Candidates for Nancy Pelosi’s Seat See Attacks on Iran as Repeating Iraq War Mistakes

Leading candidates for California’s 11th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a seat held by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for nearly four decades, are largely unified in criticizing the recent airstrikes the United States and Israel launched over the weekend in Iran.

Demonstrations in support and opposition of military involvement in Iran have sprung up across the Bay Area in the days since attacks over the weekend, including one that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a US-Israeli strike on an Iranian girls’ school that left more than 100 people dead.

Many in the race to succeed Pelosi said President Donald Trump is acting recklessly and should employ diplomatic talks rather than violent military interventions, which could unsettle communities all across the Middle East and the world.

“Donald Trump does not have the best interest of the American people on his agenda. What he has been doing consistently is really self-centered and aggressive and frankly ignorant,” said Supervisor Connie Chan, a progressive candidate for the seat. “It’s not strategic, and it is most definitely putting American people and our national security at great risk.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener, considered a leading contender, echoed those criticisms of the president, saying, “Trump is not doing this to help Iranians. He’s doing it for his own political purposes. And I am so deeply worried that this is going to lead into a complete morass for our country, that it’s going to put Iran into a state of chaos.”

The leading candidates all agreed that the U.S. military actions this week are reminiscent of the Iraq War.

“It feels like déjà vu . It feels like we’re doing Iraq all over again. And just like George Bush did in Iraq, it seems like Trump and Hegseth believe they could just come in, decapitate the Iranian leadership and call it a day that democracy would prevail,” said Saikat Chakrabarti, a former software engineer and chief of staff for New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Of course, that’s not what happened in Iraq.”

“I am so deeply worried … that this is going to become either another forever war for the U.S., or Trump will do what he often does, which is to cut and run and then leave the people of Iran to clean up the mess, potentially with an even worse government in place,” Wiener said.

Marie Hurabiell, the most recent candidate to join the race and a moderate Democrat, said that “the last thing we need is another Iraq 2.0.”

But Hurabiell, who Trump previously appointed to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors, drew a stark line between herself and her opponents when it came to whether the president acted legally in Iran.

“I’m a pragmatist, and I’m a lawyer, so under Article 2 of the War Powers, this is a legal action,” she said. “The president can make strikes like this. Many presidents have used this ability.”

Others disagreed with Hurabiell, who is the director of the local moderate group ConnectedSF.

“To start a war without any plan is clearly an illegal action without the authorizations from Congress. And most importantly, this has no reason,” Chan said.

“I wanna be clear, this war that Trump just started is illegal. Congress has not authorized this war, and it’s horrific, and we need to stop it,” Chakrabarti, who also worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, said.

As the fighting continues and has already inched into nearby nations and territories and resulted in American casualties, U.S. Reps. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, are pushing for a vote on a resolution that would require Trump to seek congressional authorization to use military force in Iran.

Every San Francisco candidate said they would support the resolution. Wiener, Chan and Chakrabarti all said that if they were in office, they would vote no on any war with Iran.

But Hurabiell said she wasn’t clear on whether she would actually vote yes or no to authorize the president’s war powers.

“The president needs to explain his plan on this before I could make a decision on whether or not to support an ongoing war. We don’t need to know the strategy, obviously, we would not want to violate any kind of military intelligence or put our troops in danger in any way,” she said. “I just don’t have the information at this point to make a decision on war. And I really hope it does not come to that.”

U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed Khamenei on March 1, ending his 37-year rule. Candidates all criticized Khamenei’s regime and extended sympathy to Iranian Americans who are celebrating his death or have mixed feelings about what comes next. But several maintained that war with Iran would not lead to better outcomes.

“Look, Khamenei was bad, but so was Saddam Hussein. Us going to war in these countries with bad leaders, it just always makes a bad situation worse. We did the same thing in Afghanistan, in Libya, in Syria. And every single time, it got worse, not better,” said Chakrabarti, referring to the former Iraqi leader. “We destroy the infrastructure. We create this power vacuum, and then chaos comes in. And then millions of people end up dying from all kinds of horrific causes, from drinking dirty water, from not having access to hospitals, from not having access to electricity. And that’s unfortunately where I fear this is gonna go.”

“The Iranian regime has inflicted indescribable trauma on the people of Iran and on the Iranian diaspora. So many Iranians in California have fled Iran, have family members who are in Iran now, and they are terrified for family members. So I completely understand why there are members of the Iranian diaspora who are celebrating what Trump has done because the Ayatollah was a deeply evil, horrific human being,” Wiener said. “But I am, you know, I also know that Trump is both chaotic and unreliable. And so I don’t have any confidence that he has the best interests of the Iranian people in his heart.”

“It is the role of the U.S. government to make sure that we’re acting for peace, and that we must stand with all people around the world to make sure that they are being empowered to have the power of self-determination and the ability to seek democracy,” Chan said. “But we know right now that is not what Donald Trump is doing. We know that there’s no intention to provide meaningful support for them to rebuild their country.”

“We saw all over the United States over the weekend, the just incredible joy from the Iranian people to know that this rain is over,” Hurabiell said. “There are many unknowns, which is very concerning, but I’m very hopeful that this will be a new era for them.”

In a press conference this week, Marco Rubio said the U.S. launched airstrikes over the weekend after Israel was already planning an attack, highlighting another point of friction between the candidates and support for Israel.

During a forum in January, before Hurabiell joined the race, each of the candidates was asked during a 10-question lightning round series to answer “yes” or “no” over whether they believed Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Chan and Chakrabarti said yes while Wiener, who is Jewish, did not answer the question, causing a roaring response and boos from the live audience. He later took to social media to clarify his position, saying that he does believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but that he believes the issue is more complicated than a simple yes or no answer.

Chakrabarti this week said it was shameful for the U.S. to back Israel in another war zone.

“America got dragged into this war by Israel. And now you got Trump going up there saying that ‘Americans must die. That’s what happens in a war,’” he said. So Americans have to die now, and we have to spend trillions of dollars just because Israel wants us to. It’s absolutely awful.”