DEMOCRATS' GENERATION GAP

Nancy Pelosi's most serious primary challenge is coming amid a growing push for a power shift

- Kevin Rector, Ana Ceballos and Seema Mehta

STATE SEN. Scott Wiener announced his run for Rep. Nancy Pelosi's seat.

JOSH EDELSON For The Times (left); LEA SUZUKI AP

State Sen. Scott Wiener couldn't wait any longer. The once-in-a-generation political opening he'd eyed for years had arrived, he decided whether the grand dame of San Francisco politics agreed or not.

On Wednesday, Wiener, 55, a prolific and ambitious lawmaker, formally announced his candidacy for the San Francisco congressional seat held for nearly four decades by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 85, who remains one of the party’s most powerful leaders and has yet to reveal her own intentions for the 2026 race.

“The world is changing, the Democratic Party is changing, and it’s time,” Wiener said in an interview with The Times. “I know San Francisco, I have worked tirelessly to represent this community delivering housing, health care, clean energy, LGBTQ and immigrant rights and I have a fortitude and backbone to be able to deliver for San Francisco in Congress.”

Wiener’s announcement which leaked in part last week caught some political observers off guard, given Wiener had for years seemed resigned to run for Pelosi's seat only once she stepped aside. But it stunned few, given how squarely it fit within the broader political moment facing the Democratic Party.

In recent years, a long-sim-mering reckoning over generational power has exploded into the political forefront as members of the party’s old guard have increasingly been accused of holding on too long, and to their party’s detriment.

Long-serving liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruffled many Democratic feathers by declining to step down during Barack Obama's presidency despite being in her 80s. She subsequently died while still on the court at the age of 87 in 2020, handing President Trump his third appointment to the high court.