By Ken Epstein

Part 1

“I’ve never shied away from a challenge – I’m always ready to fight for Oakland,” said outgoing Congresswoman Barbara Lee, kicking off her campaign this week to become the next mayor of Oakland, speaking with characteristic optimism.

In an exclusive interview Wednesday afternoon at the offices of the Oakland Post, Lee spoke about how she came to the decision to run for mayor in the April 15 special election. She also discussed some of her priorities, including defense of human rights of immigrants.

“As mayor, I’ll address our homelessness crisis, prioritize comprehensive public safety and mental health services, and lead with fiscal responsibility to deliver the core City services residents and business owners deserve,” she said in her campaign announcement.

In reaching her decision to run, Lee said, “The process was actually doing a deep dive (talking) with many different people, organizations, constituencies here in Oakland, with the business community, with labor, with activists, with nonprofits, with ordinary folks who are just trying to survive on a daily basis.

“It has been and will continue to be a good process primarily of listening and listening for the common threads, because I believe that this city – and I love this city – has had such a great history of working together and being unified, even though we disagree on a lot, but in challenging times, we come together,” she said.

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“I (will) be a mayor who is hands-on and helping find solutions. We can’t make big promises, naturally, but I certainly can say we’re all going to try and move forward together.”

Looking at public safety concerns, she said, “People want to feel safe in their neighborhoods and wherever they are, but they also want to see that we’re preventing violence. We (need) a comprehensive strategy.

“I think the city is moving toward and has a good integration” with Ceasefire, a violence reduction program in Oakland, she continued. “We have to bring Ceasefire to scale, (and) also look at the underlying reasons and the root causes of crime. I think we can put together an overall agenda and try to get the resources for a comprehensive public safety strategy, which incorporates crime prevention, violence prevention, addressing the underlying causes.

“We also must make sure we have a police force that does their job, and (we can help) free them up from some of the burdens that they have right now so they can do their job to make sure that they keep communities safe.”

Finding federal resources and funding for the city may be difficult in the current climate, Lee said.  “I’m going to talk to foundations, the business community, investors, we need to make sure that we create an environment for investments to come into Oakland.”

“That means, addressing all the cost-of-living issues, the public safety issues, all the issues that we have to address for investments, but also talking to foundations and talking to the private sector.

“Right now, public-private partnerships are going to be key,” she continued. “You hear people talk about it, but not really know what it means. Well, it means that if I win, I’m going to go directly to the source in terms of the foundations.

“In terms of the private sector, (I’ll) talk to them about the beauty of Oakland, its challenges, (and) how, with minimal investment, they can help us move forward. I think that’s the job. It’s going to be a heavy lift, but ‘going to do that.

While public education may be under threat currently, she said she will look at local initiatives, including the effort to bring a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to Oakland.

“Right now, there is no HBCU West of the Mississippi,” except for a medical school in Los Angeles, she said. “This is an important initiative, absolutely important,” Lee said, explaining that while in Congress she served on the Appropriations Committee funding HBCUs.

Lee has a long history as a public servant. She was a U.S. representative from Oakland and the East Bay for 26 years, from 1998 to 2025. During that time, she chaired  the Congressional Black Caucus and was co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Before entering Congress, she was a member of the California State Assembly for three terms, elected in 1990. She was elected to the California State Senate in 1996, resigning her position in 1998 after winning a special election for the House of Representatives.

In the State Legislature, Lee was the  first African-American woman to represent Northern California.  She authored 67 bills in the Legislature that were signed into law by the  Republican governor, including the California Schools Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the California Violence Against Women Act.

She worked to defeat California’s three-strikes law and was an early champion of LGBTQ+ rights. She also was a member of the California Commission on the Status of Women and founded the California Commission on the Status of African American Males.

Ken Epstein

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