Rep. Nancy Pelosi attends a press conference addressing the economic impacts of decisions made by the Trump administration on April 23 in San Francisco.

Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi appeared to endorse Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis for governor Wednesday during a CNN interview, hours after former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she wouldn’t run for governor next year. 

“We have many great candidates, one in particular, Eleni Tsakopoulos, whom I support,” Pelosi said, referring to Kounalakis, a fellow San Franciscan, by her maiden name. Pelosi has raised more than $1 billion for Democrats over the past two decades.

Kounalakis, her Pacific Heights neighbor, is the daughter of Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, a longtime major Democratic donor who gave nearly $5 million to an independent committee supporting his daughter in her 2018 run for lieutenant governor. She is expected to be one of the best-funded candidates in the crowded field.

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A Pelosi spokesman declined to comment on the record about whether Pelosi’s comments constituted an official endorsement.