may lose our family because now they're deported or worse disappeared. And these are the things that American people, San Franciscans and Californians are looking to us to do. And I think that we can, if we can do both, great. But I would say as uh a candidate running for Congress and as your Congress member, I want to prioritize and make sure that I deliver for you, the working people in San Francisco, and that I bring back those resources to our city and to our state. Because when our economy is strong, our people are strong, our community is safe, I think we can do a lot more, and that's including to take back the house uh in 2026. It's here. Let's do it.

Um, I mean, Trump is a he's a walking impeachable offense. Um, uh, there's probably like 10 per day, uh, which is just extraordinary to even get uh your head around. uh, in addition to the non-impeachable offenses that are just vile like trying to destroy Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and taking food assistance away from low-income families just vile in addition to the impeachable offenses. Uh, in terms of Venezuela, we need to be clear Nicholas Maduro is a despicable, horrible despite who stole the election, who collapsed uh the Venezuelan economy and caused a mass out migration that's destabilizing the region. He's a horrific human being. But Donald Trump didn't topple him in order to help the people of Venezuela. He he went in because he wants the oil. He wants the power. He's doing it for his own arandisement. He's already said he's going to control the oil money. That's what he announced today. Uh, and he's going to it's all about him. Uh, and so he's not doing it to help Venezuela. And I don't have any confidence that he's now going to take steps to make sure Venezuela has a free and fair election and gets stabilized for the benefit of the people of Venezuela. And I will also just say we have a lot of Venezuelan immigrants living here in San Franciscan who have been living in fear for a long time. He sent a whole bunch of uh Venezuelan immigrants with no criminal record to that goolog in El Salvador. And by the way, we need to ban private prisons throughout this country. Uh, and then he is still threatening to deport Venezuelan immigrants who are living in this country, who are part of our community, uh, and who deserve to be able to stay here and to be safe. Donald Trump is about Donald Trump. Uh, he's about no one else other than himself. He needs to be out of office for a thousand different reasons.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Chuckardi.

Yeah, I mean, he shouldn't be impeached because this was a war crime. I mean, it doesn't matter that Madura was a bad guy. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, too. But it's terrible to go in and topple the leader of a sovereign nation. That is a war crime. But we've also got to realize how we got to this place. We've been expanding executive authority to do unilateral military strikes under Democratic and Republican administrations since the Iraq war. We passed the authorization of use for military force back in 2001, Democratic and Republican votes. That's what Trump was using to do his strikes on fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela. And the thing about this bipartisan consensus for war right now is it's entirely unpopular. Like 16% of Republicans want a bigger defense budget. 3% of Democrats want a bigger defense budget. People do not want this. But we have a longstanding foreign policy of subjugating the rest of the world through our military might. And that has to completely change. A few weeks ago, there was a $900 billion defense budget that got passed with 115 Democrats voting for it, including unfortunately our representative here. And I actually call that out at the time saying that this would have been the point to hold the line because it was clear Trump was going to use this money to invade Venezuela. He was telegraphing it all over the place and he wanted to go in there for the oil money. So, what we actually need to do right now is create a movement of candidates across the country, which is popping up. this is happening that will go into power and completely change American foreign policy so we stop toppling nations getting into endless wars and doing what we've been doing in Latin America for a long time because this is not the first time we've toppled a country in Latin America and we need to end this and move to an entirely new foreign policy of peace thank you [applause]

Um, we'll start with Senator Weiner for this next question. What specific federal actions would you take to protect LGBTQ plus people, especially trans people and queer people of color in the current political climate. Threats include, but are not limited to, a recent Trump proposal to defund hospitals should they provide gender affirming care for minors. What could you do either legislatively through funding or oversight? And please be specific.

Absolutely. Um, first of [clears throat] all, um, a lot of people may not always remember that we still in 2025 don't have a comprehensive federal civil rights law protecting LGBTQ people, not just employment, but housing and public accommodations and everywhere else. And so, we absolutely need to pass that ASAP, not just for employment, but globally. Uh, as part of that, we need to override and eliminate, wipe away all of these red state, anti-trans, anti-drag queen, anti-LGBTQ hate laws that they have passed. Because always remember what Trump is doing. It was all building on the work that happened in Texas and Florida and these other states to try to erase and eliminate LGBTQ people, particularly trans people entirely. So, we need to override as a matter of civil rights those laws and wipe them off of the books. Uh, we need a law to protect LGBTQ people living in long-term care. Uh, we have an aging population. Uh, and I authored California's law to protect uh, queer people who are in nursing homes, etc. We need to bring that national uh and we need to protect our youth and that is because we know that uh in terms of homeless youth um almost half are LGBTQ uh we're over represented in the foster care system uh and we need a much stronger safety net uh for youth who are either at risk of homelessness who become homeless who are in the foster care system who are exiting the foster care system. Uh, and then we need to put, it's illegal what they're doing now to try to tell hospitals that if you provide gender affirming care to young people, you're going to lose all of your Medicare and Medicaid. That has to be litigated. It's disgusting and it's also illegal. Uh, if we need to make crystal clear that it's illegal. Gender affirming care is health care and and these kids and adults have a right to health care and we need to enshrine that in the law uh and make very very clear that we're not going to allow them to erase this community.

Thank you. Kylie,

Mr. Chakobarti.

Yeah. When it comes to defending our LGBTQ community, I think it's great that we have a stage full of legislators who are all going to be standing firm on this. And I agree with a lot of the laws that you say you want to pass. And I'd go one step further and say we should use our power of congressional oversight to go after the administration for their illegal actions on trying to restrict Medicare and Medicaid access for hospitals that provide gender affirming care. But the question right now is how do we get any of these laws passed? Because under a Trump administration, and I'm sad to say even under a Democratic administration 2028, if things go the way they're going, we're not going to get these laws passed in DC. A lot of the Democrats that we have there right now, they don't want this to happen. They think that we need to become a party that shies away from the trans community, that throws the trans community under the bus. The only way we're going to get these laws passed is if we replace a whole lot of the Democratic party. And that is something that I'm calling to do. We need to primary corporate Democrats, your primary Democrats who aren't part of this vision of an inclusive and expansive and prosperous society for all people, including the LGBTQ community.

Supervisor Chan,

I say that um s so goes San Francisco, so goes the nation. San Francisco has done and what we can to provide and make sure that um our LGBTQ community is cared for. And the two things that I have learned in San Francisco that we got to make sure that we fund and that we actually really ensure to protect our transgender community particularly our transgender youth is school and as well as in this case and the because of the question and in hospital and in our clinic and in San Francisco. What what we have done great is that we make sure that both from our child care to our classrooms to free city college and our community college space that we make sure that we have those spaces that are safe learning environment for our transgender young people and our LGBTQ plus community. And that is what we ought to do when we think about the federal government and when we think about how Trump administration and the reason why he has been dismantling the department of education for that very same reason. And that is what we need to do to roll back how he dismantled our department of education through funding and through code uh different titles that like he has stopped funding so therefore they're not being enforced and that's something we need to look at. and for hospital care and I would say that in San Francisco what we have done really great is community clinic and a local care in neighborhoods and that is what we have to do in the federal and what we can do in our spending bill tweaking it to making sure that we're allowing additional option other than these big hospital care. Let's fund it everywhere. Let's tweak the code uh for local clinics as well as for hospital that we can actually fund the care that our LGBTQ community needs.

Next question will be leading off with Mr. Chabardi. Barring unforeseen lunacy, one of the three of you will be our next representative in Congress. How would you assess the performance thus far? And particularly at this moment in history of the Congressional Democratic leadership, assuming it hasn't been perfect, what could be better?

Sorry, can you repeat the question? I couldn't.

How would you assess at this particular moment in history the leadership of our congressional Democrats? Assuming it hasn't been perfect. What could be better?

[laughter] It is a coincidence that you lead off this question. That's just how it worked out. I believe our Democratic leadership has a been a complete failure. I would give it an F right now. And I've called for primary not just Chuck Schumer, but also Keem Jeff. We need to realize that we're living in an authoritarian coup right now. And that means that when we do fights like fighting for health care for Americans with the ACA fight, you don't fold on that. You don't fold on that. You hold the line. It also means we need to legislate in a We need legislators to see their jobs as completely different in this moment. You're not just policy makers. When you're in the middle of an authoritarian coup, civil society is the big bull work against fascism. Legislators right now need to see their job as organizers of civil society. So what I mean specifically by that when Trump goes after universities or law firms or media companies, he comes after them one at a time and individually they fall. But if you could organize as collective blocks, you could actually oppose this administration. And I've talked to lawyers who are trying to do that kind of organizing right now. And I've asked them, would it help if you had some politicians who would get your back? They said, yeah, absolutely. And that is what I will do when I'm in Congress. But beyond this, what we're seeing is a complete failure of actually getting any sort of coherent message across about what the Democrats stand for, who they're for, and how they're fighting this administration. And the few times that they've done it, they've kind of won. Like we saw this with Kilmargo Garcia when he got deported to SECOT and uh Chris Van Holland went down there, he made an issue, he stuck with it, and then Trump's immigration uh approval numbers started going down and he backed off and he caved. That is the way we should be fighting everything right now. We need to be sticking to issues. We need to be fighting. And unfortunately, I mean, it's hard to imagine Hakee Jeff and Chuck Schubert doing that kind of fight. And so I, you know, I get their point, but they're completely not fit for this moment. They don't know what to do in this moment. And they don't have a vision for what the future

should be, and that's why they need to be replaced. We need new leadership.

>> Thank you kindly.

>> Save it for later, people. Supervisor Chan,

I think what is happening here is that when, um, federal government, uh, elected leadership fail to deliver for people, they feel dismissed. They're not being heard. Um, so they turn away. I, I don't think it's just about, uh, Democrats or Republicans. I think that no matter what, if we're not delivering for people, they turn away. They're not going to be with us. Um, and, and this is the problem I think for the Democratic party at this moment because we say we're for the working people and that, and yet on our agenda, we often time have not delivered for the working people, and it makes a really difficult argument of why they should vote for us again. And I think that this is what happened in Congress, that we talk about attacking Trump, as we should, because he's doing terrible, terrible things. I think that we have to attack Trump and take back our country from Trump, but also delivering for the working people. We have to be able to do the same and to also know that the one of the way, in fact, the best way to defeat Trump and the Republican in 2026 is to tell the American people what are our solutions. How do we lower your living wage, uh, living cost and raise your living wage and making sure that you can live in a city like San Francisco? Um, how do we make sure that you have healthcare? How do we make sure that you have good education? If you want to have higher education, maybe what we can do is to have free community colleges, not just in San Francisco, but across the nation. When people have those opportunities, they will vote for Democrats. And I think that is what happened in Congress right now. They are not delivering for the working people. They are in Venezuela stealing oil. And that is the problem.

>> Thank you. Kindly, Senator Weiner.

Um, so when, when the Senate Democrats folded on, not all of them, but enough folded on the budget and the government reopening, that was a horrible mistake in my view. When you are in a position that we're, this is not a normal time. This is not, you know, old school 1955 Democrats, Republicans. This is a new world with the fascism that this movement and this president have brought, brought to this country. And we have to use every ounce of leverage that we have, even when it's comfortable, uncomfortable, even when it's painful, we have to use that leverage. We have limited power in Congress as Democrats right now. We're going to change that. We need to change that. But we have to use the power that we have. And so that was a failure in my view. Um, we, I think we are going to take back the House in November. If we take back the House, I hope we take back the Senate, too. It's a little bit harder. But if we take back the House and not the Senate, we need to make sure that the House of Representatives is holding the line and not folding and using that leverage for accountability and oversight and investigation, as well as making sure that we are not agreeing to horrible budgets and horrible terms to keep the government functioning and making sure that we are sending over bills to the Senate, even if they may die there, to hold their feet to the fire on healthcare, on housing, on food, and all of the critical issues. We have to use every ounce of power and leverage we have.

>> Thank you kindly. Next question starts with Supervisor Chan. Would you, as Congressperson, push for full enforcement of the Raker Act or any other methods to municipalize PG&E or otherwise curtail its monopoly status?

>> Sorry, wait one more time. Would you, as Congressperson, push for full enforcement of the Raker Act or any other methods to municipalize PG&E or otherwise curtail its monopoly status?

>> Yeah, I mean, I think, oh boy. Look, uh, PG&E is a private company that is a monopoly for the entire state of California. Uh, they are a monopoly and therefore they don't have to fulfill their obligation, uh, to deliver safe and reliable energy, uh, to a city like San Francisco and still get away with it and still raise our utility bills. That is not acceptable. Um, San Francisco has done really well, uh, in on a local level. We have what we call a community choice aggregation. Your power, our power comes from a renewable energy source, which is great, and thanks to decades of work of many, uh, those who came before us and and laying the steps so that we can have clean power SF today. But what we don't have is really the infrastructure, your power grid, your power lines, and your substations, uh, that caught on fire, uh, and caused meltdown for the entire city. That is owned by PG&E. And we've been trying on a local level to figure out ways to make sure that we take away that monopoly, that we can own, and we can put the power back in our hands, pun intended. But at this moment, that I know that even in state level, that, uh, Senator Jerry Hill, uh, if you know him, he also established what is Golden Gate Energy to allow a step for the state-owned municipal energy. There's still so much to do. And this is the reason why as your Congresswoman, we're going to go to DC and we're going to unlock the federal regulation to make sure that we empower and authorize local counties and state to be able to have choices in their public power. Look, there's many different models that we can actually think about. Is it a state-owned model or is it a community choice aggregation model? The point is to break up the monopoly because that's the only way that we can have a competitive energy and lower your utility bills. And when you put your dollars and pay the bills, that goes back to the infrastructure, unlike PG&E right now, it's going back into the pockets of their executives.

>> Thank you, Supervisor. Senator Weiner.

Um, yes, absolutely. Uh, we should use every lever of power we have, including the Raker Act in Congress, uh, to, uh, make PG&E, uh, public, particularly in San Francisco. Uh, and, um, I have a long, uh, record of fighting for public power and fighting against PG&E when I was on the Board of Supervisors. Uh, I was one of the eight votes to create a veto-proof majority to create Clean Power SF, San Francisco's public power competitor, uh, to PG&E. It was a huge fight. Uh, I authored legislation to allow San Francisco public power to be able to be the power provider to new developments. That was a huge fight, uh, with PG&E. Uh, since I've been in the Senate, um, I authored, uh, a bill in 2020 to make the entirety of PG&E a publicly owned utility and to allow San Francisco and other cities, uh, to break off. PG&E is extremely powerful in the capital, along with its, its union. They fight and they kill, uh, a lot of efforts to, uh, create public power. Uh, I've also fought with PG&E, uh, to allow more, uh, uh, decentralized energy generation, rooftop solar, microgrids, etc. We need to make PG&E a public utility. Just today, I rolled out a new bill, uh, after the disaster that we saw last month, uh, to allow cities to make it easier for cities to break away and form their own public utility to break up with PG&E. And San Francisco needs to break up with PG&E.

>> Thank you, Senator. Mr. Chakabarti.

>> So, yes, I'll enforce the Raker Act. And specifically, what that means is on day one, I'm going to instruct the Department of Interior to enforce the Raker Act, forcing the city to use eminent domain powers to take over PG&E and move to public power. Cities that have public power, like Sacramento and Palo Alto, they pay about 40% less than we do on their utility bills. And right now, at PG&E, their CEO makes about $17 million a year, and they're doing rate hikes so that their shareholders can make 11.3% returns. Those are ridiculous returns in this economy. All right. So, this is about money at the end of the day. And PG&E, they spend tons of money keeping the status quo. And I'm not taking any corporate money in my campaign. I'm not going to take any money from PG&E. I'm gonna also use congressional hearings, bring their CEO in front of Congress to hold their feet to the fire to, uh, uh, to have them explain why they're bringing the law. Because it's not just the Raker Act. The Raker Act passed in 1913, that saying that we should have public power in the city. In 1940, a Supreme Court decision ruled that the current setup is illegal. So, they're currently in violation of federal law. So, we need to enforce this, and we don't need to pass any new legislation. Currently, the city has been trying to get to public power by negotiating with PG&E, with CPUC, which is largely owned by PG&E, if people know, and it's not working. We can't work with them to get to this. They're bad actors. They're not going to come to the table. We need to use our eminent domain power that we already have in the city. Get the process going now. Offer a price, and let's get to public power as fast as we can.

>> Thank you, Kylie. Uh, this next question, we'll start with Senator Weiner. Uh, San Francisco has one of the largest populations of people aging with HIV, many on fixed incomes. How will you protect and expand federal funding for HIV-specific housing programs like the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS, or HOPWA? And what would you do to ensure those funds actually keep pace with San Francisco's housing costs?

>> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, this is extremely important. When we look, uh, we've, in San Francisco, uh, we have done a good job, uh, with our Getting to Zero plan to try to protect people from being infected, expanding access to PrEP. Uh, and, uh, in 2014, I was the first elected official in the country, uh, to, uh, uh, disclose publicly that I take PrEP to protect myself and to stay negative. Uh, and PrEP has been incredibly powerful. We have done a great job in San Francisco of making HIV testing easy, so people know, uh, when they become positive and can go on to medication quickly and become non-infectious. So, we've done a really good job reducing the number of infections, and we have a significant number of San Francisco residents who are long-term HIV survivors. Uh, so many of our HIV-positive population is over the age of 50, and it is our responsibility. We have an absolute sacred obligation to ensure that our HIV-positive neighbors who are aging can do so with dignity. Uh, and so the federal government has been pulling back from every form of HIV funding for a long time, under both Democrats and Republicans, and that's unconscionable. That will be a high priority for me to make sure that these programs are funded and expanded and that we stop with the contraction. Uh, but we also know that at the state and local level, we have to be there as well. Uh, I have worked hard to do that. Uh, and I'm proud of the work we've been able to do, and we will continue that work in Congress.

>> Mr. Chuckardi.

>> Yeah. Thank you. I mean, we have to get funding into HIV, uh, HIV housing right now in the city. And this is not just about appropriations. It's not just about getting the funding back that we have to keep fighting for every single Congress, right? Republicans take over, they cut the funding, Democrats get it, we get the funding back. We need a permanent source of funding. And a plan I've worked on is a very detailed plan for it, for a public bank at the national level. It's called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. We actually used to have this agency back in the New Deal, the World War II era. And we've worked on a detailed plan to bring this back. It could be a permanent source of funding, not just for this housing, but also for to make sure that the housing is be able to construct cheaper, because we can do things like stockpile construction materials to get inflation down and construction costs. And this way, if you have a permanent source of funding, you can have it keep up with the cost of inflation, because you can tie loans to the cost of, uh, the cost of inflation, the, uh, rate of inflation and the cost of construction today. Um, at the end of the day, we need permanent systemic solutions for these problems. And that's not going to happen under the current status quo that we have. We have to have a movement that takes power, that is talking about these larger ideas for how do you get to structural fixes so we're not just fighting for money every two years.

>> Supervisor Chan.

>> I learned about caring for our elders, um, from my mom, uh, my late mother. She was a, um, uh, senior program, uh, enrollment coordinator for, uh, Unlock, um, for the, and, and it's really working with the elderly. And, uh, short period before she passed, she passed in 2021. Short period before she passed, uh, her job was really, um, helping monolingual, uh, seniors to enroll in some of these programs. But short before, shortly before she passed, she started to also get to know a lot of, um, uh, LGBTQ seniors, also living with HIV and AIDS. And she and I were talking about how unique and different the needs were and, um, and what it means to care for them. And she was excited about it because she's learning something new. But also learning something, thinking about how we can make the care system better that is for different people with different needs. And in her case, for the longest time was, you know, monolingual seniors. And this is what I learned. And this is what I also learned as your budget chair is that when we are in DC, I'm going to go back to say Medicaid, Medicaid, Medicaid, Medicaid. Right now has this reimbursement called continuum of care. We have to expand that. And that is a different category for, um, our seniors who live with AIDS and HIV, uh, for when they can live independently or when they actually need in-home, uh, care services, and that they need to have some workers who go to their home to care for them. We need to expand and increase that care and that reimbursement. And then when and if they need to be in a skilled nursing home or even a hospice care, we need to make sure that we address those needs because those needs are unique. And I think that with different stages, is to make sure that we recognize those needs and uniquely addressing them. And when we're in DC, what we have to do is it is investment, investment, investment.

>> Thank you kindly. This next question will start out with Mr. Chakraarti. What can the federal government realistically do to improve housing in this city? How is your past working on housing relevant to this? And how are your policies on housing and construction the best ones moving forward?

>> Thank you. So, right now, housing is a crisis in the city. And a lot of the talk in the city is around upzoning and cutting red tape, and that's not bad. But what we're seeing is the housing is not actually getting built. We had an upzoning project or plan in SoMa in 2018. Basically, no units have been built from that. There's about 70,000 units entitled in the city right now that are not getting built. So, I have a plan for, it's a national housing plan that will make sure the housing gets built and make sure it's affordable and that will also preserve what keeps San Francisco, San Francisco. The first step of this is financing. So, I mentioned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This is an agency that could create, that could provide low-interest loans to developers to make sure housing gets built. But beyond that, it could do things like stockpile lumber and steel to reduce inflation. It did that during the New Deal era. And more than that, it could actually spin off public developers to build housing that private developers aren't going to build. I'm also the only one on stage, I believe, who's called for repealing the Faircloth Amendment. This is an amendment in Congress that currently restricts the amount of social housing we can build. Representative Ocasio-Cortez has a bill to repeal it. I'll join her on that. The second piece, we want to make sure we don't displace our neighbors while we are building all this housing. So that means massively increasing rental vouchers. It means federal funding and support for tenants' unions and community land trusts. It means being able to deduct your rent from your taxes the way we currently deduct, uh, mortgage payments. And the third piece is we have to tackle corporate speculation in our housing market. Go after private equity, hedge funds, and corporate landlords. So right now, and I'm going to do that through my congressional oversight powers to bring them in front of Congress and actually make the case to go after them legally. The thing is, this all-above housing approach, people don't want to happen in Congress because corporate interests are profiting off of this broken status quo that we have right now. So if we really want to do it, we, if we want to tackle housing at the level of the crisis that it's at, we need a plan like this, and we need the political power and will to make it happen. And I'm the only one here who has experience turning popular outrage on a crisis like housing into political will in DC.

>> Thank you kindly, Supervisor Chan.

I know that many to say San Francisco needs to build more, and we've been building, and we are building. Um, and if you think about it, you can see that in Southern Market, in Eastern Neighborhood, um, and those are the things that I have done as a legislative aide, uh, to Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who was our language chair. And in fact, she has pushed forward, uh, one of the largest redevelopment plans, um, in the southeast sector of the city. We know we do need to build more, not just on the east side, and let's also build on the west side. And we can continue to build. But what I know that two things to be true when we have to build housing: one is land, and the other one is money. These are the two key, uh, key elements that we have to have in order for us to deliver true, real housing. But not only that, is who are we building it for? Are we building for the people that can actually afford it, or are we building luxury condos that no one can, but they're left empty? Uh, and these are the things that we have to do on a federal level. I agree with Soycat that we actually have to figure out how to amend and repeal the Faircloth Law, because that will help us to extend rental subsidies to make sure that we can build housing that people can afford, and new housing too. Um, but I think that we could build more, uh, middle-class workforce housing too. And that is why I support, uh, Senator Adam Schiff's Housing Boom Act. It will bring $15 billion dollars, uh, to across the country. But definitely, we want that in California to make sure that we can use that money, a federal tax credit to build middle-class workforce housing. Look, um, I know this one thing also to be true, though, where we're at in San Francisco today. One of the best ways to actually solve homelessness is to make sure that people can stay housed. And that means to preserve the existing housing that we have today. The existing housing, including rent-controlled units that we have, is the most affordable and most valuable housing that we have in our city, and we must preserve them. If you save it all for the end, you can applaud louder.

Senator Weiner.

>> Um, [clears throat] we need a lot more housing of all varieties. Period. Full stop. Uh, and we have been, we, we have done so much, I think, good work at the state level that has unlocked new housing in San Francisco so that working families actually have a shot of being able to stay here. Just a few months ago, uh, Supervisor Chan and I were both at the ribbon cutting of a new seven-story affordable housing project on Geary Street for homeless veterans and for low-income seniors. Uh, and that project, which never would have been built before we changed state law, was built because of multiple state laws, one of which I passed, and because of $50 million in state housing funding that we were able to deliver to that project. You may have read in the paper today, there's a new apartment building being proposed, uh, moving forward in West Portal on West Portal Avenue. That will be the first significant apartment building built in West Portal since 1933, and it's being built because of the state laws that we passed. So, we need to take that work to Congress. Congress, the federal government used to play a huge role in housing in this country. It stopped, and that was right before homelessness spiked in this country. We need massive investment in affordable housing, in social housing, mixed-income social housing in this country. We have to make sure that we're giving incentives to cities to actually grant the permits quickly and not let the federal money get bogged down. We need to modernize our construction industry, which is often stuck in techniques from a hundred years ago. And we have to build and stabilize our skilled construction workforce. We have amazing construction workers who get laid off as soon as the economy goes down. We need to have the federal government, when the private sector goes down, more public investment to keep those skilled construction workers employed to build housing and public infrastructure.

Supervisor Chan has requested 30 seconds.

>> Yes. Um, I, I just want to correct the record about the 4200 Geary project. 100% unaffordable, 98 units of senior housing. That, I just want to give credit where credit is due, because that's what I learned about land. And again, you know, money. And that land is identified by former Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer. That was an empty funeral home, uh, for a decade. And then it was really kickstarted by the $600 million bond that was championed by, uh, President, former President, Norman Yee, Board President Norman Yee, and Mayor Breed. And that is again, land and money, and how you kickstart a real project, deliverous housing for people.

>> This next question will start with, uh, Supervisor Chan. San Francisco is home to many immigrants living with or at risk for HIV. How would you ensure that immigration policy does not prevent people from accessing federally funded HIV prevention and care programs, including testing, testing, treatment, prevention, housing, and care, especially those who fear deportation or loss of status?

>> And I think this is why we all love San Francisco. San Francisco is a sanctuary city. It gives, because it's a sanctuary city, it gives a lot of opportunities to, uh, our LGBTQ community, to the immigrant community, to many, many people with many different kinds of identities in one city. And with sanctuary city, we get to have and have programming and healthcare system that works for everyone, including those immigrants that are living with HIV and with AIDS and with different kinds of conditions. And we have about 500 cities that have sanctuary city status across the nation. It's not just San Francisco. And when we're in federal government, and when we're in Washington DC, when we're there, we're going to make sure that not only that we affirm sanctuary city status across the nation, we need to figure out ways by amending laws and changing appropriation bills to expand, uh, sanctuary status. And that will allow immigrants that have health conditions, including HIV, be able to receive care in those cities.

Senator Weiner.

>> So, I, I think there are two important things that we need to do. One, uh, and we've done this at the state level, to do everything we can to make it as hard as possible for ICE, ICE, to be able to access healthcare facilities, schools, as well. U, we don't need ICE in our hospitals, in our health clinics to scare people so that they don't seek care. And so we need, as we, replace ICE, abolish it, and replace it with an agency, uh, that is actually committed to the rule of law, um, we need to have an absolute ban on ICE being able to enter healthcare, uh, facilities. That is just incredibly harmful to community health. Uh, we also need to change federal law, uh, to make sure that we are not excluding immigrants from accessing healthcare. Right now, the federal law is horrible. Um, undocumented people in particular, uh, can't access, uh, Medicare, uh, uh, Medicaid in California. We changed our law so that Medical, and we fund it purely with state tax dollars to expand Medical to all residents of California, with or without documents. And so millions of, uh, a large number of undocumented Californians receive Medical, uh, right now. And so, but we need to change federal law to make sure that that happens. And that includes HIV care. It includes, uh, you know, all of the benefits that being a resident of this country should entitle you to. And so those are the two things that we need to do, and absolutely specific to HIV, but broadly as well.

Mr. Shakari.

>> Yes. San Francisco actually started a sanctuary city movement in the entire country. That started right here in the city. And the sanctuary city policies are very clear. There should be no coordination with ICE in these healthcare facilities. Not just that ICE can't come to the hospitals, but there should be no data sharing. There should be no coordination of whatso, of any kind. There should be no coordination between local law enforcement and ICE because we got to be clear, ICE right now is Trump's paramilitary force. It's got the same budget as the military of Canada, right? This is not an immigration enforcement agency. This is a, a Gestapo. But, you know, I think we have to go beyond just talking about having, uh, Medicaid and Medicare cover undocumented immigrants, because right now, you know, I was in Congress. You don't have Democrats who are going to support that. The same movement that's going to make that possible should be a movement that makes Medicare for All possible. And that means Medicare for All. Okay? So, that is what we need to get to. In 2028, the point at which we have an opportunity to actually protect our immigrants, protect their healthcare, is going to be, we're going to have to decide. Are we going to make that a moment where we yet again go back to an old status quo where nothing actually gets done? We say we're going to expand, you know, Medicaid to undocumented immigrants. That's not going to happen. Or do we make it a new movement that affirmatively, affirmatively believes this and passes Medicare for All?

>> Where are we? Oh, the next question, uh, will start with Senator Weiner. What are San Francisco's three most pressing problems and how can they be remedied federally?

>> Um, [clears throat] uh, housing, um, you know, is, to me, the, has long been the top issue in San Francisco. San Francisco, uh, we went over the housing cliff long before other parts of the state and parts of the country, and it is a contagion. It spread everywhere, and there are parts of California, for example, that used to be considered very affordable that no longer are, and people are being pushed out. Uh, and so that is such a huge issue in San Francisco in terms of people being able to stay here, people being able to make lives, uh, for themselves here. Um, I was, uh, when I was a baby attorney, I still remember when I was doing eviction defense pro bono work, a longtime HIV survivor who I was defending against an eviction. And I'll never forget when he said to me, "If I lose this apartment, I will have a choice to make. Either stay in San Francisco or either go back to the South where I'm from and have housing, but not have good HIV care, or or stay here, have good HIV care and be homeless." That's what we're dealing with in San Francisco, and it is the top problem. And I, I said before what I think we need to do in terms of massive federal investment, social housing, uh, you know, we need to make it easier, uh, for the financing to be able to build these projects, because it is too hard for projects to actually get the financing. Mental health is also a huge issue here. Uh, and we've done a lot of work in the legislature to expand access, uh, to mental health. Uh, we need to do that at the state level. I passed California's law to force the insurance companies to cover more mental health care. I want to take that work national. Uh, and then finally, we need to make sure people can get around, and that's public transportation. Our public transportation systems are a huge risk. We've done great work to save them in the legislature. Um, Congress needs to step up and massively, massively invest in rail and public transportation generally.

Mr. shot for a B.

>> The cost of living is the crisis in San Francisco, and one that is housing. And I explained what the federal government can do to massively decrease the cost of housing. It's going to boil down to financing, protecting residents from displacement, and going after predatory, uh, speculators that are in our housing market right now. And that's going to take a whole lot more than passing a few policies in, in Congress. Two, healthcare. That's the next biggest line item for most, uh, San Franciscans right now. That's affecting us in two ways. One, we, you know, San Franciscans are being robbed by healthcare companies that are just jacking up premiums. That's getting even worse right now in this very moment. But even when you look at our city budget, the largest line item for increasing employee costs in the city budget is healthcare benefits. And our only response as a city to that is to just cut other services because we can't do anything else about it. We have to solve healthcare at a national level. And that means not just Medicare for All, but I believe we have to go beyond that to starting to expand government-provided healthcare. We have an amazing VA here in San Francisco. That is government-provided healthcare. We have healthcare deserts all around the country, and we need to be talking about actually, uh, providing healthcare to fill in those deserts. And the third piece when it comes to the cost of living crisis, or not the cost of living crisis, but the third crisis in the, in San Francisco is the drug addiction crisis related to healthcare. But when we look at it, where are these drugs coming from? And the place that the drug addiction crisis started from was the, uh, healthcare lobby in the healthcare industry. It was the Sackler family that got started getting our country addicted on opioids, and they've continued doing that. I have a good friend who used to be an opioid addict. He got clean. And if you look at how we prescribe opioids, he ended up in the emergency room a few, uh, about a year ago, and he kept getting pushed these drugs. He kept saying no. And then the fifth time he gave up and he got back on. Compare that to the UK, the NHS. To prescribe Oxy there, you have to get sign-off from two different supervisors. So we need to completely change how we treat painkillers in this country. And we need to also make methadone widely available because that's what they have in Europe, and they don't have a fentanyl crisis there. But here, the root cause of all this is money, because there is an OTP lobby, opioid treatment clinic lobby, that pays to keep this monopoly on methadone. To get any of this done, you have to get rid of corruption in Congress.

Supervisor Chan.

>> I think that we do agree that, uh, San Francisco's rent is too high, and that the cost of living is too high, and that is the most pressing, uh, really thoughts on many of us living in San Francisco. And I think that at this moment, um, there's the three priorities and three approach and policy that we should focus on to help us to lower those costs of living. And, you know, first and foremost, really immigration policy. And traditionally, for the longest time, on a national level, that when it comes to immigration policy, especially for San Francisco, it's always seemed to be a bordering state issue because we're a sanctuary city. But no longer true under the Trump administration. This is a moment that we need to make sure that immigrants who build the city and make the city run and the local economy works, is that they need to be able to be safe. And that means when we're in DC, we have to continue to affirm birthright citizenship. That we do not allow Trump to take away naturalized citizenship. We have to invest in pathways to citizenship. And we have to make sure that we affirm sanctuary status. Of course, I agree healthcare is way too high. So, not only that, we need to restore the cuts, we need to expand it. We need to continue to make sure that the federal government funds reproductive care, funds gender-affirming care, and we need to make sure, yes, we're going to expand Medicare for All, uh, in the 21st century style. I want to say this, and I, it's really about education, because education is our future. And if we don't invest in it in San Francisco and in our nation, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. That means we need to fund affordable childcare. We need to fund K through 12 classrooms, and we need to, if we can, and we, we must, I would say, free city college and bring it all the way to Washington DC so that everybody has an opportunity for higher education. And then if they want to change jobs or have better jobs, they have a free community college in their neighborhood, in their city, to be there for them. And these are the ways that I believe will help us lower the cost of living and really address the pressing issues that San Franciscans face.

>> Thank you kindly. This question is for Mr. Chakraarti. What regulation should be placed on AI at a federal level, assuming you feel this is a worthwhile thing to do? Where could you find consensus?

>> So right now, when we look at AI, this is a technology that threatens to wipe out tons of jobs. I mean, the tech leaders are saying that might wipe out humanity itself. So the idea that we're going to be able to do this, just control this through just some few regulations, that's not going to happen. I know that we have some state bills in California that have tried to do this, but, you know, they have fines of a million dollars for violation of the regulation. These AI companies are spending a million dollars every 20 minutes. This is about control. We have a few CEOs right now, Sam Altman, you know, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, who are deciding entirely the future of our society. We cannot let them have that power. We need to make sure AI is used for humanity, not just to line the pockets of a few corporations. That's about getting control back into the hands of people on this. Now, I'm going to, [clears throat] give an example of the kind of thing we have to do, because this is so far beyond anything we do in this country right now. We had automation enter the car manufacturing industry in America versus Germany. In Germany, they have labor corporations and government who all sit on the boards of their car manufacturers, and they make five and 10-year industrial plans. So the result of automation and car manufacturing there was that at the end of 10 years, German car workers were making double the wages of their American counterparts. They were also making more cars per capita than America, and they had more automation. So there's a chance to use AI for the benefit of people, but only if the government has control over where this is going and how it's being introduced in our society, because it's not going to happen on its own.

>> Thank you kindly. Supervisor Chan.

>> Technology is here, and San Francisco has always been the capital of technology. Uh, we're adjacent to Silicon Valley. Um, but San Francisco also will find its way to regulate technology, and this is the moment. Um, technology can be a tool. Um, and it could be something that we can use to make our life better. Um, but if we don't regulate it, it's going to harm us. And it has shown that how it could, I mean, look at how Whimo just stopped working during the PG&E blackout, and nothing works in our city. Um, so that is a problem. Um, and what can we do? Look, I am a mom of a 12-year-old kid. He's very comfortable with technology. He really is way better than I am. And if I could have ways to just control him, I would love to, but I can't. Um, and so I have to learn to deal with it, just like all of us have to learn how to deal with technology and how do we regulate it and to make it a better tool to make us safer. It should not be a technology or a tool to take away workers' jobs. It should not be a tool that harms consumers and harms our kids. It should not be a technology that, I don't know, stops in the middle of intersections and then a choir truck can't get through. These are problems that we must regulate. But this, I am not saying that we ought to ban it, but we need to actually look at Epic, that is an AI telehealth, uh, technology. We need to regulate it to make sure that it truly is safer for people and patients, because it's a life and death situation. We need to make sure that our artists, our musicians have the right to their image and their voice, and copyright is important. We need to make sure that our kids are not chatting with a GPT instead of a human who can really hug them and love them and care for them. And these are things that we have to do in Washington DC and to regulate it, because I really do believe though, when it comes down to ringing in Silicon Valley, Washington DC is where it's at.

>> Thank you kindly. Senator Weiner.

Yeah, you know, I think the goal here, uh, with any powerful technology, and AI is probably the most powerful technology, uh, is how do we make sure that we can get the benefits of the technology and get ahead of the risks and reduce the risks. And I'll be honest that, uh, humanity, and particularly the US, has been pretty terrible at that. It's the year 2025, and there is no federal data privacy law in the US, not even a basic one. We passed one in California. It's 2025. There's no federal net neutrality law. We passed one. I authored it. It's 2025. There's not even a federal,

>> I hate to interrupt you. Benorn.

>> It's 2026.

>> Oh, sorry. [laughter]

>> Happy New Year.

>> We've all, we've all been there. You get like a 10-day grace period, right? [laughter] It is 2026, and we do not have a federal deep fakes revenge porn law. So someone's going to make an AI porn about your, uh, teenage daughter. We ban that, criminalize it. In California, the feds haven't gotten it together. And so, yeah, there are huge issues around the workforce, and we need to make sure this is not going to wipe out employment, but we know that there are so many benefits that can be derived, diseases that can be cured, antibiotics that can be created. How do we make sure we're getting the good without wiping out everyone's jobs, without having chatbots that are encouraging kids to kill themselves? We've done a lot of work in the legislature. Um, I authored a bill, the governor vetoed it last year. It was a, a big one to require these AI labs to do safety evaluations before they put a model out into public use. It's pretty basic. And to be responsible if something horrible happens and you didn't do that, that you could be sued and be liable. The governor vetoed that bill. We came back this year, and we were able to pass a bill to at least require them to say what their safety protocols are, to put up or shut up. Uh, and so we have a lot more work to do. Congress has been a failure on technology for the last 30 years on tech regulation. Uh, and that needs to change, and it needs to be a priority. How do we get the good and encourage good innovation that makes the world a better place? Uh, and try to reduce those risks. That's the balance we need to strike.

>> Thank you kindly. Next question leads off with Supervisor Chan. Californians may soon be voting on whether we should impose a 5% tax on billionaires. Billionaires are displeased. So are Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders. What is your position and why?

>> Oh, we're throwing down to tax the billionaires. Um, I mean, I, I mentioned it earlier. Uh, I am probably the only candidate, I am the only candidate that have beat back billionaires, uh, and won twice. But I also did that with my colleagues on the board, our labor partners, our communities, and San Franciscans. San Franciscans have voted to tax billionaires, and we have taxed overpaid CEOs, tax, and we're going to do some more. And I know that San Franciscans are ready to say, let's tax the billionaires throughout the state. But look, this is one time, uh, the statewide is actually a one-time 5% of the billions that they have. And mind you, in five years, these billionaires are going to be trillionaires. And we know that to be true. Um, because Associated Press says so. Um, but, you know, uh, but we know that they, they have excuses. They say, you know, Californian, if you're taxing me because I'm a billionaire, I'm going to go to Florida. I'm going to go to Texas. This is why I'm running for Congress. We're going to bring this coalition that we built in San Francisco, and we're going to take it, we take that energy and tenacity to Washington DC, and we're going to make sure that we tax them in every state in the United States, and that's what we're going to do. I know that you're going to say, well, you know, like, we haven't done it, but, you know, I think that we haven't done a lot of things, uh, in the past, and then we have done it in San Francisco. Uh, and with that, we're going to take this to DC. And, and I think that, you know, this is a moment, uh, and you're seeing that long decade ago, nobody really knew what a billionaire was because you were amazed that someone is a millionaire. And we got to stop them before they become trillionaires.

Senator Weiner.

>> Yeah. Um, progressive taxation in all of its forms, income taxes and wealth taxes, estate taxes, um, are incredibly important, and I have a long history of supporting, particularly higher income taxes on high earners. A few years ago, we actually, there was a ballot measure to raise taxes on the wealthiest Californians, uh, which I supported, and unfortunately, the voters, uh, voted it down. I've repeatedly introduced, uh, an estate tax for California because the voters banned estate taxes in California 40 years ago, and the federal government has basically phased out its estate tax. So I tried to bring it back, uh, here. Um, and so, uh, we need progressive taxation. Next year on the ballot, we are going to, um, I believe, see a reauthorization of the income tax increase that the voters passed in 2012 that's about to expire. We have to reauthorize that. It would be devastating, particularly for our schools, if that income tax increase on high earners were to expire. Um, we are, uh, we need to repeal big chunks of the Trump and Bush tax cuts for wealthy people and tax cuts for corporations. And so there's a lot of progressive, good progressive taxation work we have to do. In terms of this particular measure, we don't even know if it's going to be on the ballot. There is actually some tension and conflict within labor about whether it should be on the ballot. And I'm going to wait to see what is actually on the ballot because there are various revenue measures that are being discussed for next year, including at the local level, where we're going to have two different tax measures to save public transportation.

Mr. Chuckardi.

>> Yes, I support a wealth tax on billionaires, and I've been calling for a wealth tax on not just billionaires, but also centi-millionaires at a federal level since I started this campaign because inequality is itself a problem in this country. We don't talk about that enough. The way that inequality drives unaffordability is that when you have a small group of people who are have, who have all the money, that drives markets to start building things for that small group of people. That means fewer

And fewer people, uh, make things for the rest of the market, for the rest of the people. That's how inequality creates an unaffordable society. And, you know, this is kind of personal for me. Like, I, I came and, uh, worked in the tech industry. First moved out to San Francisco and I worked at a startup called Stripe as a second engineer. And, you know, I thought I was going to be working on tech problems to solve the problems in the world. And I ended up work, you know, joining the startup early and just because I joined this startup at the right place at the right time, I ended up making money. And that is just so wrong because I saw how teachers and nurses and the people cleaning our offices every day, who work way harder than me, are never going to be able to afford a home in the city or afford a secure retirement. And an economy like that, where you can either win a lottery and have it all, or you'll never be able to afford the essentials, is completely broken. That's what radicalized me and got me into progressive politics back in 2015. And that's why I've spent the last 10 years of my life fighting to fix this rigged economic and political system, to tax the rich, and reduce the inequality in our society.

This question will start with Senator Weiner. What is your strategy for getting the Equality Act passed through Congress? Um, this legislation has been stalled for years. At one time, uh, Pelosi and former Congress member Barney Frank left trans people out. Now, trans people have been included. The legislation has been renamed, but it has not passed both houses of Congress. And I, excuse me, I remember that in 2007, I think, when trans people were removed, uh, and I objected to that. I actually published an op-ed in, in your newspaper, uh, explaining why I couldn't support it. Uh, we have to all rise together and we should not be leaving, uh, people behind. Uh, so we now do have, uh, an inclusive bill, the Equality Act, that includes, uh, all LGBTQ people in various aspects of life, not just employment, which was the original bill. It was only about employment. And it is absolutely essential and it's absolutely horrific that in 2026, uh, we do not have comprehensive federal civil rights legislation. Uh, we have to get, take back Congress. Uh, the, it's, it's tragic that the Republican party just refuses to support, uh, queer basic dignity and rights. Uh, so we need to take back, uh, both houses. Um, I, I think that the, with the Senate, we should, uh, I think we're past the time where we should have to rely on having 60 senators to be able to pass, uh, anything. And so, uh, I think we need to look at the filibuster, uh, and removing that as an impediment, uh, to get this through. When we get power again, when we get power again, we need to use that power to protect LGBTQ people and get that bill through Congress, to protect immigrants, to protect reproductive health, to enshrine in law all of the things that that this sociopath who's running the country now is tearing apart, so that he can't do it again. And we have to strike and get it done and not let the procedural stuff trip us up.

Mr. Shakuri. >> So, as you mentioned, last time we had Democrats in Congress, they were trying to keep trans people out of this bill. It's not enough to take back Congress. It's what kind of Democrats do we take back Congress with? We, we need to have a movement that is that is of Democrats who believe in the Equality Act and believe in LGBTQ people being part of our coalition. And we need to use every lever of power to create pressure on the Democratic party and to replace a lot of the Democratic Party to make this reality. This is exactly the kind of thing we did on climate action with the Green New Deal because at that time there was no momentum in Congress to do anything on climate. But you have to do things like capture media attention, use that to take something as popular and create popular outrage and channel that, you know, work with outside organizations, create inside-outside forces to get the caucus to pass this. It's not going to happen on its own. I'm sorry to say the Democrats there right now. They're not going to prioritize this. We have to make it happen.

Supervisor Chan, >> I believe if we want to do big things, we have to organize and build a coalition and big tent and in this way as an ally, um, and I would say that is to bring in, is my job to bring in other allies, to expand that allyship, to make sure that other allies understand why this is important and that we must stand by our LGBTQ community because it is not enough that we're okay. We got to make sure every member in our community is okay and is better than okay because when they come after one of us, they're going to come after all of us. If not now, later. We know that to be true. As an immigrant, as first-generation immigrant, an Asian-American woman, I know what it means that when we don't stand by those who are being hurt next, we're going to be the next one. And I know that to be sure. So I think that when we want to pass something that is significant and historic like the Equality Act, allyship, big tent, and coalition, and it means that starting from this room and the next room and then the next room to make sure that it is aware that someone like me, that this is a priority, that it is our priority, and we're going to work hard to get it done and and there's no looking back and got to continue to build that allyship. And and I think that to be true about Medicare, that to be true about education, to make sure that all these things are actually, all these laws and all these fundings and programmings are actually inclusive, that takes all of us and tactic coalition and and I think that that's really inclusive when we change the way we educate, when we change that we do healthcare, when we change to do all these things that we know is better for our community. I, I think we'll actually figure out a next generation to be a lot more inclusive and that be able to stand firm and pass the Equality Act.

>> Thank you kindly. And now we've come to the lightning round. Uh, on your tables, you will have a some manner of placard that says yes on one side, no on the other. >> We will ask you 10 quick questions. There's no humming and hawing. It's just yes. Can it be like, just do you like boba? Like, I don't know. It's like this is very nerve-wracking. >> Leelin Yei at one point like wavered it back and forth but not a role model. >> All right. Not a role model. No. >> All right. So let us start. >> Do you support legislation banning members of Congress from owning or trading stocks? Would you author legislation to designate Harvey Milk Day as a day of special significance nationally, similar to California's policy? >> Do you support Medicare for all? >> Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? Moving on here. >> Moving along, please. >> San Francisco should have municipal power even if it requires using eminent domain. Prop 2018 has been good for San Francisco and should not be curtailed. >> The United States Supreme Court should be expanded and Justice Clarence Thomas should be impeached. >> Sorry, what? Oh, yeah. >> California should build high-speed rail even without federal funding. The fees placed on affordable housing construction are too high. >> And lastly, Mayor Daniel Lur spends too much time on social media. [laughter] >> We can also be sarcastic.

Now, each candidate has three minutes for closing statements. We will go in the reverse order of the opening statements, which means first it will be Troy Kai Chakrai, then Senator Scott Weiner, and then Supervisor Connie Chan.

San Francisco has always been the home of movements that fight to fix what the nation gets wrong. The longshoreman strike in 1934 that unionized the West, the disability rights movement, to the LGBTQ rights movement. When the country wouldn't move, San Francisco pushed. And our country needs San Francisco to push again today. Because we face some real existential crises. AI, an authoritarian coup, a crushing cost of living. This is not the time for a manager of the status quo. This is time for transformational change and a plan to execute. My opponents talk about their experience in Sacramento and city hall, and they've done some great stuff there. But power works differently in DC. Change there doesn't happen through backroom deals. It happens by breaking through the noise, building movements, and forcing both parties to act. It happens by taking on not just the MAGA Republicans, but also corporate money and a failed Democratic establishment. I'm the only candidate here who's done that and who's willing to keep doing it because I'm not running to climb the ladder of a broken system. I'm running to shake its very foundation. Because right now, we have a rare window of opportunity to build a society that truly works for all. That's because I'm not the only one running to challenge the establishment. There are candidates running all across the country stepping up to take on a corporate status quo. And I'm reaching out to them, organizing with them so we can go in as a team to upend the system in DC. [laughter] Look, it's not just, it's not just candidates, right? People everywhere are standing up. And that is why this is actually possible right now because we can build this movement together. And that is exactly what we're doing in this campaign right now. When we started, it was just a few of us watching Democrats fail to respond to Trump and realizing they weren't going to save us. That small group turned into thousands of volunteers who've knocked over a hundred thousand doors. When we started, we had no following on social media. Now we have hundreds of thousands people listening every day. We did our office opening party expecting a hundred, 500 came. Our rally, 800 showed up. Our town halls in every neighborhood have been standing room only. This is unheard of in San Francisco politics, but I know people aren't coming for me. They're coming because they're sick and tired of a broken status quo and politics as usual. They want a leadership that reimagines a society that works for working people and makes it real. So, I want to invite all of you in this room and on the live stream tonight to join this movement. We can be the force that transforms politics and society in this country. We can start a movement in San Francisco that spreads across the nation. San Francisco can lead America out of the darkness once again. [clears throat] [applause and cheering] We've only got the hall until 8. Thank you. [laughter]

Next up is Senator Scott Weiner. >> Yes. Yes, it is. >> Please, folks. So when we, when you think about the idea of who's going to succeed Nancy Pelosi representing San Francisco in Congress, that is a heavy weight for the voters of San Francisco. This is a woman who has moved mountains for the United States and for San Francisco, without whom we would not have the Affordable Care Act or the American Rescue Plan or so many other improvements in the lives of Americans because contrary to what one of my opponents has said, having the ability and skill to be able to pass legislation actually does matter in Congress. It does. And Nancy Pelosi proved that. And she delivered for San Francisco for decades. The amount of investment that she brought into this city, for our public transportation systems, for our parks, for the Presidio. She woke up every day thinking, "What am I doing for San Francisco today?" Just like I wake up every day and say, "What am I doing for San Francisco today?" I'm not running for this seat to make pronouncements to go on podcasts. I'm running to actually get things done, big things done for this city. I haven't nibbled around the edges. I get whatever I get accused of nibbling around the edges is not one of them. We went right to the heart of housing, right to the heart of the health insurance industry, right to the heart of the pharmacy benefit manager industry that jack up drug costs. We've gone right to the heart of protecting our trans community and we have been able to get that done. I have been able to with our coalitions to pass some of the biggest, toughest, impactful laws that California has seen in recent memory, including in areas where I was told that's impossible. You can't do it. And we got it done. I have gone to battle with some of the biggest corporations in the world, with big tech, with the telecom and cable industries, the health insurance industries, the oil industries. And I haven't always won, but I've often won. And when I don't win, I get right back up and fight again for this community because that's what it's about for me. It's not about being loved by everyone 365 days a year. People can agree with me or disagree with me, but I fight like a dog every day for this community and don't just yell. I get things done. And we will do that in Congress. And it matters in Congress. Being able to actually put together the coalitions to get things done to make people's lives better. That is my commitment to this community. And it would be an honor to represent San Francisco in Congress. [cheering]

And rounding up the night. Rounding up the night, Supervisor Connie Chan. >> Thank you. Um, you have no idea. It is such an honor to be on this stage, uh, for someone like me. Uh, I, uh, was born Hong Kong. I came to San Francisco's Chinatown when I was 13 years old. I didn't speak a word of English. And yet here I am with the state on this stage running to be your congresswoman. And, um, it's amazing, um, because that is what America should be. And this is what my mother taught me with audacity and hope that we all can do this. Um, and to make our, uh, neighbors, uh, make our city, make our state, and our country a better place. And, um, and that's what I did, uh, in my career. I, my first, when I first graduated and I came back to the city, um, I didn't quite know what to do and the only thing that I only skill that I have, uh, believe it or not, I learned to be bilingual eventually and that I was able to translate and I became a, uh, translator, a volunteer translator for pro bono tenants attorney, and it was amazing and I learned so much from it. And to think about, um, the work that I did, uh, from there and on out, every day I, um, from that on, I realized I have the very same job. You may say, how is that possible when you're just a volunteer translator to now you are a supervisor, uh, and running for Congress? Um, I, I think that I am a translator. I am an interpreter. I'm the interpreter and translator for the working people in San Francisco. I make sure that your voices are heard and by the people who oftentimes ignore us, all of us. And I know what that is like because I have been ignored too. And I have to fight for all of us, fight for me, fight for my family to be heard and to make sure that we're not only heard, but we're seen and that we have a seat at the table and that when we're heard, things get done and that things get delivered. When I was running, um, for supervisor, my mom was like, why? You know, Connie, you can do a lot of things, but most importantly, it's like, why? You can do a lot of things and as all of you do for our community, you don't have to run for office to serve our community. And I said to my mom, I, I, I know why. Uh, because if I don't, then I'm deferring to someone else to represent me, to represent us. So, I'm stepping up to the plate to run for all of us so that you see yourselves in Washington DC, the working people of San Francisco, and to say we have a voice. We may not always going to win every day, but I agree that we have to continue this fight. We will restore healthcare. We will expand it and we will fund affordable, um, you know, child care. We will fund our K through 12 classrooms and have free city college. We will lower, lower the cost of living. We will fight to end bigotry and hate. We will do that even if it doesn't end right now. We will continue to fight to make sure it does. And so that I hope to have your support and, uh, my speaking time is up, but my campaign just get started. Our campaign just get started. Uh, so I hope to have your support to be your Congresswoman.

>> Thank you for coming out on a Wednesday night. I would like to thank the organizers, the California Working Families Party, Alice and Harvey Milk. Like to thank my co-hosts, Cynthia Lair. I'm Joe Escanazi from Mission Local. And I'd like to close on the words of Sunnyland Slim. Be careful how you vote. Have a good night, everyone.

>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Good to see you. >> Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh, my name is James Coleman. I'm with the Working Families Party. I have a very important announcement because I bet you're all very hungry like I am. Uh, it's, I have good news. It's Wings Wednesday at the beer hall. So the beer hall is like an eight-minute walk. That's where an after party.