Behind the Ballot with Connie Chan, candidate for CA’s 11th Congressional District

By Lauren Toms

SAN FRANCISCO — Just outside San Francisco’s City Hall, Connie Chan begins a walk she has taken for decades, one that she says connects the work she does to the city she calls home.

“I’ve walked through this since I was 25 because I’ve been working in City Hall since then, as a policy aid, I have seen how it was and how it’s been. And I know that there’s still a lot of work to do,” Chan tells CBS News Bay Area.

Chan was born in Hong Kong and immigrated from Taiwan with her mother and brother before moving to Chinatown, a neighborhood that became central to her upbringing. Early in her career, she worked as an interpreter, translating for immigrants navigating the legal system.

“In Chinatown, for a new immigrant, that’s really where your community is, food and snacks and that, that is home,” she said.

Over the years, Chan says she developed another skill along the way: knowing where to find the best food across San Francisco’s many neighborhoods.

“Everywhere, every corner in the city, I know where to find good eats,” she laughingly explains. “You can draw me up in different spaces in different neighborhoods in the city, I know where to find that one dive bar or like one tiny, tiny restaurant and find good eats anywhere,” Chan said.

She pops into an unassuming noodle restaurant a few blocks from City Hall, Hai Ky Noodles, a small restaurant on Ellis Street, and is greeted like family. 

“I do have my special order. It’s a combination of number 11 and number 14, and it’s fish balls and pork kidney,” she says of her off-menu order. “This is what I love about San Francisco. It’s not quiet once you come in here, but on the outside, you can’t quite see like, Is this a good spot? No one could tell. But if you are a local, you come in here and you know this is good eats,” she said.

Chan is now running for Congress to succeed Nancy Pelosi, and says she hopes to build on Pelosi’s legacy by giving a voice to San Francisco’s marginalized communities.

“You can take a girl out of Chinatown, but you can’t take Chinatown out of the girl. It is really who I am deep down. Like, I think if I am here, or if I’m in Washington, DC, I’m going to be like, ‘Where can I find good Chinese food, or good Asian foods and good Asian eats’ that just that, just part of who I am,” Chan said.

For Chan, meals like the one she orders at Hai Ky Noodles are about more than food. They are moments of connection with the community that helped shape her.

“I get to see my community and talk to them and hear them and learn from like what they care about. And I think that’s really part of who I am,” Chan said.

This story is part of “Behind the Ballot,” a series introducing voters to the people behind the campaigns in the race for California’s 11th Congressional District.