Overlooked by all the talk about the “blue wave” election was an important San Francisco race between two Democrats with conflicting views on housing development.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s victory in a combative House contest sends a clear message that pursuing a YIMBY agenda can boost a political career rather than sabotage it.
Wiener defeated San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, a skeptic of market-rate projects and opponent of laws forcing localities to allow more housing, according to a San Francisco Chronicle article headlined “Connie Chan’s critics call her a roadblock.”
Chan consistently opposed rezoning and fast-tracking to add housing supply, claiming it would displace residents, and called for 100 percent affordable projects instead. At best, this way of thinking can be called well-meaning but naive. At worst, it’s willfully ignorant and exclusionary, and a reason San Francisco’s housing is notoriously expensive.
Chan lost to the pro-housing Wiener by 7 points despite being endorsed by the retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a legendary figure in San Francisco who has represented the district for 39 years.
Anyone with political aspirations can connect the dots: The candidate who made his reputation by promoting housing development overcame political royalty to defeat the “roadblock” candidate. YIMBY beat NIMBY.
This year’s election also featured a sweeping victory by pro-housing Gov. Kathy Hochul over Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a defender of the status quo in single-family suburbs. Hochul even outpolled Blakeman in his own county, three years after he stoked opposition to kill her 2023 Housing Compact.
To be sure, Hochul didn’t crush Blakeman because voters changed their minds about housing; the race was more about President Donald Trump. But Hochul’s pro-development policies complemented an affordability agenda that resonated with the public, while Blakeman harped about crime and transgender athletes.
Traditionally, elected officials — Republicans and Democrats alike — have sided with NIMBYs for fear of losing their seats. But that is changing as people across the political spectrum realize that more housing supply is key to improving affordability.
In New York City, some progressives have changed their housing politics while in office. Three examples from gentrifying areas in Brooklyn:
- City Council member Shahana Hanif began her tenure by slashing a residential project to the bone, but two and a half years later approved a 250-unit project without cutting a single apartment. (Plans now call for 396 units.)
- In May 2025, Council member Crystal Hudson backed a neighborhood rezoning that promises 4,600 new homes but requires a lower percentage of affordable units than a project she had blocked 15 months earlier. She called the rezoning, dubbed AAMUP, “a model for the entire city.”
- State Sen. Jabari Brisport reversed his position that development causes rents to increase, citing a conversation with NYU’s Furman Center about a study by researcher Xiaodi Li.
Wiener’s campaign platform called for 8 million new homes by 2037, reversing tax cuts to create a $1.2 trillion federal housing fund, and paying localities $10,000 per unit created. It will be years before he has any chance to pull that off, but Wiener has already achieved a lot by becoming the first to ride a YIMBY agenda all the way to Congress. He won’t be the last.
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