For the first time in four decades, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi won’t be on the ballot in November, but she’s lending her political clout and prodigious fundraising skills to more than a dozen Democrats who will.
Pelosi, who concludes her barrier-breaking tenure in the House early next year, has offered up a string of endorsements to incumbents and picked sides in a couple of fiercely contested Democratic primaries for open seats.
Those collecting the speaker emerita’s blessing include Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy who is seeking an open House seat in New York City; former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, running to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer in Maryland; and most notably, Connie Chan, the San Francisco supervisor competing for the seat Pelosi has held since 1987.
Pelosi’s most public push has been in support of Chan, whom she called “the leader best prepared to carry forward the fight for San Francisco in the Congress of the United States.
“Connie understands San Francisco, our values, our diversity, our communities and our responsibility to lead with both compassion and strength,” Pelosi said in an endorsement video released last month.
