This is a nonpartisan analysis of the San Francisco ballot for the March 5, 2024, election.
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Election Guide Index
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Learn how we chose the order for listing names in this guide and how we came up with questions for the candidates.
United States Representative, District 11
Question for the candidate:
We asked San Francisco residents to tell us what they thought were the most pressing issues in the city. According to survey responses we received, homelessness, housing affordability and crime were top concerns. If you are elected to represent California’s 11th congressional district, what do you plan to do to address these issues?
Jason Boyce
Party affiliation: Democratic
Jason Boyce is a web developer and visual artist who has worked at the Center for HIV Information at the University of California, San Francisco, since 2020. His political priorities include increasing police accountability and addressing the housing crisis at a federal level, and in his work bio he expresses support for social justice organizations and environmental preservation. In the wake of several controversial U.S. Supreme Court rulings last June, he wrote on Facebook: “We need to hold the White House and the Senate and take back the House in 2024, and we have to hold it long enough to start fixing the Court.”
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • Threads • YouTube
We were unable to reach or did not receive either an audio or text response from Jason Boyce.
Bianca Von Krieg
Party affiliation: Democratic
Bianca Von Krieg is an actress, media personality, LGBT activist and democratic socialist who identifies as a transgender woman. Her website and social media list political priorities that include the Green New Deal, defunding the police and taxing the rich. She also supports a guaranteed basic income and health care for all, and has suggested paying for those programs by taxing the “uber class” like “the Mark Zuckerberg’s of the world.” Von Krieg has pledged to support term limits for members of Congress. She attended Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • Threads • Mastodon • YouTube
Larry Nichelson
Party affiliation: Republican
Larry Nichelson is a retired San Francisco Unified School District worker. He has no campaign website, but has discussed his platform in posts on TikTok. He changed his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican in December; he has said he’d prefer to run as a third-party candidate but that doing so would make it difficult to get onto the ballot. He has urged people not to vote for candidates from either major party, which he criticized for funding military actions overseas and favoring billionaire interests. He supports unions, Medicare for All, better funding for retirement, subsidized child care, and stopping wars, genocide, climate change and what he calls “debt slavery” driven by credit card debt and medical and education expenses. He would like to reroute money from the Pentagon to pay for these goals.
Jason Chuyuan Zeng
Party affiliation: Republican
Jason Chuyuan Zeng is a data engineer, and a delegate for the Republican Party. He ran for the San Francisco Community College Board in 2015 and 2022, as well as the Board of Supervisors and the Montana House of Representatives in 2020, but did not win in those elections. In this race, his platform is focusing on public safety, education and protecting nature. If elected, he would prioritize ensuring the safety of older Chinese Americans, saying the government could achieve this by “allowing police officers to enforce punishments on criminals,” increasing foot patrols and providing self-defense training. He also supports keeping community college affordable and vouchers to help children attend private schools. He is endorsed by the San Francisco Young Republicans. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and Montana State University.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • YouTube
Eve Del Castello
Party affiliation: Republican
Eve Del Castello is a business consultant. Her website offers little information about her political priorities, which include tax and education reform, “protecting our borders” and “supporting our allies, including Israel.” She ran for this congressional seat two years ago, receiving close to 4% of votes. Elections department records show that Del Castello opposes two measures on the March local ballot: Proposition D, which aims to combat bribery at City Hall, and Proposition A, which would fund affordable housing. Del Castello was born in San Francisco.
Nancy Pelosi
Party affiliation: Democratic
Nancy Pelosi represents District 11 in the U.S. House of Representatives and has served as Speaker of the House twice, most recently until 2023. She was first elected to Congress in 1987 and her current term will end in January 2025. Pelosi regularly touts her ability to push high-profile legislation through the House, including the Affordable Care Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Her recent votes include “nays” on bills that would deport or bar the entry of undocumented immigrants who have DUIs or committed social security fraud. She also voted against a bill aimed at discouraging abortions by giving pregnant college students information on how to carry their babies to term. She has received very positive ratings from pro-choice groups like the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood, and equally negative ratings from anti-abortion groups. Pelosi’s personal wealth has come under fire from critics and continues to make headlines. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, is a venture capitalist.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • Threads • YouTube
We were unable to reach or did not receive either an audio or text response from Nancy Pelosi.
Marjorie Mikels
Party affiliation: Democratic
Marjorie Mikels is an attorney. Her top priority is an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, according to her website. She is looking to unseat Rep. Nancy Pelosi because the incumbent “supports genocide” and no longer represents the will of the people, she said, citing a poll that shows 67% of voters want a ceasefire. Mikels, who says she has visited Palestinian refugee camps and witnessed a military bombing in Lebanon, has a long history of advocating against war. Her other political goals include passing the Green New Deal, freeing political prisoners and taxing the rich.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn
Bruce Lou
Party affiliation: Republican
Bruce Lou owns Stingray Staffing LLC, which helps job-seekers. Lou lists priorities that include reducing the size of government and ending sanctuary-city policies. He organized the distribution of pepper sprays to residents of San Francisco’s Chinatown in 2021, and has said he will back bills that increase sentences for hate crimes against Asians. Lou opposes affirmative action and Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7, a California bill that would allow state funding for certain programs designed to help underserved racial and other groups. He is endorsed by the Republican Party at the local and state levels, as well as the Business and Housing Network, an organization representing landlords in California. Lou is the son of immigrants and attended public school as a child, and has called himself “a strong believer in the importance of education in achieving the American Dream.”
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • TikTok
United States Representative, District 15
Question for the candidate:
We asked San Francisco residents what they thought were the most pressing issues in the city. According to survey responses we received, homelessness, housing affordability and crime were top concerns. If elected, how will you address the concerns of San Franciscans in your district as well as those of constituents you represent in San Mateo County?
Kevin Mullin
Party affiliation: Democratic
Kevin Mullin represents District 15, and is seeking a second term. His primary issues are affordable housing, transportation funding, child care and development, workforce development, Medicare for All and fighting climate change. He sits on the House committees on Natural Resources, and Science, Space, and Technology. Mullin served in the state Assembly representing District 22 from 2012 to 2022, where he was speaker pro tempore starting in 2014. Before that, he served one term on the South San Francisco City Council. Mullin has been endorsed by numerous Democratic Party leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. He has strong backing from labor groups, the California Democratic Party and the Sierra Club. Mullin was born in Daly City. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of San Francisco and a master’s degree from San Francisco State University. He founded KM2 Communications, a video production company.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • Threads • TikTok • YouTube
We were unable to reach or did not receive either an audio or text response from Kevin Mullin.
Anna Cheng Kramer
Party affiliation: Republican
Anna Cheng Kramer has spent 17 years as the managing director for Pacific Property Company, overseeing renovation and construction of thousands of West Coast properties. She is former chief operating officer for MidPen Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer. Her political priorities are economic development, public safety and preventing “government overreach,” and she supports “public-private cooperation” to create affordable housing. Kramer would require immigrants “to demonstrate the ability to support themselves” before being allowed into the country, and she has said that “climate change is best controlled by a shift of demand by the public for clean energy.” She has said she believes in market-driven competition in the health insurance market. She has been endorsed by the Republican Party at the local and state levels, Republican elected officials, the San Mateo County Police Officers Association and the California Parents Union.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • YouTube
We were unable to reach or did not receive either an audio or text response from Anna Cheng Kramer.
State Senator, District 11
Question for the candidate:
We asked San Francisco residents to tell us what they thought were the most pressing issues in the city. According to survey responses we received, homelessness, housing affordability and crime were top concerns. If you are elected to represent District 11 in the State Senate, what do you plan to do to address these issues?
Scott Wiener
Party affiliation: Democratic
Scott Wiener has represented District 11 since 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. He originally won that seat halfway through his second term as supervisor representing San Francisco’s District 8, which includes the Castro neighborhood. Wiener chairs the Senate Housing Committee and has authored more than 75 Senate bills that have become law on issues ranging from housing to transportation, LGBT issues, the environment and drug decriminalization. He gained minor infamy for bringing legislation mandating that municipalities ramp up housing production in the coming years — failure could cost them state money and control of local land-use decisions. He is a gay man who grew up in New Jersey and moved to San Francisco in 1997. He has a law degree from Harvard. Wiener has been endorsed by YIMBY Action, part of the Yes in My Back Yard movement, as well as the Harvey Milk Democratic Club and Equality California, among others.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • Threads • Bluesky • TikTok • YouTube
Jing Chao Xiong
Party affiliation: None
Jing Chao Xiong is a naturalized immigrant from China, and he first voted in the November 2022 election. Xiong promotes an ancient Han Chinese concept known as “Great Unity,” or “大同” in Chinese, which aims to build a harmonious world in part through a land-redistribution process that would be a major disruption of modern norms and institutions in the Bay Area. He decided to promote his ideals after being robbed. Xiong has worked as an Uber driver and restaurant worker. He says he has “both a Democratic mind and a Republican dream. I enjoy the Libertarian lifestyle.” He promises to serve only one term as a state senator.
Website • Facebook • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • YouTube
We invited candidates to share audio responses to questions that we formed using survey responses from the San Francisco community. Jing Chao Xiong submitted a text response that we converted into an audio response.
Cynthia Cravens
Party affiliation: Democratic
Cynthia Cravens has held various roles at nonprofits that help underserved communities, including Jewish Vocational Services and the Public Health Institute. Her political goals include increasing public safety by bolstering police staffing; pushing for more multi-generational and affordable homes; and requiring that people struggling with addiction participate in drug-treatment programs before they may access other public services. Cravens opposes letting transgender males participate in women’s sports, and has said that parents should be told when their children adopt new pronouns in school. Cravens holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from UCLA and a master’s degree from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Website • Twitter/X • LinkedIn
Yvette Corkrean
Party affiliation: Republican
Yvette Corkrean is on the San Francisco Republican County Central Committee, where she is vice chair of volunteers. Corkrean is a registered nurse who has specialized in recent years in cosmetic treatments, including hair and skin care. She has a bachelor of science in nursing from Cal State Fullerton. Her political priorities include spurring economic activity through reducing taxes and regulation, and increasing public safety by strengthening the police and prosecutors. Corkrean supported the failed effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as the successful ouster of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. She opposed COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine requirements. Corkrean is endorsed by the San Francisco Republican Party, the San Mateo County Republican Party, Moms for Liberty, former state Sen. Quentin Kopp and others.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • YouTube
State Assembly Member, District 17
Question for the candidate:
We asked San Francisco residents to tell us what they thought were the most pressing issues in the city. According to survey responses we received, homelessness, housing affordability and crime were top concerns. If you are elected to represent District 17 in the State Assembly what do you plan to do to address these issues?
Matt Haney
Party affiliation: Democratic
Matt Haney is running to keep his seat representing state Assembly District 17, where he recently became majority whip. He has authored bills aimed at limiting security deposits, preventing certain public appeals that would slow housing construction and expanding access to Narcan, a medicine that reverses opioid overdoses. He has chaired the California Legislative Renters’ Caucus and the Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction, and Overdose Prevention. Haney is slated to lead the new Select Committee on Downtown Recovery. In his previous job as San Francisco supervisor representing District 6, which included the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, he focused on policies related to mental health, affordable housing and homelessness.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • Threads • TikTok • YouTube
We were unable to reach or did not receive either an audio or text response from Matt Haney.
Manuel Noris-Barrera
Party affiliation: Republican
Manuel Noris-Barrera is a realtor at eXp Realty of California and the owner of Little Heaven smoothie and juice bar in the Mission District. His core principles, he said on social media platform X, include community safety, family values, personal rights and “American exceptionalism.” If elected, he would aim to repeal Proposition 47, a 2014 state ballot measure that reduced nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors, as well as Proposition 19, which granted property tax breaks to elderly Californians and increased taxes for heirs. He supports cutting red tape to speed up housing production, as well as policies that would attract new businesses and stimulate economic growth. Noris-Barrera is endorsed by the Republican Party at the local and state levels.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn
We were unable to reach or did not receive either an audio or text response from Manuel Noris-Barrera.
Otto Duke
Party affiliation: Democratic
Otto Duke is the CEO of Prostate Cancer Resource, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps people understand and fight prostate cancer. He is also the president of Tenant Rights Association Political Action Committee, a volunteer-run organization that advocates for San Francisco renters. One of Duke’s main political priorities is increasing public safety, and he supports drone surveillance, more aggressive policing and harsher sentences for criminals.
State Assembly Member, District 19
Question for the candidate:
We asked San Francisco residents to tell us what they thought were the most pressing issues in the city. According to survey responses we received, homelessness, housing affordability and crime were top concerns. If you are elected to represent District 19 in the State Assembly, what do you plan to do to address these issues?
Nadia Flamenco
Party affiliation: Republican
Nadia Flamenco is a mother and filmmaker. She also served on the Daly City Recreation Commission from 2018 to 2020. While her web presence largely focuses on her acting career and being a mother, she has reposted videos from conservative figures like Steve Lodge, who ran to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, and Anna Cheng Kramer, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives. In a recent post to Facebook, she outlined policy goals that included cutting taxes and reducing homelessness “with mandatory rehab.” Flamenco’s party affiliation was Democratic for two years, then she switched to having no affiliation in 2018, and then to Republican in 2020. She has endorsements from the California Republican Assembly, Reform California and the San Mateo Republican Party.
Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn • Threads • YouTube
Catherine Stefani
Party affiliation: Democratic
Catherine Stefani is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 2, which includes the Marina District, and she would be termed out at the end of 2026. If elected this March to represent California Assembly District 19, she would resign as supervisor and the mayor would appoint her replacement — that person would likely be a political moderate, influencing the Board of Supervisors’ political tilt. Stefani says that, as an assembly member, she’d focus on increasing public safety, streamlining the housing approval process and creating more affordable homes. Her platform aligns with her top issues as supervisor, which have also included ending gun violence and supporting small businesses. In 2022, voters approved a ballot initiative that she authored to create an Office of Victim and Witness Rights, which offers free legal services and other assistance to victims of domestic violence. Stefani has been endorsed by Mayor London Breed, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and the California Democratic Party.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • YouTube
Arjun Gustav Sodhani
Party affiliation: Republican
Arjun Gustav Sodhani is an inventory manager at Animal Care & Emergency Services, a veterinary agency, and he has worked with the San Francisco Republican Party. Sodhani advocates bolstering California’s ability to handle a growing population in hopes that an influx of new experts and innovators will help the state solve its persistent homelessness and other crises. He supports Donald Trump for president, as well as other conservative candidates for office, and has been endorsed by the San Francisco Young Republicans Club. He is the son of Arvind Sodhani, the former executive vice president of Intel Corporation.
Website • Facebook • Twitter/X
David E. Lee
Party affiliation: Democratic
David E. Lee is the director of Laney College’s Asian Pacific American Student Success program, which aims to improve educational outcomes for API students at the Oakland community college. He has also spent 20 years as the executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, a nonprofit organization that helps Asian American voters register and learn the political process. Increasing public education funding is one of Lee’s top political priorities, alongside raising the minimum wage, enhancing public safety and streamlining the process of building affordable housing. A resident of San Francisco’s Richmond District, Lee has previously made three unsuccessful runs to represent it as supervisor. He founded and has co-chaired the Richmond Community Police Advisory Board, and has sat on the city’s Recreation & Park Commission. In 2015, he advocated for a ballot initiative, which failed, to require public meetings to be streamed live on the internet. Lee has the endorsement of District 19 Assembly member Phil Ting, whose term ends this year, as well as sitting San Francisco supervisor Connie Chan and former supervisors Mabel Teng, Sandra Lee Fewer, Jane Kim and Norman Yee, and the California AAPI Legislative Caucus.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter/X • LinkedIn • YouTube
Community Survey
In December, the San Francisco Public Press asked residents to identify issues that concern them. Those responses informed the questions we posed to candidates for this election guide, and we will use them in our ongoing reporting. Would you like to tell us about your concerns? We are continuing to gather responses.
Order of Candidate Names Within Races
Wondering why we listed candidates’ names this way? California has been using the “randomized alphabet” to determine how candidates’ names appear on the ballot since 1975, a practice that began after placing names in alphabetical order on ballots was deemed unconstitutional. San Francisco has 7 versions of the ballot for this year’s elections — if you’re a resident and registered to vote, you’ll see a different assortment of races depending on where you live, and the placement of names within a particular race may appear in various orders. For races with multiple orderings, we chose to list candidate names as they appear on the first available ballot type. You can learn more about this process here.
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We are collaborating with KALW this election season. You’ll hear audio segments from our “Civic” team on our own KSFP 102.5 FM and on KALW 91.7 FM. You’ll see ballot summaries from our election guide on KALW.org.
This guide was created by Madison Alvarado, Liana Wilcox, Sylvie Sturm, Mel Baker, Yesica Prado, Zhe Wu, Richard Knee, Noah Arroyo, Michael Stoll and Lila LaHood.
