Nancy Pelosi Endorses Democratic Socialist Dean Preston for San Francisco Supervisor

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2 p.m. July 28 to add context around a January social media post by Garry Tan.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi endorsed Dean Preston, the progressive incumbent, for District 5 supervisor on Wednesday, KQED confirmed.

The endorsement from one of the country’s most powerful Democrats came as a major boost in an already heated election for Preston, whose jurisdiction includes the Tenderloin, Haight Ashbury, Fillmore, Japantown and Hayes Valley. Politico first reported the endorsement.

“This is a powerful endorsement from one of San Francisco’s most important leaders, and I look forward to working with Speaker Emerita Pelosi in our united effort to defeat Donald Trump and address the challenges facing our city,” Preston said in a statement. “In our district, Speaker Emerita Pelosi has championed crucial federal investments in our neighborhoods. I’m very grateful for her support in this race.”

Preston, a democratic socialist, has become a fixation for critics of progressive politicians. Last year, Elon Musk posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the supervisor should be imprisoned.

In January, Garry Tan, CEO of the tech incubator Y Combinator, attacked seven San Francisco Supervisors on X, writing “Die slow motherf—ers.” Tan, who is a major donor to San Francisco’s Democratic Party, which elected a new moderate majority leadership this year, apologized for the remarks.

In a subsequent post on X, Tan wrote that “die slow” was from “Hit ‘Em Up,” a popular diss track by the rapper Tupac Shakur. The week after Tan’s attack, five supervisors received mailers to their homes that wished “a slow and painful death for you and your loved ones.” The San Francisco Police Department opened an investigation into Tan’s post and the mailers received by supervisors.

Meanwhile, the billionaire-backed moderate political organizing group GrowSF has made ousting Preston a key part of their platform.

Pelosi isn’t exactly throwing her support behind the Democratic Socialist movement, and she is supporting other incumbents in her hometown. On Wednesday, Pelosi also endorsed Supervisors Connie Chan and Myrna Melgar for reelection in their respective districts.

KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara contributed to this report.