Barbara Lee wins Oakland mayor's race

Former Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) was projected to win a special election to become the next mayor of Oakland, according to Decision Desk HQ, in what became a closer-than-expected race amid growing voter dissatisfaction over the direction of the city.

Lee won the nonpartisan ranked-choice election over a field of more than a half dozen candidates, with the most prominent being former City Council member Loren Taylor, who was the runner-up to now-former Mayor Sheng Thao (D) in the 2022 mayoral race and emerged as this election’s dark-horse contender.

Taylor had the initial lead after the first batch of votes were tallied Tuesday night with 48.2 percent of the vote, about 1,200 votes ahead of Lee, who had 45.7 percent. But additional votes counted from mail-in ballots gave Lee the victory.

Oakland has been without a permanent mayor since November, when Thao was recalled from office in a first for the city with more than 60 percent of voters in favor of her ouster. She was elected narrowly in 2022 to become the first Hmong American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city, but tensions rose under her mayoralty as she faced scrutiny over her handling of crime and law enforcement and her personal conduct.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5250054-barbara-lee-elected-oakland/