Barbara Lee declared victory in the race to finish former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao’s term on Saturday, after her closest opponent, Loren Taylor, conceded. Taylor’s campaign confirmed the call in a text message.
Lee released a statement acknowledging that more votes are yet to be counted but thanked the city’s voters for their apparent decision.
“This morning, Loren Taylor called me to concede the race. While I believe strongly in respecting the democratic voting process and ballots will continue to be counted through Tuesday, the results are clear that the people of Oakland have elected me as your next Mayor. Thank you, Oakland!” Lee said.
Lee took a lead of about six percentage points in updated vote tallies on Friday, after preliminary results on Tuesday showed Taylor ahead. The latest results as of Saturday showed Lee ahead with about 52.7% of the vote to Taylor’s 47.3% after the ninth round of ranked choice voting with all other candidates eliminated. Lee was also ahead in the count of first choice votes, leading with roughly 50% of the vote to Taylor’s 45%, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. Over 90,000 of the nearly 95,000 ballots cast were cast by mail.
Lee, 78, a former congresswoman who represented Oakland from 1998 to 2025, said she would seek to unite what she called a “divided city.”
“I accept your choice with a deep sense of responsibility, humility, and love. Oakland is a deeply divided City; I answered the call to run to unite our community, so that I can represent every voter, and we can all work together as One Oakland to solve our most pressing problems. For the past 100 days–as I have for the past 30 years–I worked hard every day to continue to earn your trust, your respect, and your vote. I couldn’t be more proud of the margin of our collective win and our amazing coalition.”
Taylor is a former city councilmember who ran against Thao in 2022 and lost by just 700 votes. Thao was recalled in November amid allegations of bribery and was indicted on federal charges in January. The special election was called to finish out her term that began in 2023, meaning that if the results are certified, Lee will serve through January 4, 2027. The only other candidate in the race to break 1% as voters’ first choice was Tyron Jordan.