# Group of SF Democratic Women Rally to Support Scott Wiener, In Wake of Chan Chatbot Dustup > Source: > Published: 2026-08-21 19:41:25+00:00 Calling the controversy over the Scott Wiener campaign's AI parody of opponent Connie Chan "fake outrage," some influential women in San Francisco Democratic circles are pushing back on Nancy Pelosi and organizing a Saturday rally to support Wiener. The rally is by a group dubbed "Women for Scott" (because clearly "Women for Wiener" was not a good look), and it's happening Saturday in Alamo Square. The group has supported Wiener's candidacy going back to his exploratory committee days, and as the Chronicle reports, the event is being organized by Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, and top Democratic donor Susie Tompkins Buell, among others. It's partly an effort to push back on the powerful voice of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who is supporting Wiener's opponent in the race for her seat, Connie Chan, and who has lately been calling Wiener a racist and a sexist. Tung and Tompkins Buell say that Pelosi has created an unnecessary problem for Democrats in fomenting outrage over [the parody AI chatbot](https://sfist.com/2026/08/04/scott-wiener-campaign-launches-ai-chatbot/) that Wiener's campaign launched earlier this month, as a joke-y means to mock Supervisor Chan's voting record, portraying her as a politician who says "no" to everything. As the chatbot put it, "Bring me an idea and I’ll explain why it can’t, shouldn’t, and won’t happen." Chan's campaign highlighted how, if you asked the chatbot about Chan's accent (Chan was born in Hong Kong, came to the US via Taiwan at age 13, and English is her second language), it would reply, "I’m afraid my San Francisco accent is so thick I can barely understand myself," which they interpreted as racist. Also, the campaign staffers asked the chatbot about Chan's citizenship status, and it replied, "I'm afraid my citizenship status is classified under the ‘further study’ act of 2047 and we’ll need to schedule a public hearing before I can comment." After bringing this to the public's attention, [Wiener's campaign pulled down the chatbot](https://sfist.com/2026/08/07/scott-wiener-takes-down-connie-chan-chatbot-after-backlash-from-pelosi-other-democrats/), and Wiener issued an apology, saying the stunt "missed the mark." Pelosi also signed her name to a group letter, signed also by other women in Democratic politics, condemning the stunt and saying, "Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power. We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths." But now, Tung and Tompkins Buell want to highlight Wiener's strengths as a candidate and to call out Pelosi's outrage as mostly just playing politics. Tompkins Buell tells the Chronicle that the whole racism accusation against Wiener is "just absurd, just totally absurd." "I mean, he is the most non-sexist, non-racist person," Tompkins Buell tells the paper. "I don’t know who would even say that. But if it was [Pelosi], it was careless and not appropriate and not true." And Tung tells the paper that "it feels like there’s a lot of fake outrage about this chatbot. I suppose you know that’s part of the political game — to put as favorable a slant as you want to for your own purposes for each campaign." And, of course, all this points back to the central mystery in this race, which is what did Scott Wiener do to piss off Pelosi in years' past, pushing her to find and endorse an opponent in the race? Tompkins Buell refers, abstractly, to "pettiness." "Nobody can give a good answer of why she’s doing this," Tompkins Buell tells the Chronicle. “It’s just a mystery to so many people. I’ve heard all different ideas about what people think, but it’s too bad. Whatever it is, it is rooted in pettiness." And to Pelosi, she says, "your legacy is what you should be focusing on." These women supporting Wiener do offer their best guess about where the "pettiness" is coming from: They believe Pelosi remains miffed that Wiener would dare start an exploratory committee or make any moves to run for her seat before she had announced her retirement. In his defense, Pelosi took her sweet time in making that retirement announcement, and Wiener would end up formally declaring his candidacy just two weeks before [she finally made it last fall](https://sfist.com/2025/11/06/nancy-pelosi-says-shell-retire/), only after challenger [Saikat Chakrabarti got a two-week lead](https://sfist.com/2025/10/09/pelosi-challenger-saikat-chakrabarti-officially-kicks-off-his-2026-campaign-at-sfs-the-chapel/) on him. Tompkins Buell adds that she's been unimpressed, so far, by Chan, and that sentiment is echoed by Andrea Dew Steele, who cofounded Emerge, an organization that promotes women to run for office, with Tompkins Buell. Dew Steele tells the paper, "Even though I’ve spent most of my career supporting women, I’ve always been about the best person running for office because I want to see the best policy outcomes. So in my mind, that’s Scott Wiener." Despite Wiener holding a commanding lead in this race during primary season, most political insiders have been predicting this will end up being a close race, in part because of Pelosi's endorsement, and in part because Chan's candidacy will bring together a coalition of progressives and Asian voters who would prefer, for identity politics reasons, to vote for an Asian American candidate. A [late July poll](https://sfist.com/2026/07/31/chan-gains-momentum-trails-closely-behind-wiener-in-race-for-congress/) commissioned by Chan's campaign had her just five percentage points behind Wiener (40% vs 45%), with 15% of voters still undecided. **Related: **[Scott Wiener Campaign Removes Connie Chan Chatbot After Backlash From Pelosi, Other Democrats](https://sfist.com/2026/08/07/scott-wiener-takes-down-connie-chan-chatbot-after-backlash-from-pelosi-other-democrats/)