Preston kicks off District 5 reelection bid
Hundreds of supporters of San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston rallied voters and knocked on doors across District 5 on Sunday morning as the progressive formally launched his reelection campaign.
“You elected me to be an independent voice in City Hall, standing up against the status quo, and we’ve been heard,” Preston told the crowd assembled at Baker and Fell streets, at the tip of Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle. “We’ve been heard so loud, apparently we’ve ruffled some feathers.”
Preston, who often clashes with Mayor London Breed and her moderate allies, has often been at odds with other supervisors for his stances on housing, policing and the fentanyl crisis.
The district — a collection of neighborhoods spanning the Panhandle, Haight-Ashbury, Western Addition and Tenderloin — is home to a diverse range of voters. Over the years residents have grown increasingly weary of rising home prices as encampments, open-air drug use and car break-ins become more common.
The most progressive member of the Board of Supervisors, Preston, 54, is facing competition from moderates Bilal Mahmood, 36, an entrepreneur and Tenderloin resident, and Autumn Looijen, 46, an education activist who scored a big win with the San Francisco school board recall in 2022.
Supporters of Preston, a former tenant attorney in the Tenderloin and the sole democratic socialist supervisor, say he is uniquely able to tackle neighborhood anxieties at a time when housing and crime are dominating headlines — and driving upstart campaigns to oust him and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, a fellow progressive.
Field director Gwen McLaughlin said the Preston campaign is focused on grassroots efforts to reach voters concerned about tenant rights and public safety. Preston, known for being an aggressive campaigner and fundraiser, already has bagged the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent.
“We got everyone riled up, and then they took off to different pockets of turf,” McLaughlin said of Sunday’s door-to-door outreach efforts, which she said will continue until November.
Natalia Robyns-Kresich and August Johnson nabbed a Preston lawn sign that they planned to offer to a friend with a prominent, street-facing window. The District 5 residents said they had been impressed by Preston’s dedication to closing a rent control loophole in the Western Addition.
“He is available to people,” Robyns-Kresich said. “That’s what makes him special.”
Johnson described Preston as a “good listener,” a distinction he hastened to add is uncommon among politicians.
“He doesn’t come with a preplanned project to impose,” Johnson said. “He actually comes to listen.”
District 5 resident Teresa Palmer attended the kickoff with her husband, Paul Cartier, and their 2year-old granddaughter, Zelda, who ambled up the William McKinley Memorial at the foot of Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle.
Palmer, clutching a lawn sign, said she wanted to keep San Francisco affordable so her children and grandchildren can stay for decades, as she has.
“Our quality of life is wonderful, but housing is too expensive,” Palmer said. “San Francisco shouldn’t be just for rich people. Dean is into taking care of that.”
Palmer and Cartier said they planned to display their red-and-blue Preston sign in their Panhandle window, opposite a polling station. They were once confronted by a scrupulous poll worker inquiring about the window’s distance from the station, they said, to ensure it did not violate election laws.
Palmer assured the Chronicle the window is positioned beyond the 50foot line demarcating acceptable signage locations.
“We had to measure,” Cartier said.