A former Republican appointee of President Donald Trump is seeking to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi in deep-blue San Francisco, positioning herself as a common sense Democrat in a race already crowded with progressives.
Marie Hurabiell, a onetime Republican who recently re-registered as a Democrat, is running on a platform that emphasizes safety, affordability, and pragmatic governance over ideological purity. According to The Post Millennial, she announced her bid on X, declaring, Big news. Today, Im announcing my campaign for Congress to represent San Francisco. I didnt plan to run for office this year but San Francisco doesnt need more ideological extremes. We need results and reform. Im running to bring pragmatic, common sense, Democratic leadership to Washington focused on safety, innovation, and affordability. Ive stood up to failed policies before. Ill do it again.
Hurabiell, an attorney by training, once interned for Pelosi and has described the longtime Democratic leader as an iconic figure, underscoring her effort to appeal to traditional Democrats even as she breaks with the partys activist left. She has signaled a focus on economic pressures and technological disruption, saying she wants to tackle affordability and explore Universal Basic Income as a response to the threat artificial intelligence poses to the labor market.
Her rhetoric, however, also reflects a willingness to challenge progressive orthodoxy, particularly on cultural and public-safety issues that have alienated many moderates and conservatives. Hurabiell has taken positions at odds with much of the Democratic establishment, including opposing men competing in womens sports, a stance that resonates with voters concerned about fairness and biological reality in athletics.
She co-founded ConnectedSF, a coalition of neighborhood groups dedicated to improving public safety in a city widely criticized for crime, open-air drug use, and disorder. Hurabiell also played a prominent role in the successful recalls of far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin and several members of the San Francisco Board of Education, efforts widely backed by residents frustrated with soft-on-crime policies and ideological excess in schools.
Her record of public service includes a 2018 appointment by President Trump to the board of the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that manages the landmark park near the Golden Gate Bridge. She reportedly changed her party registration from Republican to Democrat in 2022, a move that may be tactical in a city where GOP candidates are effectively shut out but could also signal an attempt to influence the Democratic Party from within.
Hurabiell now faces a Democratic primary stacked with high-profile progressives, including far-left state Sen. Scott Wiener, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, and Saikat Chakrabarti, a former aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a multimillionaire activist. The contest is shaping up as a test of whether San Francisco voters will continue to reward hard-left governance or are ready for a course correction after years of social experimentation and declining quality of life.
Wieners campaign has already tried to brand Hurabiell as an impostor, with spokesperson Joe Arellano telling The New York Post, Marie Hurabiell is a MAGA Republican Trump appointee whos pretending to be a Democrat in an attempt to be taken seriously. Well add her to Scotts MAGA Fan Club on our campaign website next to Laura Loomer and Kristi Noem. Chakrabartis camp struck a more measured tone, with spokesperson Tiffaney Bradley saying, Marie is known as someone who speaks her mind and always keeps things interesting. And while our campaign will probably disagree on almost everything, what we have in common is that we know this city and this whole country needs change.
Hurabiells bid highlights a broader national tension inside the Democratic Party between activist progressives and voters who want order, accountability, and economic realism. Whether a Trump-appointed, recall-backed, safety-first Democrat can break through in one of Americas most liberal districts will reveal how much appetite remains for reform in a city that has become a cautionary tale for unchecked progressive governance.
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