Former Representative Barbara Lee, a Bay Area progressive known for her lonely opposition to the war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks and for her rise within the House’s Democratic leadership, on Wednesday joined the race for mayor of Oakland, Calif.
She made the announcement in a video on social media just days after she concluded a more than two decade career in the House, where she was the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to Democratic leadership. Ms. Lee, 78, had declined to seek re-election in order to run for a Senate seat, but she lost in that primary last year.
Grappling with high crime rates, homelessness and store closures, Oakland has had a rotating cast of mayors. The city is on its second interim mayor since November, when voters removed Sheng Thao, its mayor of less than two years, from office. A special election will be held in April.
In the video, Ms. Lee promised to use her experience as a legislator, small-business owner and longtime city resident to create an “Oakland renaissance.”
“This is our moment,” she said. “This is our movement.”
Ms. Lee finished fourth in a crowded Senate primary last May to fill the seat held by Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died in September 2023. She trailed Adam Schiff, her House Democratic colleague at the time, as well as the former baseball star Steve Garvey, a Republican, and Representative Katie Porter, another House Democrat. Mr. Schiff won the seat after he and Mr. Garvey advanced to the November election under California’s open primary system.
Ms. Lee’s first political job was working on Shirley Chisholm’s presidential campaign in 1972, and she was elected to Congress in 1998. In 2001, Ms. Lee cast the lone vote against going to war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, one of the defining moments of her political career in Washington.
Even before Ms. Lee announced her run, several prominent Oaklanders were throwing their support behind her.
An open letter published in December calling for her to join the race was signed by locals who both opposed and supported the recall of Ms. Thao and have often had differing views on how to lead the struggling city.
Among them was Nikki Fortunato Bas, a former member of the City Council who had served as interim mayor and had opposed the recall of Ms. Thao. She called Ms. Lee “someone who can build trust in governments” and said her ability to work with Republicans would be valuable.
“That negotiations experience she has I think is going to be really critical in terms of bringing together business and labor and people who have differing views about how you create safer communities — that’s a real asset,” she said.
Ms. Lee’s most competitive opponent is likely to be Loren Taylor, a Democrat who narrowly lost to Ms. Thao in a ranked-choice vote in 2022.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Taylor, who served on the Oakland City Council from 2019 to 2023, said he looked forward to running against and debating Ms. Lee in the coming months.
He said he respected Ms. Lee’s many years in Congress, but “that doesn’t replace being on the ground, rolling up sleeves, working with communities here through Covid and working through public safety challenges.”
The winner of the special election will complete Ms. Thao’s unfinished term, which ends in January 2027.
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