Pelosi's Republican challenger points to neighbors 'mad at salon owner' after blowout backlash

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Video footage shows Pelosi at San Francisco salon appointment

WATCH: Security footage shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting a San Francisco hair salon, despite local rules keeping salons closed amid coronavirus. Pelosi is seen moving about the salon without a face covering.

John Dennis, a longtime Republican challenger of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, took to Twitter late Thursday to show just how deep the support for the liberal Democrat is in the district, even after she was caught using a shuttered salon in the city for a blowout.

"I live near the salon where Nancy Pelosi went for her mask-less wash and blow out," Dennis wrote. "Right now people in my neighborhood are on Next Door vigorously defending....PELOSI. They're mad at the owner of e Salon. Now do you understand why I've had some difficulty defeating her?"

Dennis lost to Pelosi during the general election for California's 12th Congressional District in 2014 and 2012, never receiving more than 17 percent of the vote, according to Ballotpedia. During the district's primary election in March this year, he received less than eight percent of the vote.

He wrote in a Twitter post how local residents were using Next Door, a social networking service for neighborhoods, to defend Pelosi and excoriate Erica Kious, the owner of eSalonSF.

SALON OWNER DENIES PELOSI'S 'SETUP' CLAIMS, SAYS HOUSE SPEAKER 'OWES THE ENTIRE COUNTRY AN APOLOGY'

One of the posts he cited, read, "Boycott eSalon on Union street. The owner Érica Kious went on fox entertainment channel and out and out lied. Totally set up the speaker! Pelosi stylist backs her up!"

Pelosi insisted that she was "set up" by Kious. Her critics called the video the height of hypocrisy due to her stance on mask-wearing and lockdowns.

In security footage obtained by Fox News, and timestamped Monday at 3:08 p.m. PT, Pelosi is seen walking through the salon with wet hair, and without a mask over her mouth or nose.

PELOSI USED SHUTTERED SAN FRANCISCO HAIR SALON FOR BLOW-OUT, OWNER CALLS IT 'SLAP IN THE FACE'

Kious spoke to Fox News' Tucker Carlson hours after Pelosi addressed the backlash, claiming she had frequented the salon “over the years many times," and demanding an apology from the owner "for setting me up.”

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Meanwhile, the San Francisco cosmetologist who reportedly worked on Pelosi's hair during the visit this week attempted Wednesday to distance himself from Kious. Through a statement issued by his lawyer, hair stylist Jonathan DeNardo said Kious appeared to be "furthering a setup of Speaker Pelosi for her own vain aspirations."

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Yael Halon contributed to this report