Nguyen to seek SF D8 supervisor seat
by Matthew S. Bajko
Patent attorney and Democratic Party leader Michael Trung Nguyen, who performs as drag queen Juicy Liu, is entering the 2026 race for the District 8 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. If elected, he would be the first drag performer to serve on the governing body and its first gay Asian member.
The progressive member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee officially pulled papers for the race October 17. He is the third out male candidate to do so.
“I think that District 8 voters are hungry for change,” Nguyen, 43, told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview about his candidacy. “They want a supervisor who will fight for them and really listen to them and hear what they care about most.”
No candidate from the city’s progressive political faction has been able to win the District 8 seat over the past 24 years. Nguyen told the B.A.R. he believes he can be the first.
“I am a progressive but a pragmatic progressive,” he said. “I am willing to work and think of innovative ideas and to bring new ideas to the board.”
Current gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is also board president, is term-limited from running again next year. A progressive when he first sought the seat and lost in 2010, he had become more moderate by the time he ousted from office in 2018 gay supervisor Jeff Sheehy. (The longtime progressive leader had been appointed to fill a vacancy in 2017 by the late mayor Ed Lee.)
Last month, Mandelman endorsed Castro resident Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel to succeed him. A former member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board, Yekutiel owns Manny’s Cafe and event space on
Valencia Street a few blocks outside the boundaries of the supervisorial district.
Also jumping into the contest last month was Gary McCoy, who led both of the city’s main LGBTQ Democratic clubs, Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk, on whose board he serves alongside Nguyen. A longtime aide to Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), McCoy kicked off his campaign with an endorsement from the former speaker of the U.S. House and an appearance with her at the Castro Country Club, a sober gathering place in the heart of the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Nguyen, chair of the Milk club’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus, told the B.A.R. Thursday he was not yet ready to disclose any of his endorsers. He said he had been thinking about seeking the supervisor seat, long held by a string of gay men, for “some time” and recently made the decision to run.
“I kind of came to the realization that I didn’t see folks, kind of, really targeting the affordability crisis that is happening in San Francisco, or focusing on working families and the incredible cost of child care and housing,” said Nguyen, a lifelong renter who lives in Twin Peaks a few blocks from McCoy. “I want to be making sure we have public safety that works for everyone, and that we are also investing in arts and culture to have our public safety and safe streets and vibrant streets.”
Gay progressive former supervisor and state legislator Tom Ammiano told the B.A.R. he is excited to see there won’t only be moderates seeking the District 8 seat.
“I am happy to see him in the race. He will bring a more progressive point of view and add much needed diversity to the campaign,” said Ammiano, who had held the Mission districtcentered District 9 seat on the board.
McCoy declined to comment when contacted by the B.A.R. about Nguyen’s getting into the race. Yekutiel did not respond to the B.A.R.’s request for comment.
Juicy there in spirit
In past supervisorial elections, drag performers have fallen short. Back in 2010, Glendon Hyde, whose drag persona was Anna Conda, lost his bid for the District 6 seat.
Twelve years later, transgender leader Honey Mahogany, who performed under her name, also failed to win the seat that covers the city’s South of Market district. (The winner of the 2022 race, gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, is backing McCoy as his first choice and Yekutiel as his second choice in their contest.)
Nguyen told the B.A.R. he will appear as his drag counterpart on the campaign trail for fundraising events for sure. He
said he is often asked how involved Juicy Liu will be in his bid.
“I get that question all the time, where is Juicy in all of this? I will share Juicy is always with me in my heart,” said Nguyen, who is single and has lived in Twin Peaks for 15 years. “Michael Nguyen is on the ballot for sure, but Juicy is there in spirit. I will bring out Juicy in targeted ways.”
Nguyen, an only child, was born in Chicago to Vietnamese refugee parents, who fled their home country 50 years ago this past April. His mom had escaped off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon a couple days before the city fell into the hands of the North Vietnam forces on April 30, 1975.
“She came here with nothing but the clothes on her back,” he said.
His father, a helicopter pilot in the American-allied South Vietnam Air Force, fled the country after learning Saigon had fallen. His parents first met at a refugee camp in Pensacola, Florida prior to relocating to Illinois, where his father, who didn’t speak English, found work in restaurants and hospitals, while his mom was employed as a bank programmer.
“They worked their whole lives in exhausting jobs,” said Nguyen, whose family moved around before ending up in Plano, Texas.
After graduating cum laude from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, with a double major in computer science and music, Nguyen in 2003 fled the homophobia he encountered in the Lone Star State for San Diego.
Three years later he moved to San Francisco and earned his Juris Doctorate from UC College of the Law, San Francisco. He works as an intellectual property attorney in Silicon Valley.
In 2016, his Juicy Liu persona was crowned Miss GAPA by the GLBTQ+
Asian Pacific Alliance. The following year he was elected GAPA’s chair, a position he served in until 2021.
It provided him a perch to become a well-known leader within the Bay Area’s queer and transgender Asian & Pacific Islander community. Nguyen helped push for the first-ever, and now annual, observation of QTAPI Week in San Francisco in late May in 2021.
He also served on the committee that advised former mayor London Breed in naming the city’s first-ever drag laureate in 2023. Oasis nightclub owner D’Arcy Drollinger’s tenure in the position ended earlier this year, and Mayor Daniel Lurie has yet to name her successor.
With his friends Jeremy Lee and Natalie Gee, Nguyen this year launched the Between The Fog and Fury podcas focused on the city’s political scene. Episode 6 just dropped.
“We are trying to dispel the myths of politics and explaining politics to everyday folks, especially San Francisco politics through an Asian American perspective,” said Nguyen, who won his DCCC seat in the March 2024 primary to help lead the San Francisco Democratic Party.
In addition to the Castro and Twin Peaks neighborhoods, the District 8 seat includes Diamond Heights, Glen Park, Duboce Triangle, Corona Heights and parts of Cole Valley. Since the city resorted back to electing supervisors by districts in 2000, no person of color has won the District 8 seat.
“While having the potential to be the first gay Asian to represent the Castro and Harvey Milk’s old district, it is definitely exciting and much-needed representation,” said Nguyen. “I am focused on delivering outcomes for District 8 residents and being the champion that we need in that district.” t
