By Maria Verissimo

District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan and State Sen. Scott Wiener will advance to November’s election for Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

At the end of election night, with 49% of the votes counted, Chan was in second place with 28.6% of the vote, while Saikat Chakrabarti was in third with 14.9%.

Wiener leads the pack with more than 40,000 votes (41.26%), and pulled the majority of votes from precincts citywide. 

“Tonight the people of San Francisco sent a very clear message,” Wiener said at his election-night party. “San Franciscans are ready for bold, forward-looking leadership. For real results, not just words.”

Earlier in the evening, Richmond and Sunset district precincts saw a clear lead for Chan, a trend which changed as in-person poll results came in. 

“I am really grateful for all the work that we have done together,” Chan said on June 2. “This is an amazing coalition. The work is not done yet, it just got started”

As polls closed on election night in San Francisco, people started gathering at a celebration for Chan at El Rio in the Mission District to follow the results. 

The party started with a group of approximately 60 people eating tacos, drinking and talking while DJs were playing pop music. Campaign merchandise, such as campaign pins, were being distributed to an excited crowd. 

At 8:30 p.m., it was announced that Chan was in second place, after Weiner’s lead. At the time, Chan was leading the votes on San Francisco’s West Side. 

Shortly thereafter the San Francisco Chronicle confirmed that Wiener was advancing in the general race. The announcement of Wiener’s secured place was not particularly well received by the crowd, who vocally expressed their support to Chan.

The outdoor patio of El Rio became a mix of an increasing number of attendees, media personnel, and union and political representatives.

“It is an interesting evening so far,” said Julie Pitta, who was attending the watch party. “I know it’s still early, but it really seems like (Chan) has a chance.” 

While the crowd was waiting for more updates and statements from political groups involved in the election, attendees started dancing and the atmosphere started to increasingly become more relaxed.

Event collaborators like the California Working Families Party and the San Francisco Labor Council started speaking to the crowd about their goals and overall sentiment regarding the race.

The speakers’ talked about union rights, voter frustration with big corporations involved in politics and the celebration of Jane Kim, a former San Francisco city supervisor, leading the race for insurance commissioner. 

At around 10:35 p.m., Connie Chan took the stage to deliver her speech.

Chan’s speech was energetic and received an excited reception from the crowd. She highlighted that she wants to beat corporate democrats, and that the fight started tonight.

“Now they are coming for us, you know that, right?” said Chan. “They will be like ‘wow, look at what happened to these people,’” referring to her voter base, who started campaigning for her and secured a second place (at the time) in only six months.

Chan finished her speech by noting that the fight is only over on Nov. 3.

“People kept asking me where the Connie Chan election party was. I told them: Nov. 3. That’s our victory party.”

The crowd erupted in cheers, applauding widely. As soon as Chan left the stage, the song “Who Runs The World (Girls)” by Beyonce started playing as a symbolic closure for the night.

Visit sfelections.org for the latest polling results.