There’s no doubt that progressives had a big night nationally on Tuesday and that included some places in California. Nithya Raman, a DSA candidate in the mold of Zohran Mamdani, defeated Karen Bass and will be LA’s next mayor.
But things have been pretty different in San Francisco. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very blue city in almost every way, but lately voters have been reining in the more extreme progressives instead of electing them. It’s the moderates that have all the power now.
San Francisco voters handed Mayor Daniel Lurie a sweeping victory Tuesday, overwhelmingly backing his efforts to reshape City Hall and giving the city’s moderate political movement another boost…
The results underscore San Francisco’s continued shift away from progressive politics, while giving Lurie tangible political momentum less than two years into his first term…
The victories continue a years-long political realignment in San Francisco, where progressives have increasingly found themselves on the defensive as voters prioritize public safety, government efficiency and economic recovery.
The other big race in San Francisco this cycle was the one to replace Nancy Pelosi in the House. In that race, Pelosi endorsed and campaigned for the more progressive candidate, Connie Chan. But on Tuesday Chan lost to the more moderate candidate, Scott Wiener. Yes, believe me, I know that Scott Wiener is not a moderate anywhere outside of San Francisco, but in that city he is.
The clearest sign of a progressive retreat was congressional candidate Connie Chan conceding Wednesday to her more moderate opponent, state Sen. Scott Wiener. She had run on a progressive platform similar to those nationwide: helping working-class voters wary of the influence of tech and artificial intelligence, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and supporting Medicare for All.
But there’s a lot more. Progressive ballot measures didn’t do well in San Francisco.
Proposition I, a measure backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to mandate that a portion of transfer tax revenue be spent on affordable housing, was trailing Wednesday. And the three San Francisco Board of Education candidates endorsed by the moderate group GrowSF were leading the eight-person field for three open seats. Phil Kim was declared the winner of one seat; the other two races had yet to be called as of Wednesday evening…
Steven Bacio, whose moderate group GrowSF was behind a handful of Tuesday’s wins, said progressives lack a message on how to make life better for San Franciscans.
“They are focused on billionaires and not ‘Can Billy read?’” he said.
More worrisome for progressives, Tuesday night’s results are part of an ongoing trend. The city has been shying away from progressive extremism for some time now.
This year, San Francisco’s Democratic Party…took the unprecedented step of altering its bylaws so it could buck the state party and offer up a “No” endorsement on Prop. 40, the “billionaire tax.”
And, lo, in San Francisco — be sure to wear some flowers in your hair — only some 52% of early voters here came out in favor of a tax on billionaires that would have funded healthcare.
It’s not a one-off: In 2024, 57% of San Franciscans inveighed against a statewide measure that would have allowed the city to expand rent control beyond buildings constructed before 1979.
And, in just June, voters comfortably spurned the labor-backed “Overpaid CEO” tax, which would have dinged businesses where the big boss earned more than 100 times their median workers.
The latest on the wealth tax is that with 74 percent of the vote counted only 55 percent of San Franciscans voted for it. That’s still one of the highest ‘yes’ tallies in the state, but it’s a pretty even split for a tax you’d imagine would be an 80-20 issue in one of America’s most left-wing cities.
My own take is that things started to take a turn in San Francisco when dysfunction in the streets started to impact the city’s cash cow, which is tourism. San Francisco gets something like $9 billion a year from people coming to gaze at the Golden Gate Bridge and there were signs some big conventions were walking away because of what they were hearing about the infamous poop map and drug use everywhere you looked.
I also think the city’s experience with far left DA Chesa Boudin and some far-left members of the school board, all of whom got recalled, really turned people off to woke 1.0. Then there was the constant problem with car break-ins and burglary. In short, the experiments with social justice didn’t win a lot of people over. And while most residents are too liberal to admit they don’t like woke policies, they don’t really like the woke policies.
It took San Francisco a few years, but they eventually figured out that you can in fact go too far-left. And since then, they’ve been trying to be a little less extreme and a little more practical. They’re still one of the deepest blue cities in the country, but it honestly could be much worse. The fact that it’s not ought to be considered carefully by other cities eagerly moving left at the moment.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it’s spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there’s nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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