Former longtime Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee surged into the lead in the race to become Oakland’s next mayor, according to vote results released Friday evening.
The latest tally showed Lee moving ahead of her primary challenger in the race, former City Councilmember Loren Taylor, with 53% percent of the vote compared to Taylor’s 47%. Her lead was commanding enough that the San Francisco Chronicle called the race, declaring Lee “has been elected Oakland’s next mayor.”
Oakland, a city of 436,000 people, uses ranked-choice elections, which allows voters to select multiple candidates by order of preference. The method complicates the vote count, and it could be weeks before Alameda County election officials announce a final tally for this week’s special election.
Lee’s campaign held off on declaring victory Friday evening, although campaign officials released a statement calling the latest results “encouraging.” Taylor, who represented East Oakland on the City Council for four years, could not be reached for comment.
If the results hold, Lee, 78, a progressive icon who represented Oakland and surrounding areas in Congress for nearly three decades, would replace ousted Mayor Sheng Thao, a progressive elected in 2022. Thao was recalled from office in November amid deep voter frustrations with crime, homelessness and the pervasive sense that Oakland is in crisis. Thao was accused of bungling the city’s finances, contributing to a budget shortfall that will almost certainly require sweeping cuts across government departments.
Efforts to recall Thao from office were already underway when, in June, FBI agents raided her home as part of an investigation into an alleged corruption scheme involving Thao’s boyfriend and a father-son team who run the company that provides Oakland’s recycling services. That probe energized the recall, which easily passed with more than 60% of the vote. Thao, her boyfriend, Andre Jones, and Andy and David Duong of California Waste Solutions were indicted on federal bribery charges in January. All four have pleaded not guilty.
“I decided to run for Mayor knowing that Oakland is a deeply divided City — and I ran to unite our community,” Lee said in her Friday statement.
The election created an unexpected career opportunity for Lee, who left Washington in January after losing her bid for the Senate in last year’s primary to fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who went on to win the seat in November.
With Oakland in sudden need of a new mayor, a broad coalition of business groups, labor organizations and elected leaders spent last fall calling on Lee to run in the April 15 special election and save their city from collapse.
Though nine people ultimately competed in the race, Taylor, a business management consultant who is 30 years Lee’s junior, emerged as her main opponent. He painted the city as “broken” and in desperate need of a chief executive with on-the-ground experience at City Hall who could make tough decisions without fear of disappointing longtime political supporters.
Taylor received a financial boost from tech and business leaders who funneled tens of thousands of dollars into independent expenditure committees supporting his candidacy.
Lee ran on her record as a veteran politician with decades of experience forging connections across diverse interest groups. She touted the hundreds of millions of dollars she brought home to the East Bay during her time in Congress, where she advocated for anti-war policies and promoted legislation that targeted racism, sexism, poverty and labor exploitation. Those values stem from her roots as a Black Panther activist and her educational training at Mills College and UC Berkeley.
She promised to “make life better for everybody” in Oakland, while vowing to fight crime and encourage the estimated 5,400 homeless people in Oakland into shelter and housing. She has pledged to hire more police officers, curb government spending and increase transparency into decisions made at City Hall.
