A planned protest of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s canceled trip to San Francisco became a forum to discuss what the Democratic Party should do in response to being out of power in all three branches of the U.S. federal government.
Gay San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee member Joe Sangirardi moderated the “What’s the future of the Democratic Party?” forum, which featured gay San Francisco Young Democrats President Ernesto Cuellar alongside the local party’s chair, Nancy Tung, a straight ally who is a prosecutor with the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. It was held at Manny’s, the civic event space and cafe in the Mission neighborhood. Sangirardi, who works as development director for statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California, unsuccessfully ran for the BART board of directors last year.
Sangirardi said that he and others decided to protest Schumer’s planned March 22 appearance at City Arts and Lectures amid calls for him to resign as Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate following the New York lawmaker’s vote to advance the House Republican continuing resolution to fund the government. (The Senate passed the measure, and President Donald Trump signed it.)
Schumer argued that a government shutdown would hand more power to Trump’s administration, but others, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), argued that Schumer wasn’t tough enough. The San Francisco congressmember said last week, “I, myself, don't give away anything for nothing.”
Ultimately, Schumer postponed his book tour, citing security concerns.
Sangirardi said he confronted New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (D) about what it would take for him to support Schumer’s ouster when he was at Manny’s a few days earlier.
“I did not like his response,” Sangirardi said. “‘This is exactly what Trump wants for us, to be infighting.’ And my response, which I didn’t get to ask … is ‘When else, if not now?’”
Sangirardi made the point that Republicans were able to pivot and “found their way back to power.”
“We need to be having these conversations,” he said.
Comments California Governor Gavin Newsom made on his recent podcast that it is “unfair” for transgender female athletes to play with cisgender ones came up. Some Democrats had blamed the party’s views on transgender rights as partly responsible for the 2024 defeat. Tung argued that Newsom is not modeling the way forward.
He “has changed the way he talks about a community he made himself on in San Francisco,” Tung said, referring to Newsom’s early embrace of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. “That to me is – maybe it’s popular, but to do it on the backs of one of the most vulnerable communities is really, really, really, really sad.”
Cuellar agreed, saying the Democrats should model being “a party where people can feel safe, where outsiders can become insiders.”
All three said the party’s message had to change.
Cuellar said that “the reality is our policies help working people” and that the Democrats should “focus on that without disavowing trans folks and immigrants.” He said Democrats can only go so far to the right to try to court conservative voters.
“They’re Republicans for a reason,” he said.
Tung said that the Democrats should focus on what they’re doing locally. She and Sangirardi were elected to the central committee as part of an avowed moderate slate that argued San Francisco’s government could better handle issues of crime and homelessness.
Democrats need to show that “we can run our blue cities well, that we can make sure our public institutions are run well, that we can provide great public education, that we can not have a bureaucracy full of corruption,” Tung said.
Cuellar said when campaigning for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and former San Francisco mayor London Breed simultaneously (they both lost), people gave their views of local government as a response.
“When folks think of Democrats, they think, ‘My mayor is a Democrat and there’s a lot of potholes and things in my neighborhood,’” Cuellar said. “A lot of it was, ‘Kamala Harris? Look at what Democrats have done to my city.’”
To the point about lived experience, Tung said that Democrats sometimes talk too much about abstract ideals instead of concrete realities faced by working class Americans.
“The Republicans were good at talking about kitchen table issues,” Tung said. “It is not enough to say ‘Hey, even though milk is $9 a gallon and you can’t put gas in your car, things are better than at the end of the Trump administration because inflation is down, right?’”
Sangirardi stressed the conversation was merely a beginning. Attendees Chang Sow and Zach Subin agreed.
“It did feel like a beginning rather than wading into specifics of what plans or strategies we should be focusing on,” said Sow.
Subin, who learned of the event through the United Democratic Club (of which he’s a member), agreed with the focus on local matters, saying, “We can’t adjust the cost of living without addressing the cost of housing.”
Representatives of Schumer and Booker didn’t return requests for comment.