OAKLAND — Barbara Lee opened her first news conference as Oakland’s mayor-elect with a nod to her Catholic upbringing and education in El Paso, Texas, leading a packed room in a moment of silence for Pope Francis, who died earlier Monday.
Lee’s status as an East Bay progressive icon is so cemented that it’s easy to forget the 78-year old became an Oakland resident only when she first moved here to attend Mills College, graduating in 1973.
The former congresswoman’s “outsider” label, following 26 years in Washington D.C., became both a campaign talking point and the source of attacks against her. Critics questioned Lee’s ability to understand the city government or lead it effectively.
It was not enough to diminish Lee’s long history of popularity among voters, who have now elected her as Oakland’s next mayor. The latest results posted Friday saw Lee blow past Loren Taylor to claim over 50% of first-place votes — creating a five-point gap between them.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the margin of our collective win and our amazing coalition,” she said at Monday’s news conference.
Upon taking office, Lee will complete the term of ex-Mayor Sheng Thao until next November 2026. Thao was recalled by voters in an election last fall, leaving the city with a months-long leadership vacuum.
Lee echoed the broad themes of her campaign at Monday’s event: creating unity in the city and healing its divides. And she walked through a 10-point plan for her first 100 days in office, a term that will likely begin sometime in May after the election is certified.
The plan includes “fostering collaboration and trust” with police leaders and business owners; wrangling more public funds from Alameda County to fight homelessness; aggressively prosecuting illegal dumping; convening the CEOs of Oakland’s 10 largest employers to discuss public-private partnerships; streamlining city permitting and ordering a review of the city’s mayor-council power structure.
Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee takes part in a press conference on Monday, April 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
“I’m going to do the hard work and make the tough decisions,” Lee said. “I think you know me — I mean, I’m pretty tough.”
Lee acknowledged Oakland’s challenges — a $140 million budget deficit facing the city government, persistent crime woes and a homelessness crisis — but noted an optimism among residents.
To close the deficit, deep spending cuts and hard choices are likely required in the city’s next two-year, multi-billion-dollar budget that the Oakland City Council will be expected to approve before July.
Kevin Jenkins, a councilmember who since January has filled in as interim mayor, will propose the budget for the council’s approval. Lee said Monday she will decide whether to suggest amendments to Jenkins’ proposal after being briefed on its details.
She called public safety a “high priority.” But hiring more police officers to reach a voter-mandated minimum of 700 sworn — the city currently has 672 cops on the force — appears to be an uphill battle, given the depths of the financial crisis.
The mayor’s transition team will be led by Keith Brown of the Alameda Labor Council and Barbara Leslie, a Port of Oakland commissioner and the head of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which backed Lee’s campaign and hosted Monday’s news conference at its headquarters.
Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee takes part in a press conference on Monday, April 21, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Lee’s candidacy was supported by the region’s large public labor unions, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on attack ads against Taylor. Lee, on the other hand, rarely commented on Taylor directly in interviews and at pre-election forums.
“The people of Oakland have placed their trust in Mayor-Elect Lee to stabilize our city and foster meaningful collaboration between labor, business and all corners of our city to combat these challenges head on (and) to find agreement and common ground,” Brown said Monday.
Elected leaders who endorsed Lee praised her ability to stay out of the fray of hostile politics, and to unite those who disagree.
The mayor-elect noted residents’ frustrations with a “government that hasn’t upheld their trust” — a reference to a corruption scandal involving Thao, who has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of bribery and conspiracy.
Thao became a specter of the shortened mayoral race. Lee, who distanced herself from Thao in the wake of the corruption case, asked voters to get past the Thao era and look to the future.
On Monday, there was little mention of Thao during Lee’s news conference, the focus now shifting to a new mayor who will be expected to write a new chapter for the city that has served as the foundation of her career for five decades.
“Oakland is ready to move forward,” Lee said. “But we also know what our challenges are and we’re not sweeping them under the rug. And we’re going to be an administration that will be a mirror for the entire city of Oakland, regardless of whether you voted for me or not.”
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at [email protected].
