- As a history-making representative exits the stage, San Francisco faces an important choice.

The retirement of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has opened this House seat for the first time in more than a generation.

In the race to succeed her, questions about the cost of living, AI and tech, foreign policy, and the future of our institutions are testing San Francisco's values.

Against this backdrop, two candidates are vying to represent the city in Congress and redefine its identity on the national stage.

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan is focused on economic security for working families, taking on inequality and protecting long-time communities from displacement.

California State Senator Scott Wiener has made building housing and transportation and constraining the Trump administration central to his agenda.

From KQED Studios, this is the 2026 San Francisco Congressional Debate, presented by KQED Live and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Here are your moderators, the San Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garfoli and KQED Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos.

- Good evening.

I'm Scott Shafer and welcome to this debate between the two candidates running for the congressional seat currently held by Nancy Pelosi.

Before we get started, here is what to expect over the next hour.

The topics and questions have been selected by us and not shared or discussed with anyone outside of KQED or the San Francisco Chronicle, including the campaigns.

Candidates will have up to two minutes to answer most questions.

The moderators may ask a follow-up question.

Some questions will be directed at just one candidate, but most will be for both of them.

Finally, candidates will have 60 seconds to make a closing statement.

They're also going to have a chance to question each other.

And please welcome Supervisor Connie Chan and State Senator Scott Wiener.

So the order of speaking was chosen at random, so let's get started.

Marisa Lagos is going to start us off with the first question for Senator Wiener.

- Thanks for being here to you both.

Senator Wiener, the country is living through a fraught political moment.

People are worried about the future and concerned about our politics and democracy.

What qualities do you think are most important for our next member of Congress?

- Thank you for having me.

We are in a very dangerous time for our city and for our country.

People can't afford housing.

People are falling through the cracks in our healthcare system.

People can't afford childcare.

Our immigrant neighbors are being grabbed and taken to gulags.

Fascism is rising and we face enormous risk from AI.

Washington has failed us and we as Democrats need to make clear that when we retake power, that we are going to do things differently, that we're not going to return to the pre-Trump broken status quo, that we are going to make change.

And we need leaders in Congress who are committed to challenging that status quo, even when it is difficult, even when there is a political cost in doing so.

That is what I have done my entire time in public service.

I passed our country's first fully paid parental leave law.

I took on big tech to make California the first state to regulate AI.

I took on the establishment forces that were blocking new homes and we beat them.

I took on the health insurance industry to lower the cost of mental healthcare and insulin.

I passed strong laws to protect trans people and to make it possible to sue ICE and border patrol.

Congress has to change and we must make sure that it changes and working together, we can do that.

San Francisco has given me everything.

When I arrived here as a young gay guy looking for community, this city embraced me.

I want to make sure that all San Franciscans can afford to stay here, can thrive here and be who they are.

And it would be an honor to represent this community in Congress.

- Thank you, Senator.

Supervisor Chan, to you, what qualities do you think are most important for our next member of Congress?

- Well, I'm a working mom and I understand the struggle of working people in San Francisco.

I also been the city's budget committee chair for the last four years, so I actually do understand what it takes to help working people to stay in our city and thrive.

And today we have seen and the work that we have done in San Francisco as the board supervisor and as your budget committee chair, we make sure that we have rental subsidy so that people can stay housed and that we provide resources for small business so they can actually continue to thrive here as small business owner.

We say that we understand when there is food security, we make sure that our seniors and people with disabilities have meals at their doors.

And when our young people wanting to make sure that they have opportunity, we make sure that they have employment opportunity and free city college.

All those things are the things that we have done in San Francisco.

And this is a moment that we say, "Well, what did we do in Congress to make sure we can do all these things that we have done in San Francisco and bring that fight to Congress?"

What it require is someone that actually has that moral courage and backbone because that's what we have done.

We see that fight is that we fight the billionaires and the corporation because they've been rigging the system.

This is why even for the working people, every day we struggle, try to make the ends meet and yet we still can't.

This is the quality we need in Congress, in leadership, having that moral clarity and having that backbone and having that courage to be able to say that billionaires and corporation pay your fair share because this is our moments to make sure that we can have Medicare for all, have good public education and that we got to do right by the working people across the nation.

- Thank you, Supervisor.

I will note you each get two minutes.

You don't have to take the whole two minutes if you don't want to.

Supervisor Chan, and this question will go to both of you.

The issue of sexual misconduct has been in the news this week nationally, including here in San Francisco where Manny Yekutiel, a leading candidate for D8 supervisor, suspended his campaign amid allegations of sexual assault.

Despite earlier allegations, he was endorsed by the mayor and other high profile Democrats.

What do you take away from how this played out?

- I think that this is our moment to think about the culture that lead to this moment, that it takes... We have to understand that victims and survivors, it takes them a lot of courage to be able to come out and tell their stories.

And yet as elected and community leaders in this city, we have to believe survivors when they tell their stories.

And time and again, when we turn our backs from them, this is the moment that we have see again, finally that this is again, we have to call for someone like Manny to have to stop campaigning because we need more from our leadership.

But let me just say as a woman and a woman of color, I tell you that the way that women and really people of color that being treated in many spaces, and you see that in both gender, men and women, that when you are in the vulnerable space and when you see powerful figure, we need a system that works for everyone to level the play field.

It's the reason why I believe in the labor movement to allow us to have a safe working space, to have whistleblowing program, to really help everybody to be able to overcome those powerful figure at the moment and not be coerced in harassment or sexual assault.

But we have to do more.

We have to do more not only in workspace, we have to do it in education.

We have to do that in many public spaces and including healthcare system to again and again to reinforce the equality throughout the system.

I would have to say this too, even in the political arena, as someone that have to fight against a lot of racism and sexism, including even the AI chatbot that mocking me, putting words in my mouth and impersonating me, those are the moments that we have to recognize and being able to call it out and we demand a systematic change, not just when something happened, but we have to demand it ongoing change.

- Thank you, supervisor.

Supervisor Wiener, before you answer the question, if you'd like 30 seconds to respond about the AI chatbot.

- Sure.

So I want to talk about the chatbot and thank you for the opportunity to talk about it directly when we're together.

We put that chatbot up for the purpose of educating people about my opponent's track record of opposing housing and transit and so many other needs.

It was a terrible mistake, which is why we took it down and why I apologized.

And I take full responsibility for that.

I am the candidate.

The buck stops here and I am accountable for anything that happens on our campaign and it was a mistake and that is not who I am.

And so Supervisor, I want to directly apologize to you for that chatbot and you have my apologies.

- Thank you, Supervisor.

In terms of Manny Yekutiel stepping down and the prior endorsements even after initial allegations had been made, what do you take away from that?

- Sure.

We have a problem with sexual misconduct, sexual assault in this society and politics is no exception.

We're seeing what's happening at Cornell right now and on a regular basis we learn about individual sexual assaults and rapes and then even group situations where people, usually men, feel like it's okay to organize a system of sexual assault.

And that is vile and it's an indictment societally that we have to take these allegations very seriously.

We need to support survivors.

For a survivor to come forward and put their name in the newspaper talking about something so deeply personal and visceral takes unbelievable courage.

And so when Eric Swalwell left the governor's race, I though it was a huge indictment that there were people in DC who apparently at least had a sense that Congressman Swalwell was engaging in really bad behavior.

And those survivors came forward and it was very courageous of them and he was out of the race and thank God that those survivors came forward.

I am so grateful to them.

We had a few years ago with the Latino Democratic Club and the president there and an allegation of sexual misconduct.

And here with Manny Yekutiel, I had not endorsed in that race, but both my opponent and I both called for him to drop out and he did and that's a good thing.

So we need to take these allegations very seriously and support survivors.

It is hard to overstate how difficult it is and how courageous it is for anyone to come forward and talk about something so deeply personal and hurtful.

- Thank you, Senator.

Scott.

- Senator Wiener, this question is for you alone.

Earlier this year you opposed a ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations in San Francisco.

Now you're opposing a wealth tax on California billionaires.

At a time of historic inequality, why should voters trust your ability to stand up to wealthy individuals and corporations in Congress?

- Absolutely.

And they should trust because I have a long track record of supporting progressive taxation for the wealthy.

Just a few years ago, I supported a ballot measure to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Californians.

I tried to pass an estate tax repeatedly for wealthy estates.

And so over and over again, I have supported raising taxes on the wealthiest and also on corporations.

And I support wealth taxes.

In fact, I support Elizabeth Warren's ultra millionaire tax, which will impose an ongoing wealth tax for the federal government where people can't even move across state lines to avoid it.

So I've supported progressive taxation.

I believe in it and I will support it in Congress.

The wealthy and corporations do not pay their fair share.

George W. Bush and Donald Trump made it way worse by cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

And I support reversing those tax cuts by Trump and by Bush on the wealthy and corporations.

And so that is what I believe and where my values are.

Prop D, I did not support it because San Francisco, our downtown, has not recovered.

Anyone who goes downtown knows that it's getting better.

It has not recovered.

Union Square has not recovered, and this is not the right time for us to be putting a new San Francisco only business tax when we need our downtown to recover.

In terms of Prop 40, as I mentioned, I support wealth taxes.

I stand with Planned Parenthood and the California Teachers Association and the building trades and many unions in not supporting Prop 40 because it is a one-time tax that then ends.

A one-time tax to fund healthcare, which is the ultimate ongoing expense.

And then there will be a cliff and it'll be over.

That is not good policymaking.

We already have an unstable boom bust budget.

This will make it dramatically worse, and that's why I don't support it.

- Thank you.

Supervisor Chan, this one is for you.

Since you took office in 2021, fewer new homes have been approved in your Richmond supervisorial district than any other supervisorial district in San Francisco.

That's according to the planning department.

Given the shortage and the cost of housing here, how do you explain that to voters?

- Well, we need to build housing and we need to build housing that people can afford.

We also need to make sure that people can stay housed.

It's why we also support rental subsidies.

We have done a lot of work throughout San Francisco, and I would say in my last 20 years of experience, more than 20 years of experience as a aide to land use committee, then also a member of the infrastructures finance district, as well as a budget committee chair, I have done a lot of work in terms of seeing building housing citywide, and that is be it Mission Bay, Mission Rock, to Stonestown, Balboa Reservoir, and Laurel Village.

And that's thousands, tens and thousands of units of housing that I have done that work.

But I also know that because of those learned lessons, there are two key elements to build housing that people can afford.

One is land and money, and that this is why in Congress, I know that we have to provide resources and funding to develop our infrastructure so that it lower the cost of building housing in San Francisco.

We have to expand rental subsidies and first time home buyers loans and supports for not just low income, but also middle income households.

We have to make sure that we uphold a labor standard so that workers, the very workers that build those housing can also afford the housing that they build.

And this is also the reason why that I will support and push forward the BOOM Act authored by Senator Adam Schiff, who also have endorsed our candidacy because I know that will provide tax credit and expansions of those resources.

And not only that, we do have to repeal Faircloth amendments.

So then again, we can actually build more units of housing and expand rental subsidies and that's inclusive of social housing.

And I would say that's what we have to do.

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Over to Joe.

- Thanks, Scott.

San Francisco is the epicenter of the world's artificial intelligence industry, but Americans are greatly concerned about its impacts.

This is a question to both Supervisor Chan first.

Americans will look to the representative from San Francisco to lead on AI safety policy.

You both have expressed some support for some regulation.

How would you ensure that AI is safe for all of us?

- America can be a leader of innovation without sacrificing safety and without sacrificing the protection of our workforce.

And what we also have learned though in the last few weeks is the very people that have developed this technology, including super intelligence, are questioning why are we developing this technology at first place, the fact that it could actually end humankind.

And that's why I say let's start with the moratorium on data centers.

Allow us to have that moment to regulate artificial intelligence.

We also need to demand human oversights, not just when something bad happened or catastrophic has happened.

We need to actually have human oversights in the developmental phase at each phase and approval.

I would also say that at this moment, as we have learned about the hacking activities, we need to expand the scope of Communications Decency Act so that we can also bring in all these hacking activities, not just only when it's actually with criminal intent, it is also bringing in these hacking activities during the experimental phase.

Look, the question also is, can we trust the AI industries to police itself and regulate itself?

And can we actually trust politicians who are bankroll by the AI industries to also write legislations to regulate the industries?

The answer is no, we cannot.

We have to make sure that workers and unions are actually at the table to regulate these AI technology.

I'm going to give a quick actually example about how nurses are telling me that they're really worried.

They're being monitored by these AI on their emotions and their tone when they're talking to patients.

And that is just simply surveillance an employee and a worker not providing better patient care.

Those are kind of technology we should ban and restrict.

AI should not be hurting workers.

They should be a tool that actually works for the public and not to just enrich the most wealthiest in this world.

- Thank you, supervisor.

Senator Wiener, same question.

How would you ensure that AI is safe for all of us?

- Absolutely.

AI is arguably the most powerful technology in the history of the world.

And for me, the bright red line is that AI must benefit humanity and not harm humanity.

And that must guide every policy decision that we make about AI.

And self-regulation does not work.

That's what we saw in the White House just the other day.

That is absolutely laughable.

We need government to step up and Congress has failed.

Congress has not even passed a federal data privacy law, a federal social media law, let alone regulating AI.

I was the first state legislator in the country to introduce legislation to regulate AI for safety.

I introduced that in 2023 years ago before it was viral or in the news.

Didn't take me running for Congress to do it.

And then when we pursued that law in 2024, it required a kill switch.

It imposed liability for reckless release of a dangerous model, whistleblower protections, safety testing requirements.

It was a robust, strong bill, and we had a brutal fight with big tech on it.

They threw everything they had against that bill.

And ultimately, we put that bill on the governor's desk over the harsh objection of big tech, and unfortunately the governor vetoed it.

And so we came back the next year after that setback and we worked with the governor and we passed the strongest AI regulation, the first in the country, SB 53.

And that law requiring all sorts of transparency and accountability, that has now been cut and paste and copied in multiple states.

Donald Trump has tried to preempt and eliminate my law that I passed five times.

It's a strong law and it's just the beginning.

And Congress, I will fight and stand up to regulate AI.

It is that important.

- Thank you.

Another question to both of you, Senator Wiener.

First, what if China's not interested in collaborating with us on an AI slowdown?

How would you ensure that the US doesn't fall behind in the AI development race?

- Yeah.

I mean, listen, we do not need some mega arms race where we're just like, who's going to be the first to potentially melt down the world?

And I will just say, in the 1950s and '60s and '70s, the United States was able to work out agreements with the Soviet Union.

That was a much more contentious relationship around nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

And thank God the US and the Soviet Union came to that agreement.

And so we absolutely can do it.

Unfortunately, the president of the United States has no interest in working with anyone else unless they're going to pay him money to bribe him, basically.

And it pains me to say that, but it's true.

And so he's pushed all of our closest allies away.

And we know that, yes, China is a rival economically and otherwise, and that's okay.

That is normal, but we have an obligation to work with China on AI safety, on climate, on so many different issues.

And when we have a president who won't even try, how do you even know?

What we do know is it is in the interest of the United States of America and of China not to have AI melt down the entire banking system and start deleting people's accounts.

It is in the interest of China and the United States not to launch chemical weapons.

It's in the interest of both of our countries not to start melting down the electric grid.

These are all catastrophes that will have long-term horrific consequences for humanity if they happen, and AI will not respect borders.

So both countries have a strong interest in getting this right, and we need leadership in this country that will actually work with other countries.

Even if you have disagreements, I will be like that as a member of Congress, and we need a president who will do that as well.

- Supervisor Chan, same question.

How would you ensure that the US does not fall behind in the AI development race?

- Well, the way that I see the AI development so-called race is that I agree with Senator Bernie Sanders.

He said this, "If we know that you're running toward a cliff, which is the cliff of ending humanity by continually developing super intelligence, why would you just slow down?

You put on a break."

And this is all the more reason why I support that approach and thinking about a moratorium data center, and that is just to put on a brake to say we need to restrict the developments of superintelligence.

This is a technology that actually will destroy us.

And we need to ask the question, why?

It is not just in the sake of competition.

I think that we should not allow the industry, the AI industries to pit our country, United States, with other countries in the name of competition.

We should be actually holding ground to say, this is a moment how we as America and United States show to be a leader of this world and say, "This is how you regulate AI.

This is how you protect our workforce and making sure that the humankind is safe and that I believe it should not be in the framework about competition, but in the framework of protecting our future, protecting our humanity and protecting our workforce.

And with those as our guiding principles, we can be sure we will win out of this so-called race because those things, I believe, is more important than just simply the developing technology.

Look, I think we have done this as a world that should be facilitating peace and facilitating to make sure that we have the global security.

We should focus on that instead of competition and being driven by the narrative of competition.

- Thank you both.

Marisa.

- Thanks, Joe.

Let's turn to foreign policy.

Supervisor Chan, I'm going to start with you.

In the past, you've said defensive military aid, such as funding for the Iron Dome, should be packaged with humanitarian aid in Israel.

Your campaign has said recently that you support a full arms embargo.

Which is it?

- Because it has changed.

We clearly see that when the condition to impose on Israeli governments to say that you must have ceasefire and you must provide and prioritize humanitarian aid, but what we have seen is a government that time and again violating the rights and committing a genocide and push forward with an apartheid state.

It is unacceptable.

US needs to prioritize humanitarian aid and it has to play a role for peace.

It is unacceptable for US to continue to enable Israeli government.

This is why I support a full arms embargo.

Look, this is our moment to meet to say that how can we continue to have the leadership and have the moral clarity?

I can tell you I am someone with that moral clarity because in 2023, I am the only person on this stage and the only candidate on this stage to actually voted and support a ceasefire at the beginning to understand what was to come.

And we need that moral clarity and we need that leadership.

On day one in Congress, I will be able to cast that vote with conscience, with a full arms embargo, with the goal to end a genocide in Gaza and to end apartheid state.

- So to be clear, you would not support funding or aid for the Iron Dome system at this point?

- Yes.

- Thank you.

Would you like 30 seconds to respond?

- Oh, - Sure.

No.

- Yes, actually there was.

- You right.

- You talking.

I apologize.

You're more on it than I am, Marisa.

I began to... I called for a ceasefire on November 17th, 2023, and so that statement was not accurate.

And I just want to say, and I want to say this directly to the people of San Francisco, October 7th was the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

It was horrific.

And Israel very quickly went over the top in its complete destruction of Gaza, which I began calling out in October of 2023 and committed genocide.

And that is why I will not support funding for the Israeli military, and I will not support the sale of any bombs or offensive arms.

I do not want the United States of America to be in any way helping with the destruction of Palestinian communities or Lebanese communities.

- Thank you.

Senator Wiener, you have said you do support the Iron Dome Missile Defense System and oppose giving Israel more offensive weapons.

There's election there in about a month.

There's - A what?

- There's an election happening in about a month there.

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition loses, does your position change at all in terms of what aid you think America should be selling or giving to Israel?

Yeah.

- No.

And I pray that that election goes in a positive direction.

I don't know exactly what's going to happen.

I do know that this government, and it's not just Netanyahu, is an absolute abomination in my view in terms of what it has inflicted on Gaza, in terms of Israel empowering settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank, intentionally putting illegal settlements in the West Bank to carve it up and make it impossible to have a contiguous Palestinian state.

It is horrifying.

It's completely unacceptable, and it is devastating for democracy, not for Palestinians and also for Israelis because we see what's happening in Israel now in terms of the Netanyahu government attacking democracy in Israel itself in addition to inflicting everything that it has inflicted on the West Bank and on Gaza.

And so the bottom line is that there are seven million Jews and seven million Palestinians living on this land, and no one is going anywhere.

And so the US needs to be a force for peace and for the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel, with the radical right-wing Israeli government gone and Hamas gone and governments dedicated to peaceful coexistence, that is the only solution.

And so our policy needs to facilitate that.

That's why I don't support any funding for the Israeli military in any way.

And this election won't change that.

And it's why we need to put pressure on to stop not just what's happening in Gaza and what has happened in Gaza to make sure it never happens again, but what is currently happening in the West Bank, which is horrifying and has to stop and the US needs to help make it stop.

- Thank you, Senator.

Sticking with you, I'll be asking you both the same question.

The United States has long provided weapons to Taiwan, despite China claiming the island nation as part of its territory.

Senator Wiener, would you vote to authorize military force to defend Taiwan if the island is attacked by China?

- So I support the current US policy toward Taiwan, which is that we support Taiwan's defense.

And I want to maintain the current policy that we have towards Taiwan, and that is the US supporting Taiwan's ability to defend itself.

And Taiwan is democracy.

And in terms of Taiwan's future, that is a decision exclusively for the people of Taiwan.

And we also need to not... This president has given permission to authoritarian governments around the world to become more aggressive.

He's done it with Putin by pulling the rug out on Ukraine, and the US should be supporting Ukraine's defense.

We should not allow a democracy to be conquered by a fascist dictatorship from Russia.

He has given permission to Netanyahu, and I think that he is giving permission to other countries as well, particularly when he does things like conquer Venezuela or engage in his atrocious illegal war against Iran, which has caused so much destruction in Iran and has weakened this country and weakened the global economy and exploded people's costs of living.

So Donald Trump is destabilizing the world and we need to make sure that we are providing defensive arms, which is current US policy so that Taiwan can defend itself.

But we need to make sure that that is never even needed.

And again, Trump is making the world more dangerous.

- You're saying that military, that us providing boots on the ground is not needed?

- No, supporting Taiwan's defense, providing defensive systems to Taiwan, which we provide to Taiwan now.

And I believe we should continue to provide those defensive systems to Taiwan.

I don't want US troops to be in a war with China.

I want us to support Taiwan's defense, which is current US policy and to make sure that there is not an attempted invasion and Trump is making that worse.

Thank you, Senator.

Supervisor Chan, to you, would you vote to authorize military force in the event that Taiwan was actually attacked by China?

- I will currently only support the Taiwan Relations Act since 1979, which has been supported by a very bipartisan effort, both the Democratic presidents and Republican presidents and Democratic majority Congress and Republican majority Congress.

And that is to allow similarly what United States has done for Ukraine, selling defensive, providing defensive weapon aid to them so that they could protect themselves and defend themselves against any invasion.

But look, I think that for specifically Taiwan and China, the role just like United States should be playing anywhere else, that we should prioritize humanitarian aid, we should prioritize diplomatic tools and making sure a country and a region like China and Taiwan can have direct dialogue.

I was born in Hong Kong.

I went to grade school in Taiwan and I came to San Francisco when I was 13.

I understand that relationship among the people in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and what that means.

They have friends, they have families, they have business all across and they travel.

What people are looking for is economy stability and peace.

And that is really a leadership role that United States ought to play to make sure that China and Taiwan have direct dialogue and making sure that that is consistent and remain peaceful for the people.

That is the role, honestly, for United States, not just here in this region in Asia, but actually should also be playing in the Middle East as well.

But let's face it, Donald Trump is the biggest threat to our national security and a global security.

It is our moments to make sure that the Democrats actually take over the midterm and take back the House and that we can actually move forward with sound foreign governments, foreign country policy, foreign policy to make sure that we be able to be responsible.

- Thank you.

And so to be clear, you too would not support boots on the ground at this point?

- No, I will not.

- Thank you.

- As you know, it can be hard to say no to your friends and allies.

This is a question for both of you, Supervisor Chan.

You first, you tout your support from organized labor.

What's a time you've taken a position against your friends in labor?

- That's a good question because I am a firm believer of the labor movements and knowing that this is what build United States middle class and that's what I believe in.

I do know though, even the labor movements and among the labor leaders would tell you that they do not agree 100% of the time.

And that's often time be it around budget, be it around legislation.

And I constantly making sure that if we move forward a piece of legislation and when we move forward with budget, there's conversation, there's agreements.

We know that they're going to have to balance a budget when we face a budget deficit of close to a billion dollars for two fiscal years.

And that how do we balance that approach?

And that doesn't mean that when we negotiate that I'm in 100% agreement with our public service employees to see how do we approach to balance this budget and how can we make sure that we don't not only lose the workforce, but that we can still balance that budget and making sure that we have other services that we can still deliver.

So constantly those are the conversation that we have and we are not constantly in 100% agreement.

- Can you say just a specific thing where you disappointed them or disagreed with them and put it into policy?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I know that it was really tough for our public service employees when we actually, when I supported the mayor to have hiring freeze and to say that what can we do?

And I certainly say that we don't need to hire any more managers.

Managers have union representative too, and that what we need to do is stop hiring managers and hire more frontline workers and to really deliver the city services.

So for sure, not always in 100% agreement.

They're not always happy with me despite what you think.

- Senator Wiener, what about you?

When have you taken a position that puts you at odds with key supporters?

- Sure.

So I am proud to have a 97% lifetime score from the California Labor Federation.

I'm proud to have significant labor support in this race from healthcare workers, from educators, grocery store workers, janitors, postal workers, and others.

And I'm very proud of that support.

And I have worked very closely with organized labor to raise minimum wage, to expand access to healthcare, to crack down on corporate abuses, and wasn't specifically about labor necessarily.

Yes.

And in terms of a specific dispute, it's actually been quite public that on housing, there has been a divide within labor about labor standards in housing bills.

And I have stood with the carpenters and the laborers and the operating engineers and the cement masons and SCIU at times and the building trades have been on the other side, just a good faith disagreement about what kind of labor standards.

It's important to me to have labor standards and housing bills.

I want construction workers to be paid well, to have healthcare, to be protected from wage theft, but there is a real divide within labor.

And so I used to be much closer with our building trades council and that has been a strained relationship in recent years.

I hope that that changes in the future, but that has, that has been a very public disagreement and it's a good faith policy disagreement.

- All right.

We are now going to give each of you a chance to ask one question of each other.

You have 30 seconds to ask the question and two minutes to answer.

And Senator Wiener, you get to ask the first question.

- Sure.

Good evening, supervisor.

So supervisor, you, you opposed 500 homes a block from a BART station in South of Market neighborhood.

You opposed Mayor Lurie's family zoning plan.

You opposed various forms of funding for public transportation to prevent service cuts at Muni, BART, and Caltrain.

You opposed a project to make the 38 Geary go faster.

And you opposed car free JFK in Golden Gate Park.

How does that benefit San Franciscans and also benefit our fight against climate change?

- Because I listen.

I listen to our constituents.

I understand that San Franciscans in need of a representative that represent their interest, not just some top-down approach of how policy should work for our community.

And that's inclusive of building homes.

We can build homes because we need to build homes, but we also need to protect our tenants and our small business.

None of the legislations that you mentioned have specific clause that actually protect our tenants or our small business.

And we absolutely should fight for that when it comes to... I'm not too sure.

I think that Geary BRT and 38R is still running.

My sons were just taking that to school yesterday and today.

So I'm pretty sure it's working quite well and it was delivered on budget and on time with the understanding that our small business on the neighborhood commercial corridor, you need to make sure a block by block design that works for them.

So we deliver for our constituents because ultimately the goal is how can we serve?

It's not about going to the highest donors and the highest bidders for our next campaign and for our next office and so that we will just legislate anything that they want.

I know that it is about serving the community and making sure that we are responsive to their needs.

And sometimes it does mean not a winners takes all approach, but a compromise that actually deliver everyone a solution that they can live with.

Look, a woman just actually deliver a baby because she's stuck in traffic in Golden Gate Park.

Just imagine what if it's a person that with a heart attack.

We need to do better.

We have to do better for our constituents.

That's why I believe solutions should be working with your stakeholder, delivering those solution and not just simply saying, "I'm going to close a road and good luck."

- Senator Wiener, if you'd like, you have 30 seconds to respond to what she said about your donors.

- Yeah, sure.

There's a lot of things being said.

- It's a lot of questions to have.

- 30 seconds.

- I think anyone who follows my work in Sacramento knows that I do battle with some of the biggest and wealthiest and most powerful corporations in the history of the planet, tech industry, oil industry, so many different industries.

And so I do work for the people and that's why I'm endorsed by the Sierra Club and Dolores Huerta and so many labor unions.

Thank you.

Because I work for the people.

Those are the only people I'm answerable to.

Thank you.

Supervisor Chan, your chance to ask a question.

You have 30 seconds.

- Thank you.

San Francisco Public Press mentioned your AI watered down bill, which is also known as SB 53 when they recognize they actually categorize that bill as traded away safety and liability provision.

And at that time they ask you for the records about who amended that bill that it resulted in the watered down bill for that SB 53.

And subsequently, you also have seen that OpenAI and Anthropic employees, workers have donated significance to your campaign.

Will you now release those records?

- I have no idea what records my opponent is referring to.

What I will say is to refer to SB 53 as watered down is a joke.

That is, it was the first and strongest AI safety regulation passed in this country, period, full stop.

It made California the first state to regulate AI.

Multiple states have literally cut and paste this law and then built on it, which is great.

Members of Congress have advocated to import it into federal law.

And as I mentioned before, Donald Trump has tried five times to preempt, in other words, eliminate, repeal SB 53 with executive order and legislation.

So Donald Trump doesn't think it's watered down.

Other states don't think it's watered down.

All the tech companies that try to undermine and sabotage SB 53 don't think it's watered down.

It is a strong law.

And we worked closely with the governor on that law because as you recall, the governor vetoed the first AI safety regulation that I put on his desk that had a kill switch and liability and whistleblower protections and safety testing requirements and so forth.

And so he vetoed it and so we came back and we worked with the governor to pass the strongest AI regulation in the country.

And I am proud of that work.

It's very easy when you've never lifted a finger for AI safety regulation to armchair quarterback it.

That's fine, that's politics, but I'm proud of the work that we've done and I will take that work to Congress.

And the people who are most focused on AI safety, including the people who do AI work and who understand the dangers and are terrified of the dangers of AI, some of them you saw tweeting with those viral tweets, they're supporting me because they know that I have done the work to regulate AI and that I will do the work in Congress and that's why they support me.

- Thank you, Senator.

Supervisor, if you'd like a chance to respond to his mention of you indirectly of not doing anything on AI regulation.

- I don't think he was talking about me.

But sure.

I mean, look, San Francisco, San Francisco actually has banned facial recognition.

I have done the work of making sure that landlords are not using AI algorithm to increase rent and jack up rent.

We have done a lot of work in San Francisco, but I think this is the moment where can we trust people who are bankrolled by the AI industries - Thank you.

And continue to write legislation to regulate.

Yeah.

- And that is false.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Over to Joe Garofoli.

- Let's talk about healthcare.

You both support a single payer healthcare system known as Medicare for All.

Multiple estimates peg the cost of enacting that plan around $50 trillion over the next decade.

How would you pay for it?

First to Supervisor Chan, how would you pay for it?

- Thank you.

Healthcare is a right, and I absolutely believe in that.

And yet that is a harsh reality that American face, that they do not have access to affordable healthcare.

And fundamentally, I do believe it's a right and we need to fund it.

But even in San Francisco, if you have heard the story of firefighter Ken Jones, who is a retired firefighter, dedicated three decades of his public service just to then face a denial of his cancer treatment because the insurance company wouldn't provide for it and that his family actually have to dig deep into that saving to allow him to have that treatment, that is unacceptable.

It's a reason why that in Congress, I will push to make sure that we have Medicare for all.

What we need is to break the insurance monopoly.

We need to actually allow our healthcare system to directly negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower the drug prices.

We need to expand the research and investments in our National Institute of Health so that we can, again, lower the cost of healthcare.

What we don't need is politician like Scott Wiener who wrote SB 770, a bill that actually stalled the implementation of Medicare for All, which nurses, California nurses call it the complete betrayal of a bill.

And this is why we've been endorsed by the California nurses, National Nurses United, and Nurses for America, because they know we have built a coalition to make sure that we have a demand to bring in the $1.5 trillion defense fund that Trump is putting in the war.

We're going to have progressive taxation to make billionaires and corporation pay their fair share so that we can put that money into healthcare.

Because again, healthcare is a right and we will fight to fund itself.

And Medicare for All is a future that we will fight for.

Senator, you were name checked there.

- I was.

- And how would you pay for Medicare for All?

- Do you want me to start with the response?

- Why don't you start?

Yeah.

- Okay.

With the 30 second response?

- Over the 30 seconds.

- Okay, great.

Thank you.

So I will get to why I think Medicare for All is so critically important.

I do want to say, I've actually passed a law to move California towards single payer.

After years and years of failures, we got something passed and signed into law and then Donald Trump, of course, came in and screwed it all up.

That law that the supervisor's referring to, it was supported by a massive progressive labor coalition, including the National Union of Healthcare Workers, Unite Here, Teamsters, SEIU, Courage California, which is a statewide progressive umbrella organization.

They were all behind this bill.

And my lead witness was Mike Casey, the head of the San Francisco Labor Council.

So that was an important step forward for single payer, and I'm proud to have authored it.

In terms of answering the question, Medicare for All, universal healthcare is essential.

The system we have now is broken and people are being screwed.

People who need healthcare and are delaying it because their insurance company won't pay for it or because their employer happened to buy cruddy insurance coverage.

The idea of having a system where your healthcare is tied to your job is absurd and we need to move away from it.

You should be able to change a job without having to worry about losing your healthcare or you're going to a job that purchased worse insurance and so you can't change jobs.

It is a terrible system.

We need true universal healthcare in this country that is not connected to your job where people simply have coverage because they're here and they're part of our community.

And we can do it.

When you look at the costs in our healthcare system, all of the costs in our private healthcare system, in all of our public healthcare systems, in Medicaid and Medicare, all of it together, it's like a significant percentage of our GDP, of our national wealth.

And so we can absolutely transform this system into an efficient universal healthcare system where people no longer have to say, "I need healthcare and I'm putting it off because my job doesn't cover it."

That is horrible.

And I know we all know people who have had to do that and it has to stop.

And moving to universal healthcare, Medicare for All is the only solution.

And I have done the work in the legislature to fight the insurance companies.

I passed the strongest law in the country to force them to cover mental health and addiction treatment.

I passed a lot of CAP insulin copays and I've been fighting with them to raise the penalties for wrongful delays and denials of care.

But we shouldn't have to have those fights.

- Thank you, Senator.

- We should have one universal system.

- Sorry, we're short on time.

It went so fast.

So we are going to give you each a chance for a closing statement.

You'll have a minute each.

Senator Wiener asked the first question, so Supervisor Chan will get the last word.

Senator Wiener, you can start.

- Thank you.

In 1987, Nancy Pelosi stepped onto the floor of the House of Representatives for the first time.

And in her remarks, she said, "I've come to Congress to fight AIDS."

That same year, a closeted gay teenager in New Jersey with a funny last name, admitted to himself that he was gay.

That teenager was me and it was a fricking terrifying time.

She didn't know who I was, but Nancy Pelosi was fighting for people like me to have a future.

Fast forward 39 years and that closeted gay teenager is now standing on this stage making the case to succeed Nancy Pelosi to represent the best city on planet Earth.

We have so much work to do to stop Trump, to prevent this disaster from ever happening again and to lift people up.

It would be the honor of my life to do that work and to fight for this community.

- Thank you.

Supervisor.

- I was born in Hong Kong and came to San Francisco's Chinatown when I was 13 years old with my single mom and a younger brother.

Today, I'm a working mom.

I've been serving our city for the last 20 years and being your budget chair for the last four years.

I can tell you that working people have been struggling more than ever in our city because the system is rigged by the billionaires and the corporation who are trying to buy our election and bankrolling politician who will do their bidding.

And we've been fighting that fight.

We've been building a working people's coalition and fighting that fight.

We are ready to take this fight from San Francisco and all the way to Congress to make the billionaires and corporation to pay their fair share because it is time.

It is time to make sure that working people have a win.

We deserve a win.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

That is all the time we have.

Thank you so much to both of our candidates and our audience for being here tonight and don't forget to vote.

Thank you.

Thank you.