Recovering Pelosi Facing Primary Challenge From Former AOC Aide
The situation for House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seems to have worsened in recent weeks after she suffered a fall in Europe, which required urgent hip replacement surgery.
As Pelosi continues her recovery—she was recently seen walking with the aid of a walker on the House floor—she now faces a primary challenge from a progressive former aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), as reported on Thursday.
Saikat Chakrabarti, who previously served as AOC’s chief of staff, declared on Wednesday that he would be running against Pelosi in the primary. According to Politico, he pointed to the former speaker’s attempts to prevent the New York congresswoman from securing the top Democratic position on the House Oversight Committee as his motivation for entering the race.
“I respect what Nancy Pelosi has accomplished in her career, but we are living in a totally different America than the one she knew when she entered politics 45 years ago,” Chakrabarti, a 39-year-old former tech entrepreneur, posted on the X platform. “America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face.”
Pelosi, who stepped down as speaker in 2022 after nearly two decades in the position, easily secured reelection last year in her strongly Democratic San Francisco district. Her office has not provided any comment regarding Chakrabarti’s campaign announcement.
Although she has filed paperwork for a potential reelection bid in 2026, Pelosi has not officially declared whether she intends to run again. State Sen. Scott Wiener has been widely speculated as a likely contender for the seat if Pelosi chooses to retire. Additionally, some political analysts have suggested that Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, might also enter the race should her mother step down.
Given that San Francisco remains a Democratic stronghold, whoever emerges victorious in the primary is expected to win the general election and hold the seat for the foreseeable future, according to Politico.
At the same time, Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, executed $38 million in stock trades in the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a move that is likely to reignite debates over whether members of Congress and their immediate family members should be prohibited from stock trading.
According to the New York Post, these trades involved “an investment in a once-obscure artificial intelligence firm whose shares have soared nearly 50% in the past week.”
Among these financial moves, Paul Pelosi sold $24 million worth of Apple stock and an additional $5 million in shares of AI chip manufacturer Nvidia.
Government filings indicate that both transactions were finalized on New Year’s Eve. Under legal requirements, Nancy Pelosi must disclose her husband’s stock trades, as noted by The Post.
Paul Pelosi, who survived a violent hammer attack inside the couple’s San Francisco home nearly two years ago, has since taken on a new role at Tempus AI, a Chicago-based health tech firm that leverages artificial intelligence for clinical and molecular data analysis.
Filings reveal that on January 14, Paul Pelosi purchased $100,000 worth of call options in Tempus AI. Following the disclosure of his involvement, the company’s stock experienced a notable surge.
When trading opened on January 14, shares of Tempus AI were valued at roughly $32 per share. By Thursday, the stock— which had debuted last June with an IPO price of $37 per share— had climbed to approximately $50.50 per share, reflecting a 60% increase, according to The Post.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi remains focused on her recovery from surgery.
“Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,” spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement released to HuffPost in mid-December.
The statement also expressed Pelosi’s appreciation for “U.S. military staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl Army Base and medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for their excellent care and kindness.”