Indian-origin Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in the New York mayoral elections has inspired another South Asian Democrat hoping to make waves in US politics, Saikat Chakrabarti.
With former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing she won’t seek reelection, Chakrabarti now sees an opportunity to secure the Democratic nomination for the San Francisco congressional seat, a position held by Pelosi since 1987.
Like Mamdani, Chakrabarti, 39, represents a new generation of progressive leaders pushing to redefine the Democratic Party.
Reacting to Mamdani’s win, the Harvard-educated technologist wrote on X, “Zohran proved it doesn’t matter how much money they throw at you. Organised people beat organised money if you stand for real change.” His campaign mirrors Mamdani’s grassroots energy, focusing on affordability, reform, and digital outreach.
Who is Saikat Chakrabarti?
Chakrabarti’s journey from Silicon Valley to politics has been anything but conventional. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Bengali immigrant parents, he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science. He later co-founded a tech startup in San Francisco and joined financial services firm Stripe as one of its early engineers.
On his official campaign website, he notes, “I was born in Fort Worth, TX, to immigrants from India. I came to San Francisco after college in 2009, like so many others, with dreams of making a difference and fell in love with our city. I started my own company here before joining Stripe as its second engineer.”
Chakrabarti’s shift to politics began in 2015, when he left the tech industry to work on Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. There, he built digital tools for grassroots organizing, earning Sanders’s admiration. Two years later, he co-founded Justice Democrats, a group that supports new, progressive candidates challenging long-time incumbents.
He rose to national prominence in 2018 after managing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning congressional victory in New York. As her chief of staff, Chakrabarti helped shape the Green New Deal (GND), a bold environmental and economic reform framework. Alongside climate activists, he even staged a sit-in in Nancy Pelosi’s office to push for the GND’s inclusion in Congress’s legislative agenda.
In April, Chakrabarti launched his own campaign, emphasizing that his goal is to “completely change the brand of the Democratic Party.” He has been outspoken against corporate influence in politics, advocating for measures like a wealth tax, even if it means, as he says, “taxing myself.”
Now, with Pelosi stepping aside, Chakrabarti faces a competitive race for the Democratic nomination, with rivals including California State Senator Scott Wiener, Christine Pelosi, and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. A recent GrowSF poll suggests that Chakrabarti “has a better shot than any challenger in many years.”
His campaign, driven by grassroots support and social media outreach, echoes a broader movement within the Democratic Party, one that aims to replace establishment politics with bold, people-first reform.
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