From history extraordinaire to “Jeopardy!” champion and then tech entrepreneur — all before 30 — Class of ‘15 alumnus Bruce Lou’s life has taken him to remarkable places.
As a student here, he won the National History Bee and led the SHS History Bowl team to victory as they swept the national championship in his senior year. Over the next nine years, Lou, now 27, graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in computer science, buzzed in to wins in the famous game show “Jeopardy!” in 2020, founded the consulting firm Stingray and finally, in 2023, ran a campaign as the GOP candidate for Congress in California’s 11th Congressional District, located in San Francisco.
Lou lost the Nov. 5 race against incumbent and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, receiving 19% of the popular vote compared to Pelosi’s 81%. During the campaign, Lou raised almost $200,000 — a fraction of Pelosi’s $8.5 million, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan research group. This marks 84-year-old Pelosi’s 19th consecutive win in the district. She has served the district since 1987.
In January, when The Falcon last interviewed Lou and he had yet to cement his spot in November’s general election, his ensuing campaign has taken him a long way — both politically and personally.
On March 5, Lou competed with a total of four Republicans and four Democrats in the 11th District’s open primary, earning second place with 8.63% of the vote, or 16,285 votes. Beating third place — Democrat Marjorie Mikels — by around 7,000 votes, this victory advanced Lou to the Nov. 5 election.
Lou also earned endorsements from a litany of organizations and sitting legislators, including the California Republican Party and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).
Despite his initial momentum, Lou faced overwhelming odds as he campaigned against Pelosi over the next eight months. During the March primary, Pelosi won with 73.27% of the vote, a margin of around 122,000 votes. San Francisco also has a long history of being a solid-blue district, with only 7.27% of registered voters identifying as Republican as of Feb. 20 — the second lowest percentage in California.
Along with the Republican party’s low standing in San Francisco, Lou encountered various difficulties while endeavoring to spread his platform. Pelosi’s extensive history in the city comes with what Lou describes as a significant amount of “political clout.” He recalls how even some voters who believed in him were afraid to vote against someone who had represented the city for so long.
As a whole, Lou described his campaign as a fight “against the machine,” where “the machine” fought back in a number of ways.
At first, Lou gained a large social media following through his Instagram page, with some of his campaign videos gathering hundreds of thousands of views. But he alleges that Meta “shadow-banned” his account — or stopped recommending his videos to newer viewers — which slowed his views down to a trickle.
Meta updated Instagram’s policy on political content in February when they added an opt-out control that limits political content from accounts that users don’t follow, and the company asserts that their algorithm does not apply unfairly across the aisle.
At the same time, allegations similar to Lou’s have been made on both sides of the political spectrum. In late 2023, Human Rights Watch accused Meta of taking down over 1,000 pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram that supported Palestine, while conservative politicians have long accused platforms like Twitter and TikTok of hiding their content.
Lou’s Instagram videos boast view counts ranging from 2,000-30,000, while some of his collaborations with other conservative influencers have surpassed 400,000 views.
Regardless, Lou pushed forward with his campaign, which he centered around “Youth, Change and Accountability.” Going door-to-door around San Francisco to talk to thousands of voters, Lou emphasized ongoing issues surrounding public safety, cost of living and education. Tailoring his message specifically to each neighborhood he visited, he strayed away from party politics, instead connecting with voters through local issues that he knew were important to them.
Lou recalls that his youth — he is 57 years younger than Pelosi — was one of his biggest strengths and talking points.
“People desperately want to see fresh blood,” Lou said. “I think that there’s a nationwide fatigue over gerontocracy… [Voters] want to have somebody who is younger and more fresh to take the winds of power.”
While the election is now over, Lou is far from disappointed with his results. With 64,290 votes as of Nov. 20, Lou gained the largest number of votes that a Republican opponent facing Pelosi has ever garnered in her 36-year history as a congresswoman. Simultaneously, Lou is also her youngest opponent ever, according to official election records.
On the national stage, Lou thinks his social media campaign to have moved the needle toward Republicans, helping them win the trifecta — or control of the House, Senate and presidency. He notes that his videos — many of which attacked Democratic candidates including presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Pelosi — reached viewers as far as Pennsylvania, the state that decided the presidential race.
Beyond statistical results, Lou said he has also gained a tremendous amount of knowledge to reflect upon himself and share with others going forward.
“[My campaign] showed [Republicans] a blueprint to win in deep blue districts such as San Francisco or even [states like] California,” Lou said. “And that is through social media, engagement with voters and by having a true grassroots campaign.”
Personally, Lou saw a dangerous continuation of social ostracization due to political leanings, a trend he witnessed firsthand in high school and college. He urges people to stand together to create a better future rather than to stay hung up on party differences, warning that polarization will otherwise continue to drive a wedge within the country.
And while the future of Lou’s political career remains uncertain, he said he undoubtedly feels transformed by the experience of running for office.
“It’s one thing to be a bystander, but it is a completely different animal to be a fighter in the ring,” Lou said. “Everybody has something that they want to do. Everybody has their place. And I think that this is the right place for me. I’m very happy that I ran.”
