Sanders endorses fellow Democratic socialist for supervisor
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston’s reelection campaign got a national boost Tuesday when U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont endorsed his fellow Democratic socialist.
Preston is one of five candidates nationally whom Sanders endorsed Tuesday, and the only one in California. Sanders’ endorsement not only bestows the cachet the two-time presidential candidate still holds among progressive voters, it typically triggers a wave of small-dollar campaign contributions. After Sanders endorsed Jane Kim for an Assembly seat in 2016 when she was running against Scott Wiener, Kim’s campaign received $100,000 over the next 10 days from all over the country.
“Dean is part of a new generation of progressive leaders who are not only prepared to stand up to special interests, but also have the courage to address striking levels of wealth and income inequality at their core,” Sanders said Tuesday in a statement. “We need bold leaders like Dean Preston in every state, at all levels of government, who are willing to take on the corrupting influence of powerful interests and do the work of the people. That’s why I’m endorsing Dean for reelection to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.”
Although Sanders also endorsed Preston, the most progressive member of the Board of Supervisors, in his 2020 race, Preston could use the boost even more this year, especially after last Tuesday’s election that saw moderate candidates drub progressives across the board in San Francisco.
Preston is surrounded by political enemies, starting with the wellfunded political action group GrowSF, which is running the Dump Dean Preston campaign. GrowSF has raised $301,458 toward Preston’s defeat, according to campaign finance disclosures. Preston’s supporters have raised roughly half that much.
Then there’s Preston’s opponent, Bilal Mahmood, a well-funded technology entrepreneur who is backed by Wiener and Honey Mahogany, chair of San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee. Mahmood just raised more than $200,000 in his run for San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, an unpaid position that is nonetheless influential because of its ability to endorse candidates. Voters on Tuesday backed a slate of moderates to run the DCCC just four years after progressives won 22 of 24 seats.
And Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, has pledged to contribute $100,000 to oppose Preston’s reelection. But that contribution hasn’t materialized, nearly six months after Musk made the pledge.
Plus, the race got more crowded Monday when Autumn Looijen, a moderate who helped lead the 2022 recall of three progressive San Francisco school board members, announced that she will be running for the seat, too.
Kim, the state director of the progressive California Working Families Party who has endorsed Preston, said the Sanders endorsement will help Preston solidify his base in one of San Francisco’s most progressive supervisorial districts.
“Bernie is such a highprofile progressive champion that he’s going to provide a lift to any candidate who is seeking to represent a progressive point of view,” Kim said. “If low-information progressive voters are wondering who to vote for, they will look to that.”