Barbara Lee, California’s former Democratic representative in Congress, has officially announced her mayoral campaign for Oakland, with pledges to tackle homelessness, improve public safety and boost better-paying jobs and small businesses.
As the only Black woman to be voted into the House of Representatives from California’s regions north of Los Angeles, Lee, 78, served as Congress’s representative for San Francisco’s Bay Area from 1998 up until last week.
The progressive Lee, who is originally from Texas, is deeply popular in Oakland and had been urged to run for mayor by her supporters.
In a video announcement on Wednesday launching her campaign, Lee said: “They said we are a city divided. But let’s show them that we are one Oakland. That’s in our DNA.”
She added: “Yes, we see the tents beneath our overpasses, the storefronts sealed behind metal gates, the mothers grieving sons and daughters lost too soon, the families packing up, priced out of hope, the structural challenges that impact everything from our budget to whether we can walk our streets safely at night. But Oakland doesn’t run from challenges. We rise to meet them together.”
Lee pledged to resolve the city’s homelessness crisis, improve public safety, and help improve the local economy for workers and small business. She also pointed to her track record of being a former state official, including her time in the California state assembly in 1990 and the state senate in 1996.
Further in her campaign video, Lee said: “I fought for Oakland values. Now it’s time to bring that business and legislative experience home for an Oakland renaissance. This is our moment. This is our movement. This is our Oakland.”
Lee’s announcement comes just two days after she filed the paperwork to run for Oakland mayor before the city’s special election on 15 April, which follows the city’s recall of Sheng Thao due to voters’ frustration about Oakland’s housing crisis, rising living costs and increased crime rates.
In a separate written message on her campaign website, Lee repeated her pledges, saying: “Working together, we will provide shelter/services/programs to our unhoused residents, invest in public safety and violence prevention programs, and provide more housing, education, and economic development in historically underrepresented communities.”
