In the deep-blue stronghold of San Francisco, the endorsement of the Republican Party is perhaps the least valuable stamp of approval.
That goes double in a mayoral race in which the leading Democratic candidates are accusing one another of Republican rhetoric, slinging “MAGA” like a four-letter word.
In this election, local Republicans might have been tempted to endorse a Democrat for mayor. But the SF GOP declined to endorse any of them. Not even the lone major Republican candidate, Ellen Lee Zhou, got the party’s support.
At the local party’s regular meeting Wednesday at the Milton Marks Auditorium, the gathered Republicans voted not to endorse Zhou. She was the only mayoral candidate seeking their backing.
They didn’t discuss the decision in the open, however. Midway through the meeting, the SF GOP board asked attendees to exit the auditorium so they could debate in private.
The board members reopened the doors at roughly 9 p.m. and began to leave the room without announcing what decision they had made. Attendees asked what had happened and learned that the board hadn’t backed Zhou — or anyone. Furious, the candidate approached John Dennis, the local party chair. She accused him of being the tie-breaking vote to deny her the endorsement.
“You did not stand by me? You were the vote?” she said.
Dennis replied, “No, I wasn’t the vote. You weren’t close.”
Dennis said Zhou is a “fearless candidate,” but the SF GOP board was concerned about her viability.
When she ran in the 2019 mayoral election, Zhou earned 24,000 votes; London Breed won handily, netting 125,000. Zhou’s campaign sparked controversy over a billboard that a coalition of politicians called racist and over alleged misconduct related to campaign contributions that paid for the controversial signage.
There may be another reason the GOP gave Zhou the cold shoulder: Some San Francisco Republicans support Democratic candidates for mayor.
High-profile Republicans previously told The Standard they’re voting for Mark Farrell, a former mayor, and Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit CEO and Levi Strauss heir. Farrell frequently touts his business background, while Lurie has billed himself as a City Hall outsider. Both traits may attract conservatives.
Sitting onstage among her fellow board members at the meeting, SF Republican Party Vice Chair of Political Affairs Lisa Remmer wore an oversize “Daniel Lurie for Mayor” button on her shirt.
When asked why she’s crossing party lines, Remmer said of Lurie, “I think he holds people accountable about contracts. Our government is totally unaccountable. All the rest of [the candidates] are swamp monsters.”
The SF GOP is betting it can convince members, and other voters who have an affinity for Republicans, to vote for conservative-leaning Democrats. Dennis told The Standard the party will develop a “compare-and-contrast sheet” to evaluate the candidates on key issues. It’s a strategic move, he said.
“Given how demonized we’ve been and how small we are, it’s easy for well-funded candidates — if we give a hard endorsement — to use that against the person who gets endorsed,” Dennis said. “We’re sensitive about letting our preferences be known in a way that won’t harm people.”
Indeed, the SF GOP’s endorsement can be the kiss of death for any Democrat. However, in a tight mayoral race in which Breed, Farrell, and Lurie have consistently polled so closely that their leads are within the margin of error, Republican support could put any of them over the top. More than 320,000 of 500,000 registered voters in San Francisco are Democrats; 38,000 are registered Republicans.
Dennis said there’s been a spike in registration, which he attributes to the Republican Party’s pulse on a shifting San Francisco. In the March primary, the city’s electorate voted closer to the Republican Party’s endorsements of ballot propositions than to the Democrats’ official position on the initiatives.
That may be why those campaigns haven’t shied away from appealing to GOP voters. When prodded for their stance on Republican support, Breed, Farrell, and Lurie’s campaigns previously told The Standard they want to represent all San Franciscans.
This hasn’t stopped allies of those candidates from wielding Republicanism as a sword. Just last week, political consultant Jim Ross started a website pushing voters to “Stop MAGA Mark.” Farrell has vehemently denied any Republican leanings.
Dennis is familiar with those attacks. They don’t dissuade him.
“Republican influence is going to be important in this election,” he said.
Even in San Francisco.