22 hours ago

Former representative Barbara Lee files paperwork to run for Oakland mayor

Barbara Lee, the California congresswoman who recently retired after serving nearly three decades in the US House of Representatives, has filed paperwork to run for mayor of Oakland.

The 78-year-old represented the San Francisco Bay Area city in Congress from 1998 until this year. She opened a campaign account to run for mayor with the California secretary of state on Monday, and a spokesperson for the veteran lawmaker told media she would make an announcement about her decision this week.

Lee would be running in a special election to replace Sheng Thao, who was recalled in November, and serve the remainder of her term. Voters ousted the mayor as well as Pamela Price, the district attorney for Alameda county, amid growing frustration over the city’s challenges – a worsening housing crisis, concerns over crime and rising costs. Thao, who had been the first Hmong American mayor of a major US city, faced intense criticism after the FBI raided her home as part of a corruption investigation.

The progressive Lee, who is originally from Texas, is deeply popular in Oakland and her district re-elected her repeatedly with more than 80% of the vote. She is the only Black woman elected to the US House from California regions north of Los Angeles . In 2001, she was the sole member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of US military force against those responsible for the September 11 attacks. In 2023, she was the first lawmaker to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Last year she ran unsuccessfully to represent California in the US Senate seat previously held by the late Dianne Feinstein for 31 years, which the Democratic lawmaker Adam Schiff ultimately won. It was the first election Lee had lost.

Supporters have urged her to run for mayor in Oakland. She said last month in her final days in Congress that she was focused on matters in the US House but suggested she was weighing a run.

“The decision to run for Mayor of Oakland, a city that I have long called home, is not one I take lightly,” Lee said.