CA-11: He Name-Drops Ocasio-Cortez in His Bid for Congress. She Doesn't Talk About Him at All.

Connie Chan, a left-wing San Francisco supervisor running for the House seat held by Representative Nancy Pelosi, the retiring former speaker, recently secured a key endorsement: Ms. Pelosi herself.

Saikat Chakrabarti, Ms. Chan’s progressive rival, boasts a different powerhouse affiliation: He served as chief of staff for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, in 2019. But a roving billboard that follows him to campaign stops with the message “A.O.C. FIRED SAIKAT” — referring to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez by her initials — makes clear that the relationship is, well, complicated.

Mr. Chakrabarti has made his time with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez central to his anti-establishment campaign. He has repeatedly invoked the connection in speeches, promoted advertisements with a photo featuring the two of them and introduced himself to voters as someone who “used to work with A.O.C.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, has backed multiple left-wing House candidates in recent weeks, campaigning with one in Philadelphia and planning a trip to western Montana to support another. But she won’t even mention her former chief of staff’s name.




https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/us/politics/saikat-chakrabarti-aoc-sf-pelosi-seat.html