Bay Area

Sheng Thao Becomes Oakland’s Mayor

Mayor-Elect Sheng Thao’s victory is also historic: She is the first person of Hmong descent to lead a major U.S. city and — at 37 — the youngest Oakland mayor in about 75 years. (The first Hmong mayor was Steve Ly, who served as mayor of Elk Grove, California, from 2016-2020.)

Published

3 years ago

November 25, 2022

Oakland Post

Sheng Thao. City of Oakland photo.

By Post Staff

Sheng Thao, Oakland’s District 4 Councilmember, declared victory Monday night in the city’s mayoral election after two weeks of ballot counting gave her a 682-vote edge over her closest rival, District 6 Councilmember Loren Taylor.

Taylor conceded on Tuesday morning.

“I have never felt more hopeful about Oakland’s future, or more determined to lead the fight for it,” Thao said in a statement. “I’m excited to get to work building the safer, more affordable, more just Oakland we know is possible in the months and years ahead.”

Both Thao and Taylor were relative newcomers to the City Council, both assuming office in 2019. Thao also held the position of council president pro tempore.

Voter turnout was low: only 113,636 ballots were cast. Thao received 50.3% of the vote to Taylor’s 49.7%. Taylor had been leading until Nov. 18.

Thao acknowledged the narrow margin.

“This was a very close election. I want to congratulate Loren Taylor on the strong campaign he ran. Councilmember Taylor and his family have been making a difference for this city for generations and we owe him a real debt of gratitude,” said Thao according to KRON TV news. “I hope to speak with Councilmember Taylor in the days ahead to find ways to work together for the good of our city.”

In his concession speech on Tuesday, Taylor told news outlets that he didn’t see a way forward to winning and criticized the rank-choice form of voting, referring to it as a form of voter suppression. He is not going to seek a recount although he would support any community member who wanted it done.

Thao’s victory is also historic: She is the first person of Hmong descent to lead a major U.S. city and — at 37 — the youngest Oakland mayor in about 75 years. (The first Hmong mayor was Steve Ly, who served as mayor of Elk Grove, California, from 2016-2020.)

Thao grew up in poverty as one of 10 children of Laotian refugees who lived in federal housing projects in Stockton. She settled in Oakland and found work at Merritt College before enrolling in classes, eventually transferring to UC Berkley in 2010 where she completed her degree in legal studies and city planning in 2012.

That summer she started work for Oakland City Councilmember at-Large Rebecca Kaplan and joined Kaplan’s staff formally in 2014.

Having once been a single mother who endured domestic abuse which forced her to live in her car for a period, her road to success was rocky. Despite that success, Thao, like many Oakland citizens, knows what it’s like to be unsafe: while her teenaged son was home alone recently, their house was broken into by would-be burglars while she was attending a City Council meeting.

It was her own experience with safety and homelessness that was part of what drove her to put those issues at the top of her agenda for Oakland.

Considered a progressive, Thao wants the Oakland Police Department to be fully staffed at 750 officers and supports development of a civilian unit to handle mental health calls. She wants more public safety funds diverted to Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention.

Further, Thao asserts that a law-and-order approach to public safety is not enough: the factors that lead to crime must be addressed by improving education and promoting economic mobility by paying people a living wage.

Housing for the unhoused is extremely important to her both as someone who was once homeless, but also as one of the three renters who serve on the City Council.

During her campaign, she promised to expand mental health and drug treatment services for those living on the streets and expand the number of parking sites for RVs. By the end of her second term, she promised to build 30,000 affordable housing units.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one of Thao’s key proposals “is to create an enhanced infrastructure financing district over parts of East and West Oakland. The City Council took the first step to study it earlier this month. The tax district would siphon some property tax revenue from the city’s general fund and set it aside for affordable housing and infrastructure projects.”

The San Francisco Chronicle, KRON-TV News, Ballotpedia, Wikipedia, and CBS news were the sources for this report.