Barbara Lee promises ‘Oakland renaissance’ in official run for mayor
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The progressive is the only Black woman to be voted to the US House from California’s regions north of LA. 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 of 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 went on to add: “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 at the California state assembly in 1990 and the state senate in 1996.
