Connie Chan’s Cantonese & English Messaging Draws Scrutiny in SF Race

Translated Cantonese-language broadcast interviews with San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan reveal a sharp contrast with her English-language campaign positioning in the race for Congress against state Sen. Scott Wiener, according to a report published Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026 by The San Francisco Standard.

Pre-Primary Cantonese Interviews Contrast With English Positioning on Mayor Lurie and AIPAC

Reporters Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Dustin Gardiner, and Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler reviewed 2 interviews conducted just before the June primary by San Francisco journalist Joseph Leung, who was then working at Sing Tao Daily, when Chan outperformed pre-primary polling that had placed her in third place.

In the first Cantonese interview, Leung asked Chan about Mayor Daniel Lurie's decision not to support the Overpaid CEO Tax and his proposed budget cuts to community organizations. While Chan has campaigned in English media and bilingual mailers as a close ally working in lockstep with Lurie, she criticized the mayor's background during the Cantonese broadcast:

• "If one has not experienced social services, like food stamps or access to healthcare, then they would not understand the importance of these services," Chan told Leung, adding, "His wealthy friends will share with him that [taxing them] will hurt them. He will know the needs of his friends who are very wealthy."

In the second interview, Leung asked how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) exercises political influence compared with Chinese American community organizations. Whereas Chan told The Intercept in English-language coverage that candidates should take an anti-AIPAC pledge, she told Leung in Cantonese that the Jewish community is "willing to invest. It's monetary, and it's huge," citing AIPAC as an organizational model during what Leung framed as an "analytic exercise."

San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung, who has endorsed Sen. Scott Wiener, said after reviewing the translations that Chan appeared to be praising the AIPAC model while saying the opposite in English. Chan campaign spokesperson Ian Krager responded that progressives have long recognized AIPAC's political effectiveness and "urged their own communities to build comparable influence" while "vehemently opposing AIPAC's policy objectives."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi Stars in $150,000 Super PAC Ad as City Attorney David Chiu Rebuffs DOJ

Meanwhile, SF For All, a labor-backed super PAC, launched a $150,000 streaming and digital ad buy featuring Rep. Nancy Pelosi to bolster Chan among undecided Democratic women ahead of Election Day. Strategist Jim Stearns said the spot draws a parallel between criticisms of Chan's record—including an AI chatbot deployed and later removed by Wiener's campaign this summer—and Pelosi's first congressional campaign in 1987, when supporters of opponent Harry Britt dismissed Pelosi as a lightweight.

Wiener campaign spokesperson Joe Arellano countered that Wiener authored the nation's first fully paid parental leave law as a city supervisor and state legislation guaranteeing workplace lactation accommodations. On Wednesday, Pelosi was also in London hosting a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser with River Café chef Ruth Rogers and attending Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons.

Separately on Tuesday, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent a formal letter to U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian rejecting a Department of Justice demand that San Francisco's Department of Elections turn over records regarding 441 registered voters, writing that the federal request violates state and local law and that San Francisco "cannot comply with DOJ's requests."