Machine Made

San Francisco's weirdly outsized influence on American politics

When Senator Kamala Harris ran for president in 2019, she was just eight years out from having served as the District Attorney of San Francisco. California’s other senator at the time, Dianne Feinstein, had started her political career in the same city. Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, was, like Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, one of the two highest elected officeholders in the party, was Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Congresswoman. Soon, Joe Biden would tap Harris as his running mate, and the second highest office in the land would be filled by a product of San Francisco’s political machine.

San Francisco is the fourteenth biggest city in the United States, behind Indianapolis, San Antonio, and Jacksonville, Florida. It’s only the fourth biggest city in the state of California. Yet its clout in the Democratic Party surpasses even that of New York City, which has contributed only Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to the very top echelon of the current party apparatus. With Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, San Francisco’s tentacles may soon reach into the Oval Office. If Trump prevails, then in four years, another San Franciscan, Newsom, may have the best shot at replacing him.