Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will face a primary challenge in 2026 from Scott Wiener, a leather-wearing state lawmaker who is a “drag queen advocate” and has already raised $1 million for his campaign.
Wiener, who has represented San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area in the California Senate since 2016, had previously said he would wait until Pelosi, 85, retired to run for her long-held congressional seat, but multiple outlets reported on Friday that the state lawmaker will announce his candidacy for Congress next week.
“Scott Wiener for Congress,” the state senator’s congressional campaign committee, was set up in 2023 and reported over $1 million in contributions at the end of the last month. Meanwhile, Pelosi reported about $2 million in contributions to her principal campaign committee.
Pelosi, who underwent hip surgery late last year after a fall in Europe and has been seen using her security detail’s assistance to get around Capitol Hill as recently as earlier this week, has not announced any plans to retire.
“Speaker Pelosi is fully focused on her mission to win the Yes on 50 special election in California on November 4th,” Ian Krager, a spokesperson for the congresswoman, said in a statement.
“She urges all Californians to join in that mission on the path to taking back the House for the Democrats,” Krager added, not addressing the question from The Post about Wiener’s primary challenge.
Wiener, 55, is described as “one of the strongest LGBTQ civil rights champions in the nation,” on his state Senate profile.
He’s backed legislation promoting so-called gender-affirming care for minors; allowing non-binary designations on government IDs; and ending the mandatory inclusion of adults who have oral and anal intercourse with minors on sex offender registries, arguing that the law “disproportionately targets LGBT young people.”
Wiener, who is openly gay and regularly attends San Francisco’s annual Folsom Street Fair kink festival in a leather vest and leather tie, is also a self-described “drag queen advocate.”
In response to a 2022 Texas legislative effort to ban drag shows when minors are present, Wiener floated schools “offering Drag Queen 101 as part of the K-12 curriculum.”
“Attending Drag Queen Story Time will satisfy the requirement,” he tweeted.
An outspoken critic of President Trump, Wiener has blasted the National Guard as “Trump’s private army” and recently warned the commander in chief to “stay the hell out of San Francisco.”
He has also described Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as “a paramilitary police force” and a “modern-day gestapo.”
“ICE needs to get the hell out,” Wiener tweeted this week.
Wiener’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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