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Michael Lai
Michael Lai ran for election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to represent District 11 in California. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Lai completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2024
See also: City elections in San Francisco, California (2024)
General election
General election for San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 11
The ranked-choice voting election was won by Chyanne Chen in round 6 . The results of Round are displayed below. To see the results of other rounds, use the dropdown menu above to select a round and the table will update.
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Total votes: 27,928 |
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Lai in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michael Lai completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Lai's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I moved to SF ten years ago to expand opportunity for kids & families through innovation. I was a volunteer preschool teacher in the Tenderloin, then raised $17.9M to creatively tackle two of the biggest challenges in my community — affordable childcare & workforce housing — founding 30+ early childhood schools with teacher housing, and serving on the board of two Head Start centers in District 11. Last year, the center I used to volunteer at in the Tenderloin shut down, because parents no longer wanted to send their kids there with the street conditions. That dysfunction is the SF Board of Supervisors.
I ran and won a seat on the SF DCCC in March, and now I'm a frontrunner for the Board of Supervisors race, endorsed by leaders & locals — CA Attorney General Rob Bonta, Sen. Scott Wiener, Andrew Yang, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, four current supervisors, the SF Democratic Party, SF Police Officers Association, NorCal Carpenters Union & 50 more.- We need in change in SF. San Francisco is one of the most amazing cities in the world, but the government is broken. I spent the last decade tackling some of our biggest challenges: higher education, and childcare. I'm the only candidate who has managed large teams of people, large budgets, and I'll bring competent new leadership to fix SF.
- The progressive status quo hasn't worked in SF. During COVID in SF we renamed schools & defunded police. There's a chance to flip the Board of Supervisors for the first time in 8 years for outcomes over ideology. I'm running against two progressive status quo opponents who were against the recall of the district attorney & school board. I'm for safe, clean streets, increasing housing at all income levels, and thriving small businesses.
- District 11 has been historically forgotten. Instead of empty promises later, we are doing work now for District 11: Co-organized Chow Fun, a restaurant Tour supporting 39 small businesses Helped raise $30,000 for a neon Excelsior Sign for Excelsior Action Group, a project five years in the making Co-organized Lantern Festival in February 2024 with 600+ RSVPs, the Mid Autumn Festival at Geneva Carbarn, Qing Ming Festival at McLaren, and more. Helped Tom Murphy, founder of Jerry Garcia Day, earning the first Chinese media, TV, and radio press for the event. Helped translate the police captain’s newsletter into Cantonese & Spanish. Advocated to the Mayor to restore funding for the Excelsior Science Workshop
I joined when it was a powerpoint deck — accreditation, $25 million in funding, a Dean from Harvard, but no students. My job was to travel around US & Canada to find students. I flew into cities around the US, stayed in Airbnbs with as diverse a host as I could find (a single mom in Little Haiti, Miami, two gay guys in Silverlake, LA, sorority girls in Chicago, an ex prisoner in Vancouver, etc.) and drove a rental car around and spoke at five high schools a day.
State Treasurer Fiona Ma
State Senator Scott Wiener
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks
SF Mayor London Breed
Andrew Yang
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto
Supervisor Catherine Stefani
Supervisor Matt Dorsey
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman
Supervisor Joel Engardio
SF Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung
Former SF Democratic Party Chair Mary Jung
Former Board of Education President Jenny Lam
City College Board Trustee Luis Zamora
Assessor-Recorder Joaquin Torres
SF Democratic Party sole
Chinese American Democratic Club
GrowSF
AbundantSF
TogetherSF
Police Officers Association
NorCal Carpenters Union
Operating Engineers Local 3
LiUNA 261!
Deputy Sheriff’s Association #1
SF YIMBY #1
Housing Action Coalition #1
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 11 |
Personal |
Footnotes
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State of California Sacramento (capital) |
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