Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has won the special election for Oakland mayor in a close contest over “moderate” Loren Taylor, giving “progressives” hope and defying efforts by Democrats to shift their party to the center.
Lee, 78, defeated Taylor, 47, thanks to late-arriving postal ballots, after Taylor led on Election Night. She will take the helm of a city suffering from poor left-wing governance in the wake of a corruption scandal involving former mayor Sheng Thao, also a “progressive.”
Oakland had recently begun to emerge from the shadows of San Francisco — its wealthier, glitzier neighbor across the Bay — when the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement took it right back to the bad old days of political radicalism and urban decay.
Lee, a standard-bearer for the left after casting the lone vote in Congress against the war in Afghanistan in 2001, represents that old-school, 1960s-era radicalism. She ran unsuccessfully against Adam Schiff for Senate, but found traction in Oakland, where she was seen, the New York Times noted, “as a trusted and experienced voice who could stabilize Oakland and help guide it out of crisis.”
She ran against Taylor, who was backed by wealthy interests who are trying to save the city from itselft. Politico noted: “An ascendant movement of well-funded moderate groups is determined to exert its influence in left-leaning labor strongholds — home to some of the world’s largest tech companies and their employees — by appealing to a sense among Democrats that liberal governance has failed.”
Their next opportunity will come soon: Lee will face reelection in 2026, as Thao’s original four-year term expires.
Until then, claims that San Francisco Bay Area Democrats are leading their party back to the center would appear to be premature. Aside from recalling radical prosecutors and school board members, they have yet to achieve success. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie defeated incumbent progressive London Breed last year, but still faces a $1 billion deficit and has yet to show any significant achievements in his tenure thus far.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
