ByKiley Russell
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 6:34AM
Oakland voters headed to the polls Tuesday to choose a new mayor in a special election set in motion after former Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Loren Taylor was leading in early returns in the special election to select Oakland’s next mayor Tuesday night, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office.
Taylor was ahead of the nine other candidates on the ballot with nearly 49 percent of the vote in the first round of ranked-choice voting as of about 8:15 p.m.
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Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee was in second place with about 45% of the vote.
All of the other candidates had less than 2 percent of the vote each.
The results are preliminary and the final vote tally will be announced after the Registrar of Voters Office completes several rounds of ranked-choice vote counting.
It could take several days for the final tally to come in and the next scheduled update isn’t until Friday, according to the registrar’s website.
The election was scheduled after former mayor Sheng Thao lost a recall election in November.
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Lee, who served as the city’s U.S. congressional representative from 1998 to 2025, and Taylor, a former city councilmember and founder of the well-connected political advocacy organization Empower Oakland.
Taylor previously ran for mayor against Thao in 2022 and narrowly lost the election to her by less than 700 votes after nine rounds of ranked-choice voting.
A third-generation Oaklander, Taylor has a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Connecticut and a master of business administration degree from University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
In addition to her career in Congress, Lee also served in the California State Assembly for six years and the state Senate for two. She earned an undergraduate degree from Mills College in Oakland and a master’s degree in social work from UC Berkeley.
The other candidates on the ballot include President Donald Trump enthusiast Mindy Pechenuk and frequent entrant Peter Liu, former Olympian/comedian and barista Elizabeth Swaney, former Thao advisor Renia Webb, Bay Area Council vice president Suz Robinson, a woman named President Cristina Grappo — who describes herself as a “provider” on her official ballot designation, paralegal Tyron Jordan, who said he suspended his campaign to support Lee, and union factory worker Eric Simpson.
Lee tells supporters to be patient
Lee, once thought of as a shoo-in to be the city’s next mayor, said it’s been a “tough race.” The tight contest underscores the frustration amongst voters with the city corruption, crime, homelessness that drove them to recall Thao last November.
“We have to be really vigilant right now with these votes as they come in, because we know that people just mailed them today — yesterday — so it’s going to be a few days,” Lee said.
“It’s a closer race than any of us expected,” state Sen. Jesse Arreguin, a former Berkeley mayor, said in an interview as a band pumped Stevie Wonder. “Voters in Oakland are frustrated.”
ABC7 News reporters Monica Madden and J.R. Stone contributed to this report.
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