John Buffler
John Buffler (Democratic Party) (also known as Gus) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 11th Congressional District. Buffler lost in the primary on June 2, 2026.
2026 battleground election
Ballotpedia identified the June 2 top-two primary for California's 11th Congressional District as a battleground election. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.
Scott Wiener (D) and Connie Chan (D) advanced from the top-two primary for California's 11th Congressional District on June 2, 2026. Wiener and Chan were among the eight Democrats, two Republicans and one independent who ran in the primary. As of June 2026, Wiener, Chan, and Saikat Chakrabarti (D) led in fundraising, endorsements, and local media attention.[1][2] Click here for detailed election results.
Incumbent Nancy Pelosi (D) did not run for re-election. Mission Local's Joe Eskenazi said: "Nobody still in the business has run a real San Francisco congressional race. Pelosi has held this seat since 1987. There hasn’t been a serious and competitive race for two generations."[2] Pelosi endorsed Chan on May 18, 2026.[3]
Wiener was, as of the 2026 election, a member of the California Senate. Before his election to the Senate in 2016, Wiener served for five years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.[4] Wiener said he was running "to defend San Francisco, our values, our people, and the Constitution of the United States with everything I have."[5] California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) endorsed Wiener.[6]
Chan was, as of the 2026 election, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Before her election in 2020, Chan worked in the city government, including as a staffer for then-District Attorney Kamala Harris.[7] Chan said she was running "for all the people who feel like they’re getting priced out of their own city. I’m running for those who are under attack by the Trump Administration."[8] Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) endorsed Chan.[9]
Chakrabarti was a former software engineer and staff member for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Chakrabarti co-founded Justice Democrats after the 2016 presidential election.[10] In his Candidate Connection survey, Chakrabarti said he was running because "San Franciscans are being crushed by the cost of living and betrayed by leaders who are too comfortable in power to fight for us."[11] Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) endorsed Chakrabarti.[12]
Also running in the primary were John Buffler (D), Keith Freedman (D), Omed Hamid (D), Gregory Haynes (D), Marie Hurabiell (D), David Ganezer (R), Jingchao Xiong (R), and Nathan Deer (I).
In a top-two primary, all candidates running for a given office appear on the same primary ballot. The top two finishers—regardless of party affiliation—advance to the general election. The Democratic Party of California endorsed Wiener.[13] The Republican Party of California did not endorse any candidate.[14]
As of June 2026, major election forecasters rated the general election Safe/Solid Democratic. In 2024, Pelosi defeated Bruce Lou (R) 81%–19%.
Elections
2026
See also: California's 11th Congressional District election, 2026
California's 11th Congressional District election, 2026 (June 2 top-two primary)
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for U.S. House California District 11
Connie Chan (D) and Scott Wiener (D) are running in the general election for U.S. House California District 11 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Connie Chan (D)  | |
 | Scott Wiener (D) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary
Nonpartisan primary election for U.S. House California District 11
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 11 on June 2, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Scott Wiener (D) | 40.7 | 95,816 |
| ✔ | | Connie Chan (D) | 29.7 | 69,899 |
 | Saikat Chakrabarti (D) | 17.9 | 42,060 | |
 | Marie Hurabiell (D) | 4.0 | 9,410 | |
 | David Ganezer (R) | 4.0 | 9,299 | |
 | Jingchao Xiong (R) | 1.8 | 4,238 | |
| Gregory Haynes (D) | 0.9 | 2,025 | ||
 | John Buffler (D) | 0.4 | 942 | |
 | Nathan Deer (No party preference) | 0.3 | 649 | |
 | Keith Freedman (D) | 0.3 | 591 | |
 | Omed Hamid (D) | 0.2 | 401 | |
 | Michael Petrelis (G) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 7 | |
| Total votes: 235,337 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Nancy Pelosi (D)
- Cole Bettles (D)
- Darren Helton (D)
- Daniel Wheeler (D)
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[15] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[16] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.
Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval. Know of something we're missing? Click here to let us know.
| Poll | Dates | Chakrabarti (D) | Chan (D) | Ganezer (R) | Haynes (D) | Hurabiell (D) | Wiener (D) | Xiong (R) | undecided | other | Other | Undecided | Sample size | Margin of error | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | 21 | 22 | -- | -- | -- | 38 | -- | 19 | -- | -- | -- | 400 LV | ± 4.9% | Families for an Affordable SF | |
– | 18 | 17 | -- | -- | 5 | 40 | -- | -- | 20 | -- | -- | 819 LV | ± 3.0% | San Francisco Chronicle | |
– | 28 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 33 | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 12 | 537 LV | ± 4.0% | Saikat Chakrabarti's campaign | |
– | 20 | 17 | -- | -- | -- | 32 | -- | -- | -- | 13 | 18 | 797 LV | ± 3.0% | Saikat Chakrabarti (D) | |
– | 16 | 17 | -- | -- | -- | 37 | -- | -- | -- | 14 | 17 | 806 LV | ± 3.0% | Saikat Chakrabarti (D) | |
| Note: LV is likely voters, RV is registered voters, and EV is eligible voters. | |||||||||||||||
Candidate spending
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Buffler | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Saikat Chakrabarti | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Connie Chan | Democratic Party | $649,305 | $577,288 | $72,017 | As of May 13, 2026 |
| Keith Freedman | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Omed Hamid | Democratic Party | $44,997 | $34,968 | $10,029 | As of March 31, 2026 |
| Gregory Haynes | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Marie Hurabiell | Democratic Party | $631,936 | $492,766 | $139,170 | As of May 13, 2026 |
| Scott Wiener | Democratic Party | $3,958,853 | $2,675,276 | $1,283,577 | As of May 13, 2026 |
| David Ganezer | Republican Party | $60 | $52 | $8 | As of June 30, 2026 |
| Jingchao Xiong | Republican Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Michael Petrelis | Green Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Nathan Deer | No party preference | $3,987 | $3,987 | $0 | As of June 30, 2026 |
|
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," . This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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Satellite spending
- See also: Satellite spending
Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[17][18][19]
If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.
| By candidate | By election |
|---|---|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Buffler did not complete Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from the Federal Election Commission. That information will be published here once it is available.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ San Francisco Examiner, "Word on the Street: A 'once-in-a-generation' race for SF voters," January 8, 2026
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mission Local, "And then there were three: The race to succeed Nancy Pelosi takes shape," November 24, 2025
- ↑ CalMatters, "Nancy Pelosi puts thumb on the scale in race for her successor. Here’s who she endorsed," May 18, 2026
- ↑ Scott Wiener campaign website, "Meet Scott," accessed March 3, 2026
- ↑ Scott Wiener campaign website, "Home page," accessed March 3, 2026
- ↑ Scott Wiener campaign website, "Endorsements," accessed March 5, 2026
- ↑ Connie Chan campaign website, "Meet Connie," accessed March 3, 2026
- ↑ Connie Chan campaign website, "Home page," accessed March 3, 2026
- ↑ Instagram, "Connie Chan on March 4, 2026," accessed March 5, 2026
- ↑ Saikat Chakrabarti campaign website, "About me," accessed March 3, 2026
- ↑ Candidate Connection survey submitted to Ballotpedia on November 14, 2025.
- ↑ Saikat Chakrabarti campaign website, "Home page," accessed March 5, 2026
- ↑ Democratic Party of California, "2026 Primary Election Endorsements," February 22, 2026
- ↑ Republican Party of California, "2026 Endorsements," accessed June 1, 2026
- ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021
