Initial election results show Loren Taylor with a thin lead over Barbara Lee in the vote count, but it’s way too early to tell who will win the heated race for Oakland mayor.
The first two batches of results published by election officials on Tuesday night — totaling 49,042 ballots — show Taylor, a former city councilmember, with 48% of the vote.
Lee, a former member of Congress, has 46%.
After the ranked-choice runoff of these preliminary results, Taylor is maintaining his lead with 51% to Lee’s 49%.
“We are rich in determination, with a core of people, incredibly talented, innovative, whether young or old, we have open minds, incredible talents, and we’re courageous,” he said.
“We will come together and drive the change we need. We are rich, our food, our culture, our diversity, our natural beauty. We have it all right. Here we are the solution to our problems.”
Taylor emphasized the importance of local resources and capabilities, saying, “We don’t have to be dependent on a man from heaven or from Washington, D.C., or Sacramento.
Yes, having those partnerships are valuable, but we will build from within. We will create the value, because we have what it takes right here.
So tonight the mayor’s race, it may be undecided.
It could be a while before we know the results.
So I say we take advantage of the moment. We enjoy each other, friends, old and new.
We enjoy the amazingness that is Oakland.”
At her own Election Night party a few blocks away, Lee took the stage a little before 10 p.m.
With her two sons at her side, she thanked local elected officials in the crowd, including councilmembers, a county supervisor, and a state senator.
“This is gonna be a long week, but we are doing very well,” Lee said.
“A lot is at risk, a lot is at stake,” she stressed.
Lee recounted her early days in politics, including her first experience as a campaign worker for Bobby Seale’s 1972 run for mayor and Elaine Brown’s run for council a couple of years later.
These experiences taught her about “people power,” she explained.
“I ran this campaign like I want to run this city as mayor. That’s about being inclusive, by going into our neighborhoods with our councilmembers, by making sure we have the input of every neighborhood… We’re going to do this differently.”
Bilen Mesfin, spokesperson for the Lee campaign, said Taylor’s slight lead in the initial ballot drop is more or less what the team expected.
Lee is counting on the rule of thumb that progressive votes tend to arrive in the later rounds.
After the second batch of ballots had been counted, she had cut into Taylor’s lead by a couple of points.
Whether or not Friday’s big update will be enough to propel Lee into the lead remains to be seen.
“We’re looking forward to continued updates,” Mesfin told The Oaklandside.
“I unfortunately cannot predict the future.”
Over the past three months, the mayor’s race was largely a contest between two high-profile political figures.
Lee is a well-known former 27-year U.S. congresswoman who previously served in the California Assembly.
Her announcement in January that she would run for Oakland mayor had seismic effects on Oakland’s political landscape.
Some individuals who were considering a run for mayor backed out.
A massive contingent of local elected officials quickly coalesced behind Lee, along with labor unions and other powerful progressive groups.
But Taylor ran a disciplined and energetic campaign, making him a viable opponent to Lee and attracting support from several officials and business people.
A one-term Oakland councilmember in District 6, Taylor also ran for mayor in 2022, narrowly losing to Sheng Thao.
The trajectory of the 2022 mayor’s race serves as a reminder not to read too closely into initial results.
At the end of election night that year, Taylor led in the vote count.
But after more ballots were tallied and ranked-choice runoffs completed, Thao came out on top by 677 votes.
After Tuesday night’s final vote count update, the next results will not be posted until Friday.
Whoever ultimately wins the race will enter office at an incredibly challenging time for Oakland, with the city facing a considerable structural deficit and trust in local government being at rock bottom.
Replacing recalled Mayor Sheng Thao mid-term, the new city leader will have just two years to try and turn Oakland around.
In the race for City Council’s District 2 seat, Charlene Wang, an employee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, leads with 50% of the vote, with housing policy expert Kara Murray-Badal in second with 26%.
“Charlene has a strong early lead,” said Wang’s campaign manager Michael Wimsatt.
“We are waiting for every vote to be counted, but these early returns show the strong support for Charlene’s vision for public safety in Oakland.”
Measure A, a proposal to increase Oakland’s sales tax to help stabilize the city’s finances, leads with 64% voting yes.
image source from：https://oaklandside.org/2025/04/15/oakland-mayor-early-election-results/
