Scott Wiener (born May 11, 1970) is an American politician and a member of the California State Senate. A Democrat, he represents the 11th Senatorial District, encompassing San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County.
Prior to his election to the State Senate in 2016, Wiener served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 8. He also served as Chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, represented San Francisco as a commissioner on the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and represented San Francisco as a director on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board.
During his political career, Wiener has been known as a prominent advocate for various measures to facilitate more housing construction in California to alleviate the California housing shortage.
In March 2023, he formed an exploratory committee for a congressional campaign in the 11th district. The seat is currently held by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Wiener has implied that he will only run if Pelosi retires.
Early life and career
Wiener was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in southern New Jersey, the son of small business owners. He graduated from Washington Township High School, received his bachelor's degree from Duke University, studied in Santiago, Chile on a Fulbright Scholarship, and received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Justice Alan B. Handler on the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
In 1997, Wiener moved to San Francisco to work as a litigation attorney at Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. In 2002, he went to work as a deputy city attorney, under San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera.
Before running for Board of Supervisors, Wiener served as chair of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee.
In 2016, Wiener ran for the 11th Senate District, to succeed termed out Senator Mark Leno. As it is required to include a Chinese name on the ballot (17% of the San Francisco population speak Chinese), Wiener, who is very tall, chose the name Wei Shangao, meaning "bold, majestic, charitable, and tall".
Wiener received several endorsements, including one by Senator Leno. He ultimately defeated fellow Supervisor Jane Kim in the November general election, to win election to the State Senate.
Wiener won re-election to his state senate seat in 2020.
San Francisco Supervisor
Wiener was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on November 2, 2010, carrying 42.4% of the vote in the first round of ranked choice voting. After the two lowest candidates were dropped, Wiener won election with 18,239 votes, or 55.4%, over the second-place finisher, attorney Rafael Mandelman.
Wiener was re-elected on November 4, 2014, on the first round of ranked choice voting, carrying a majority of the vote.
Housing
In 2011, after a string of fires caused by arson in San Francisco's Castro district, Wiener authored legislation allowing residents temporarily displaced by fires or natural disasters to rent other apartments at below-market rates. Previously, landlords willing to rent out apartments to a tenant on a temporary basis could not offer lower rents without locking these rates in at that rate under rent control.
In 2012, Wiener passed legislation promoting the production of student housing while restricting the conversion of existing rental stock to student housing. That same year, the Board passed legislation to allow the construction of residential units as small as 220 square feet, known as micro-apartments.
In 2014, Wiener introduced two measures to allow the construction of new in-law units in San Francisco: The first allows units to be built within the Castro neighborhood, and the second allows owners of buildings undergoing seismic retrofit to add in-law units. In 2016, Wiener authored legislation to fast-track the approval of affordable housing projects.
In 2016, Wiener introduced legislation to extend rent control protections to people living with HIV/AIDS.
Transportation
Wiener focused much of his policy work on San Francisco's public transportation. He criticized the lack of investment in transit in San Francisco, and advocated for additional funding measures. His proposals included changing the transit-impact development fee and a ballot measure to tie Muni funding to population growth. The latter measure, Measure B, required 75% of increased funding to improve Muni reliability and 25% of the funding to improve street safety. Measure B was passed on November 4, 2014.