Katie Porter Backs Sen. Scott Wiener in San Francisco Congressional Race
Katie Porter is no longer in the running for California governor, but the former Southern California congresswoman is staying active in politics by backing state Sen. Scott Wiener in his bid to represent San Francisco in Washington.
The latest endorsement comes a month out from Election Day in the race between Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who are vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. The former speaker of the House is retiring after nearly four decades in San Francisco’s congressional seat.
“Right now, Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are ripping away healthcare and raising costs on working people. We need representatives in Washington who won’t back down and who know how to win,” said Porter, who represented Orange County in Congress from 2019 to 2025.
“Scott will be a fighter for San Francisco families in Congress — on housing, on healthcare and on the cost of living — and I’m proud to endorse him.”
The race between Chan and Wiener, both Democrats, could be close, with Wiener showing an 11-point lead, according to a September poll from Tavern Research, with a margin of error of 5.2%.
Chan has surged in popularity since early this year, when polls showed her trailing Wiener and former candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, who lost in the June primary.
She got a big boost in May from Pelosi, who has endorsed Chan as her successor, and has also nabbed endorsements from many labor unions and politicians like former Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Jackie Speier.
Wiener has outraised his opponent, but Chan has found an audience in part by highlighting her own background, underscoring her experience as an immigrant and working mom.
She has also blasted Wiener for his ties to the tech industry.
In a recent debate hosted by KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle, Chan repeatedly asked audiences, “Can we trust politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? The answer is no, we cannot.”
At the same event, Wiener emphasized housing projects that Chan has blocked, saying the supervisor has stymied opportunities to build more homes at a time when the city is facing an affordability crisis and housing shortage.
Porter, a consumer protection attorney and law professor, specifically pointed to Wiener’s legislative record on housing, healthcare and transit as her reasons for backing him.
Wiener “has written the laws that are getting homes built in San Francisco and California, and he has taken on the powerful interests that drive up what families pay for healthcare, and protected public transit that families depend on to get to school and work,” she said.
Wiener said he was honored to have Porter’s endorsement.
“We share a simple belief: San Francisco should be a place where working families can afford to live and raise their kids,” Wiener said in a statement. “That means building far more homes so rents and mortgages come down, protecting and expanding healthcare people can afford and investing in public transit.”