San Francisco voters have elected state Sen. Scott Wiener to succeed Nancy Pelosi in Congress, and he is already pledging to restrict ICE funding, halt deportations, and back impeachment.
CBS News projects that Wiener has defeated San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan for California’s 11th Congressional District, the seat covering most of the city and long held by the former House speaker.
Chan, who carried Pelosi’s endorsement, conceded Wednesday after reviewing the results and the ballots still left to count. Wiener claimed victory, then used a Thursday press conference in San Francisco to preview a sharply progressive agenda for Washington.
He is due to take office in January and plans to fly to Washington, D.C., on Saturday for freshman orientation. That gives him about two months to prepare for a job that will keep San Francisco’s House voice firmly on the left.
CBS News reported the projection after Chan’s concession made the outcome clear, even as some ballots remained.
Chan put the math in plain terms.
"After reviewing the results and the ballots remaining to be counted, while we expect the margin to narrow significantly, we do not have a clear path to victory,"
She added a standard close:
"I congratulate Scott Wiener on his election and wish him success in serving San Francisco."
Pelosi, retiring after nearly four decades in the House, issued her own congratulations the same day and said her office would help with the transition. She had backed Chan. Wiener said Thursday he and the speaker emerita had not yet spoken.
"The Speaker Emerita and I have not spoken yet. I'm sure we will. Obviously, campaigns are always challenging, and they get contentious,"
He still cast the handoff as workable for the city.
"I am confident that the Speaker Emerita and I will be able to work together for the benefit of San Francisco."
Wiener opened with tribute language for the district’s past occupants, including Phil Burton, Sala Burton, and Pelosi, whom he called the greatest speaker in modern American history. He thanked Pelosi for fighting AIDS and for never stopping her work for the city and country.
Then he turned to policy. First came healthcare. He said Congress must “focus immediately on reversing the Medicaid cuts,” warning that fifteen million people would lose coverage, hospitals would close, and the system would take deep damage. He also named protection of the Affordable Care Act as a priority.
Housing came next. “Housing is always going to be a high priority for me,” he said, calling the shortage national rather than local only. He added federal rules on artificial intelligence, stronger ethics measures, and lower costs for healthcare and energy to the list.
On ethics, he did not hedge.
"We need to take strong anti-corruption measures out of the gate. The depth of corruption in this administration is off the charts,"
Wiener’s enforcement agenda is the clearest break with voters who want a secure border and enforced immigration law. He said he wants to restrict federal funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and stop the deportation of illegal immigrants. In narrator terms, that is a promise to weaken the agency that removes people who are in the country unlawfully and to slow the removals themselves.
He also staked out an impeachment position before he has been sworn in.
"If there is an impeachment vote of the president, I will vote for it,"
He tied that stance to a broader claim that the country must not lose focus on the cost of living. The sequence is familiar in San Francisco politics: celebrate a progressive win, then aim federal power at immigration enforcement and at the president.
Wiener stressed another first. As a gay man, he said, he would be the first LGBTQ member of Congress from San Francisco, and he said no LGBTQ member had ever represented any part of Northern California. He called that a responsibility he takes seriously and said the LGBTQ community is “under assault in this country.”
Pelosi’s own farewell note struck a softer institutional tone. She said representing San Francisco had been an extraordinary honor, thanked voters for nearly forty years of trust, and said her confidence in the city’s future remained strong. She led House Democrats for twenty years, tied for the second-longest stretch after Sam Rayburn of Texas, and was the first woman elected speaker and the first woman to lead a major party in Congress.
Wiener had announced for the seat before she made her retirement official. On election night, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, he held a watch party in San Francisco. By Wednesday the race was effectively over. By Thursday he was already mapping votes on Medicaid, ICE, and impeachment. A caption dated Nov. 5, 2026, shows him speaking with reporters in the city as the transition began.
The 11th District is not a swing seat, and this result does not read like a course correction. Voters passed over the candidate Pelosi endorsed and chose a state senator who says he will squeeze ICE, block deportations of illegal immigrants, and vote to impeach if the moment comes. He also wants new federal controls on AI, more ethics rules aimed at the current administration, and a quick reverse of Medicaid changes he says will push millions off coverage.
Exact final margins were not yet locked in the reporting as ballots continued to be counted. Chan herself said the gap would narrow and still saw no path. Wiener treated the concession as decisive and moved on to freshman business in Washington.
For taxpayers and lawful residents who want borders enforced and laws applied evenly, the message from San Francisco is unchanged. The city is shipping another lawmaker who treats immigration enforcement as a budget line to cut and deportations as a practice to stop, before he has even taken the oath.
San Francisco had a chance to send a different signal. It sent Scott Wiener instead, and he told voters exactly what he plans to do with the power.
