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Lefty tech millionaire Saikat Chakrabarti spent nearly $10 million of his own cash to fill Nancy Pelosi’s shoes in Congress for San Francisco, only to majorly flop and miss out on a spot in the general election.
The extent of his loss was not only humiliating in terms of results – he won just one precinct – but also financially, according to an analysis by Mission Local.
The former aide to socialist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent about $211.3 per vote, which is $8.85 million for 42,049 votes.
Meanwhile, his two other major opponents who are facing off against each other in November spent far less. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D) became the frontrunner with just $5.86 million from his campaign and outside groups. City Supervisor Connie Chan was backed by only $1.75 million.
Chakrabarti effectively spent eight times more per vote than Chan, who swung ahead of Chakrabarti with Pelosi’s endorsement. He now holds the city record for most money spent per vote, according to Mission Local.
The unimpressive results clash with Chakrabarti’s explanation for his loss. In his concession statement, the flopped candidate claimed he couldn’t overcome “the 7 million dollars of AI, crypto, and AIPAC money that were put into this race.”
In reality, the endorsement of Chan by Pelosi and claims he wasn’t deeply rooted in the city hurt his bid, and his money did not overcome those hurdles.
Chakrabarti is still continuing to spend despite his loss. He endorsed Chan and made offers to about 220 campaign employees to work on her behalf, outlets reported.
Chakrabarti, a former Stripe exec, had staked out a lane in the race as the most left-leaning candidate, even appearing with controversial leftist streamer Hasan Piker.
Chakrabarti was best known for his tenure as Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, but that stint ended after his spat with congressional Democratic leadership that included Pelosi.
With more than 95% of the votes in, he finished with almost 18% of the vote share in this month’s primary. Wiener had almost 41% while Chan had 30%.
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