Saikat Chakrabarti
Saikat Chakrabarti (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 11th Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Chakrabarti completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Saikat Chakrabarti was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 2007. His career experience includes being a co-founder of New Consensus and Justice Democrats, chief of staff for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, organizing technology for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and second engineer at Stripe.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: California's 11th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for U.S. House California District 11
The following candidates are running in the general election for U.S. House California District 11 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Cole Bettles (D) | ||
 | Saikat Chakrabarti (D)  | |
 | Connie Chan (D) | |
| Omed Hamid (D) | ||
 | Darren Helton (D) | |
| Daniel Wheeler (D) | ||
 | Scott Wiener (D) | |
 | Jingchao Xiong (D) | |
| David Ganezer (R) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Nancy Pelosi (D)
Endorsements
Chakrabarti received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Saikat Chakrabarti completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Chakrabarti'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 left tech because I couldn’t ignore the deeper crisis. I wanted to use my skills to fight for an economy and a democracy that actually work for ordinary people. Over the past decade I’ve helped launch some of the biggest progressive campaigns in America: I built organizing tools for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, co-founded Justice Democrats, recruited and ran campaigns for candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and served as her first Chief of Staff where I helped launch the Green New Deal. After leaving Washington, I started the think tank New Consensus to develop detailed plans for how we can rebuild American industry, create millions of high-wage jobs, and tackle the climate crisis.
Now I’m running for Congress because San Franciscans are being crushed by the cost of living and betrayed by leaders who are too comfortable in power to fight for us. We need bold action, and I know how to make it happen.- San Franciscans, and Americans everywhere, are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Working families, young people, and seniors alike are being priced out of the basics: healthcare, housing, education, and childcare. This didn’t happen by accident; it’s the result of decades of policy that put corporate profits ahead of people. In Congress, I’ll fight for Medicare for All, a national housing plan that builds millions of affordable homes, tuition-free public college, and universal childcare so working families can finally breathe again.
- Donald Trump is leading an authoritarian coup, and too many Democrats in Washington are either passive or paralyzed in the face of it. My first priority will be protecting San Franciscans from Trump’s attacks and helping lead a collective resistance. That means building the strongest constituent services program in the country, defending the integrity of our elections, and using my position to pull together institutions like law firms, universities, and communities to fight back against Trump’s assault on democracy.
- We need a modern-day New Deal to rebuild the middle class and stop the march of authoritarianism. Over the past 50 years, millions of good jobs have been shipped overseas and wages for the bottom 50% of American workers have stagnated while costs keep rising. This was not an accident. It was the direct result of decades of economic policy that prioritized short-term corporate earnings and sold out the middle class. I’ll fight for a national mobilization like we had during WWII to build clean industries, create millions of high-paying jobs, and prove that democracy can deliver prosperity for everyone.
But fixing politics takes more than good intentions. It takes systemic reform. That’s why I’ll fight to ban congressional stock trading, overturn Citizens United, end the revolving door with lobbying, and pass publicly financed elections. We have to make sure our democracy serves the people, not the billionaires and corporate lobbyists.
I bring the best of both worlds: I know how the system works, I’ve proven I can deliver big ideas like the Green New Deal, and I’ll never cave to the establishment. My commitment is to the people of San Francisco always.
To save democracy, we have to prove it can deliver prosperity for everyone. That means Medicare for All, building millions of affordable homes, and a national mission to create millions of high-wage clean jobs. If we do that, we can defeat authoritarianism for good. If we don’t, Trump and the oligarchs will keep winning.
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.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House California District 11 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 3, 2025
