Due Date: Tues, March 17, 11:59 pm
Candidate Name: Saikat Chakrabarti
Phone Number:
Web site: Saikat.us/en
E-mail: Saikat@Saikat.us
Name of Campaign Manager: Emily Hyden
How much do you expect to spend in this contest:
Major Endorsements:
I am proud to be endorsed by community organizations such as the PAL PAC, Stanford Democrats, California College Democrats, Track AIPAC, No Dem Left Behind, Work Reform, Blue America, Health Care for All - California, and Rebellion PAC.
I have also received personal endorsements from former US Representative Jamal Bowman, Chief Attorney of the San Francisco Public Defenders Office Matt Gonzalez, author Ron Dudum, and Environmental Justice Advocate Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai.
1) What is the core message of your campaign?
Our country is facing multiple crises. Donald Trump is attempting an authoritarian coup, and our Democratic leaders in DC have no idea how to stop him. At the same time, a corporate oligarchy is cementing its hold on our nation, AI threatens to put millions of people out of work and further consolidate power and wealth into the hands of a few, climate change continues to ravage our environment, and Trump is dragging us into World War 3.
But we must realize that Trump is a symptom, not the cause. For decades, working people have worked longer hours to afford less. Trillions have been transferred from the working class to the elite. The American Dream has been declared dead for the next generation. For many, Trump represented a wrecking ball to a system that broke a long time ago.
I have spent over a decade in the trenches of national politics fighting to change that system. I served as Director of Organizing Technology for Bernie 2016 and co-founded Justice Democrats, where we recruited non-career politicians to run for Congress, challenging not just Republicans but also corporate Democrats at a time no one else would. I managed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 2018 campaign, defeating the third-most powerful Democrat in the country. As her Chief of Staff, I led the creation of the Green New Deal, , which ultimately led to the largest climate investment in American history. Since then, at my think tank, New Consensus, I've helped develop the Mission for America, a comprehensive, detailed plan for how to create a clean economy that creates prosperity for all-the detailed sequel to the Green New Deal.
I am running because I know exactly what it takes to make change in Washington. It requires challenging not just Republicans, but corporate money and a failed Democratic establishment. I am the only candidate in this race willing to say I will challenge Democratic leadership and support primary challenges against corporate Democrats from the inside. We must completely change the direction and leadership of the Democratic Party.
I am also running because we are living in a huge change moment where it will be possible to change the system. Zohran Mamdani just won in New York. And right now, there are candidates running all across the country stepping up to challenge a corporate status quo, and I am starting to organize with them now.
Ultimately, I am running because I love San Francisco. I've lived here since 2009. I'm raising my family here. It kills me to see more and more of my neighbors getting priced out everyday. Our city is ground zero for the inequality and cost of living crises - we need real solutions to these problems more than any place in the country. But you also see versions of these problems everywhere. San Francisco did not create these problems on its own, and San Francisco cannot solve these problems alone. We need federal solutions: Medicare for All, a national housing plan that makes housing a human right, universal childcare, public power, an end to corporate money in politics, a wealth tax on billionaires, a true Green New Deal, and control over AI so it works for humanity rather than racing to replace it.
We have a narrow window to build a society that works for working people. To succeed, we need a strategy, a movement, and the courage to take on the status quo. I am running to turn that opportunity into reality.
2) What policy positions and goals do you hold that most distinguish you from other candidates in this contest?
First, I am the only candidate with direct experience working in Congress and making progressive policy happen in Washington. I served as Chief of Staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, where I managed legislative strategy, built out a constituent services operation, and navigated the unique institutional dynamics of Congress. Congress is very different from the Board of Supervisors or the State Senate - its rules are more complex and the micro-political coalitions that determine its actions can be almost impossible to decipher from the outside. Many first-time representatives, even those who held office at a state or local level, struggle to be effective during their first years in office. My experience running a congressional office means I can deliver results for San Francisco from day one.
Second, I have a proven track record of forcing progressive change against the odds. I led the creation of the Green New Deal at a time when Democratic leadership dismissed it. Within five years, that work ultimately led to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history. I took on the pharmaceutical companies and delivered real results by helping orchestrate a congressional investigation into the CEO of Gilead, which laid the groundwork for generic PrEP years before patents expired. I have a proven track record of using the tools of Congress to create real change, and I will do the same on issues like education, housing, and healthcare.
Third, I am the only candidate in this race willing to challenge not just Republicans but also Democratic Party leadership. I believe we need to completely change the leadership and direction of the Democratic Party to stand strongly with working people, and that will require replacing corporate-backed Democrats in Washington. I'm not running to build a career in politics - I'm running to change the system in DC, and neither of my opponents is willing to say the same.
3) Should the US continue providing weapons or other support to Ukraine? Please elaborate on what you would or would not vote for.
I believe the US should continue providing defensive weapons and humanitarian, diplomatic, and security support to Ukraine.
4) Should the US continue providing weapons or other support to Israel? Please elaborate on what you would or would not vote for.
I have long been opposed to sending any military funding or support to Israel. I strongly support an arms embargo on Israel.
5) Do you support abolition of ICE? How would your stance on funding "homeland security" agencies differ from your opponents, and from Democratic Party leadership?
I support abolishing ICE and fundamentally restructuring how we handle immigration enforcement in this country. Our immigration system is broken and has made it nearly impossible for people to immigrate to this country legally. This is a very personal issue for me. My father was one year old when the Partition of India forced his family to flee overnight from Dhaka, taking a boat up the Ganges with whatever they could carry. They arrived in Calcutta as refugees with nothing. Years later, my parents immigrated to the United States through a federal program that actively recruited skilled workers to help build America. They arrived during the golden age of the American Dream, worked hard, and built a life. I am who I am because this country once opened its doors to people like them. We need comprehensive immigration reform to make stories like this possible for more people looking to make a better life for themselves and help build America. The following is my plan for comprehensively reforming our immigration system to make it easier to immigrate to America and create a pathway to citizenship for those already here.
First, we need to abolish ICE. All immigration enforcement operations should be consolidated into U.S. Customs and Border Protection and any internal immigration enforcement should focus exclusively on people who have been arrested for serious crimes. Second, we have to remove all immigration functions from the Department of Homeland Security and place them under the Department of Justice. Having DHS oversee immigration treats it as a national security threat on par with terrorism, which is how you end up with a militarized immigration policy. Third, we shut down all large-scale detention centers and have immigration cases go through the traditional court structure.
On pathway to citizenship, I believe that anyone who has been in this country for more than five years, can pass a background check, and pays any back taxes should be eligible for legal permanent residency within three years and citizenship within five. We should be ambitious on this timeline - these are people who have built lives here, contributed to our communities, and committed no crimes.
Finally, we need to repurpose the $70 billion in new ICE funding to fix and expand our legal immigration system. That means hiring more immigration judges to address a backlog of over 3.5 million cases, increasing the number of available visas by 500,000 over the next decade with an emphasis on family and employment-based visas, and funding USCIS through normal appropriations so that it can actually process applications in a reasonable timeframe instead of relying on fees that have never been sufficient to maintain timely operations.
My stance differs from Democratic leadership and my opponents in that I will directly organize a caucus of Democrats to hold the line against any funding of the government until we claw back money for ICE. I am the only candidate in this race willing to directly challenge Democratic leadership to force them to fight and get progress on popular issues that the people want.
6) How will you work to redirect federal funding away from military contractors and towards public benefits such as public education, public transit operations, etc, so that our public institutions would not constantly be facing fiscal collapse?
The reason our public institutions are constantly facing fiscal collapse is a direct result of political choices. Since 2001, we have spent over $8 trillion on wars in the Middle East that did not make anyone safer and has killed millions of people. Every year, Congress votes to expand an already bloated defense budget while telling schools, transit agencies, and healthcare programs that there's no money. This is driven by the corrupting influence of defense contractors who spend millions lobbying Congress to keep the money flowing.
The American people already agree with us on this. Only 3% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans want a bigger defense budget. The bipartisan consensus for endless military spending exists in Congress, not among voters. That disconnect is itself evidence of how badly corporate money has distorted our political system.
In Congress, I will organize an anti-war caucus that refuses to vote for an expanded defense budget and will recruit primary challengers against Democrats who keep rubber-stamping it. I will fight to cut Pentagon spending and redirect those resources toward the public institutions that actually improve people's lives - doubling Title I funding for public schools, fully funding IDEA, redirecting federal highway dollars to transit operations so systems like Muni and BART aren't perpetually on the brink of collapse, and investing in Medicare for All, affordable housing, and universal childcare.
With the new war in Iran and all attention being paid to it, we will have an opportunity to grab that attention and use it towards a fight to stop further funding of our military and end the war in Iran. Many Democrats, including Democratic leadership, will try to find a way around this. I will directly challenge them and organize a caucus that blocks any new funding for this war or for the Pentagon.
This is also why ending money in politics is central to my platform. Until we break the grip that defense contractors and corporate donors have over Congress - through overturning Citizens United and moving to publicly financed elections - every budget fight will be rigged against working people.
7) What electoral reforms do you support (e.g., public financing, expanded use of ranked choice voting and/or proportional representation, gerrymandering)?
I have been a long time supporter of public financing in elections, ranked choice voting as well as proportional representation (I prefer proportional representation but would settle for ranked choice voting), and a national ban on gerrymandering. I also support a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United and would vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to overturn the anti-voter laws passed in most red states.
8) Please describe how you make your political decisions. What is the main basis for your decision making (e.g., consultation with your constituents, political consultants, colleagues, unions, businesses, donors, or your gut feelings)?
I make decisions by talking to the people I would represent. Most candidates for Congress spend the majority of their time on donor call time where they beg for contributions from wealthy supporters. I refuse corporate PAC money and don't do donor call time at all. Instead, I hold weekly calls with regular voters - nurses, teachers, service workers, construction workers - to hear directly what they're dealing with and what they need from their representative. I've held town halls in every San Francisco neighborhood and our campaign has knocked on over 200,000 doors. When I'm in Congress, I will be accountable to the voters and local institutions of San Francisco - not corporate PACs or billionaire donors.
9) What is your plan for working with other political parties once in Office?
People assume that because of my background I'm a hard-left partisan who won't work across the aisle - but that's not how I operate. As Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's Chief of Staff, I helped build a bipartisan coalition to pass a resolution blocking arms sales to Saudi Arabia. That meant working with conservative hardliners who disagreed with us on almost everything else. Nevertheless, we were able to come together based on our shared belief that Congress, not the president, should decide when and where American weapons are used and built from there. I would take this same approach to any Member of Congress or local third party if we share common ground on issues that matter to Americans. I believe there is a lot of room to work with Republicans on anti-corruption and foreign policy. These are issues where a huge majority of Republican voters agree with my stances, and some Republican members of Congress are willing to fight for it.
I will do the same thing Ro Khanna did in teaming up with Tom Massie to file discharge petitions on issues like banning congressional stock trading or banning the revolving door between Congress and the lobbying industry. Forcing votes like this upsets leadership because it circumvents their power, but that is not something I care about - I believe we should be passing bills that the people want.
10) How would you describe your leadership style?
I would say I am direct, collaborative, and willing to fight. Throughout my career I have built teams around people who all bring something unique on specific issues, give them real power, and back them up when they need it. I am also not afraid to take on powerful interests when it matters - whether that's the Democratic Party establishment, pharmaceutical companies, or corporate landlords. I co-founded Justice Democrats and ran AOC's campaign against the third most powerful Democrat in the country because I believed it was the right thing to do, even when the entire political establishment told us it was impossible. I bring that same approach to everything. I listen carefully, work with great people, make a plan, and then fight to execute it.
Your positions (at the time) on selected current and past Propositions
(skip any for which you didn't live or vote in SF, or didn't take
a position at the time).
+ = Support / Agree / Yes
- = Oppose / Disagree / No
: = Undecided / Don't know / No opinion
Feel free to clarify any answers with a few words, if necessary.
+ - :
[ ] [ X ] [ ] Nov 2024 Prop D (Stronger Mayor)
[ X ] [ ] [ ] Nov 2024 Prop K (Great Highway)
[ X ] [ ] [ ] Nov 2024 Prop L (Tax Uber and Waymo to fund Muni)
[ ] [ ] [ ] Nov 2024 Prop M (Block Prop L) - I left Prop M blank. I supported it in theory, but I did not want to give it a vote because of the poison pill against prop L, which I opposed.
[ ] [ X ] [ ] March 2024 Prop E (More Police Chases)
[ ] [ X ] [ ] March 2024 Prop F (Drug Test Poor People)
[ X ] [ ] [ ] June 2022 Prop C (Recall Reform)
[ ] [ X ] [ ] June 2022 Prop H (Boudin Recall)
[X ] [ ] [ ] Nov 2020 Prop G (16-17 y.o. voting, local elections)
[X] [ ] [ ] Nov 2020 Prop I (Real Estate Transfer Tax)