As they compete for the seat Nancy Pelosi is vacating, congressional candidates in San Francisco are taking divergent approaches to immigration and how to connect with Chinese American voters, who comprise a sizable and politically active share of the district.
At a Saturday forum in Chinatown’s Victory Hall, those differences played out in English and Cantonese as three rival political clubs joined forces to question the candidates.
Each of the four candidates had a different approach to earning trust. They cited track records, dropped names, drew on their immigrant backgrounds and appealed for common ground on local issues.
As the only prominent Chinese American candidate in the race, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan stood out for her ability to translate her own statements without the aid of an interpreter.
“The one thing I would do differently,” Chan said to the mostly-Chinese-speaking crowd, “is be able to actually speak directly to our Chinese American community in our language.”
The community is far from a single voting bloc.
The forum was made possible by an unlikely alliance. Three Chinese political clubs that often clash over endorsements — the Chinese American Democratic Club, the Ed Lee Democratic Club and the Rose Pak Asian American Club — set aside their differences to co-host the event.
The groups, which take positions spanning San Francisco’s progressive-to-conservative spectrum, are finding reason to mingle and collaborate. This was the second time the three groups co-hosted an event, following a recent holiday party. This time, it was not just mingling with politicians, but presenting them with tough questions.
As longtime fixtures in city politics, both Chan and state Sen. Scott Wiener leaned on their deep connections and knowledge of local issues.
“Working together,” Wiener said, “we have fought for expanded access to health care, and to protect health care from the assaults from the federal government.” The “we” was a reference to his work with community leaders to keep acupuncture as a covered medical benefit.
Chan also used “we” a lot in her speech, but her use of the pronoun was more personal, as a way to signal her background shaped by shared immigrant experiences: arriving in San Francisco’s Chinatown at 13, accompanied by her single mother and younger brother, speaking no English.
She linked that experience to her current role as chair of the city’s Budget Committee, where she pointed to efforts to support immigrants, including securing funding to maintain San Francisco’s sanctuary city policies. She presented that record as evidence of how Chinese immigrants establish themselves in the city.
“We’re running for Congress because we’re here to fight for working families,” she said.
Chan and Wiener emphasized issues such as health care, child care, education, federal immigration enforcement and housing as priorities to take to Washington.
Wiener also included LGBTQ issues in outlining his plan.
Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy candidate funding his own campaign, took a different approach. He focused on several national policy proposals, including banning congressional stock trading and cutting military funding, emphasizing issues prominent in Washington debates.
Compared with the others, Chakrabarti has spent less time with Chinese American voters. He drew on his background as the child of immigrants who rose to become a Harvard graduate, a founding engineer at Stripe and a lead architect of the Green New Deal who worked alongside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The fourth participant was Marie Hurabiell, a former Republican and Trump appointee to the board of the Presidio Trust. She emphasized local issues where she said she and Chinese American voters aligned, including the 2022 recalls of District Attorney Chesa Boudin and school board members, and the campaign to preserve merit-based admissions at Lowell High School.
Hurabiell was the only candidate who did not openly criticize Trump’s foreign policy. Instead, she appealed to the group by talking about immigration, proposing ideas such as speeding up the family reunification process and streamlining the H1B visa program, which many Chinese American immigrants have used.
The forum hosts highlighted immigration, asking candidates to outline their perspectives on a topic given less attention at previous debates.
Chan advocated legal support for sanctuary cities. Chakrabarti focused on protecting naturalized citizens, and called for holding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountable for constitutional violations and cutting its funding. Wiener, Chan and Chakrabarti all emphasized opening more opportunities for immigrants to legally stay in the country.
“We need a pathway to citizenship,” Wiener said. “When people say just do it the legal way, there really is not much of a legal way anymore.”
Another top priority mentioned by all but Hurabiell: protecting birthright citizenship, which the Trump administration has attempted to override, despite its basis in the Constitution. That right was affirmed by the Supreme Court a century ago in a case brought by a San Franciscan of Chinese descent.
While the candidates worked to tailor their answers to their understanding of Chinese American voters, sometimes the message didn’t come through clearly. On several occasions, the Cantonese interpretation was interrupted and revised.
“Real-time translation is such a challenge,” said Thomas Li, vice president of the Ed Lee Asian American Club. He noted that numbers are particularly difficult, as English and Chinese use different counting systems. In addition, when candidates referenced government agencies, figures and acronyms, interpreters not only had to find the correct Chinese terms but also explain the political context.
Beyond formal word usage, Li said it is politicians’ responsibility to clearly communicate their platforms.
“Candidates need to change their message when talking to everyday individuals,” he said, including its many limited-English-speaking voters who also are part of the constituency they must serve.
“If we don’t bring those candidates to Chinatown for a debate like this,” Li said, “who else will have them discuss topics like immigration so thoroughly?”