Nancy Pelosi Endorses Democratic Socialist Dean Preston for San Francisco Supervisor

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 like Elon Musk, who last year posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the supervisor should be imprisoned.

Garry Tan, CEO of the tech incubator Y Combinator, also earlier this year publicly posted death threats to X directed at Preston and other progressive members of the Board of Supervisors. Tan is a major donor to San Francisco’s Democratic Party, which elected a new moderate majority leadership earlier this year.

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.