Sheng Thao Accepts Defeat in Contentious Oakland Mayoral Recall

Updated at 1:10 p.m. Saturday

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao conceded the recall election on Friday night, setting off a process that will likely see several different mayors leading the city in the coming months.

Thao, who noted in her concession statement that she was the first Hmong American woman to become the mayor of a major American city, was recalled less than two years into her term.

“It was my goal to make Oakland safer, cleaner, and more vibrant,” Thao said in the statement. “And I am proud of what we accomplished together. We brought crime down dramatically across the board with a historic 35% reduction in homicides. For the first time in over a decade, Oakland went over a month without a single murder. Our work literally saved lives.”

In the updated results released Friday by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, the recall held a sizable advantage — 65.3% to 36.1%.

According to Oakland’s city charter, once the election is certified and Thao’s office is declared vacant, the city council president fills the office while a special election is held within 120 days. In an interview with KQED, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor said he would run.

“Oaklanders have spoken with a very strong voice regarding what they need from city leadership, and they clearly have not been getting it from the current administration,” said Taylor, who finished second to Thao two years ago. “The same commitment I have to the city I’m from that drove me to run in 2022 is what’s compelling me to step up in the special election once the results are certified.”

In a Nov. 6 statement posted to social media platform X, Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas said she was already working with the city attorney to plan for a smooth transition.

The Oakland City Council would declare the results no later than its next regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 17, according to Bas. At that point, Thao will step down, the mayor’s spokesperson told KQED.

Once she is out, Bas will become interim mayor until the special election unless she is declared winner of a county supervisor race that, as of Saturday morning, still hasn’t been called.

If Bas were to win that seat, a new council president would be elected in January, and that person would serve as interim mayor. If she loses, the city council could still choose a new council president in January. After Friday’s results, Bas trailed John Bauters, an Emeryville city council member.

Recall organizers blamed the city’s challenges, including crime, shuttering businesses and a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, on what they described as Thao’s incompetence.

An FBI raid of Thao’s home in June cast a dark cloud over her administration. Agents also served search warrants on members of the Duong family, owners of the city’s recycling provider, California Waste Solutions. Thao claimed she was innocent and that federal officials had told her attorney she was not the focus of their investigation.

Thao had been in office for roughly a year when the recall launched in January. In the weeks leading up to the election, Thao pushed back, saying that she inherited many of the city’s problems and that crime was down, pointing to city data showing a more than 30% reduction in homicides compared to this time last year.

Thao’s campaign also focused heavily on hedge fund manager Philip Dreyfuss, whose political contributions made up the bulk of recall funding.

Thao accused Dreyfuss in an open letter of trying to “buy our city government.”

“Oakland is not for sale,” the letter reads.

However, that messaging failed to resonate with residents frustrated about public safety and slow 911 response times.

“She says, ‘Oh, the crime is down.’ But it’s not really down. Especially when they’re breaking into my things around my house,” Oakland resident Cassandra Odiase told KQED at a Fruitvale Avenue grocery store less than a week before the election. “We’re not reporting it because we know the police [are] not coming.”

Influential voices like the Oakland chapter of the NAACP and Thao’s predecessor, former Mayor Libby Schaaf, came out in support of the recall weeks before Election Day.

“I have come to believe, just based on this last year, that she is not capable of growing into the job,” Schaaf said in an interview with KQED’s Scott Shafer. “I am voting to recall Mayor Thao because Oakland can’t afford another two years of continued damage to our fiscal solvency and our public safety.”

Seneca Scott, a local activist who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2022, and former Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, who was critical of Thao’s decision to fire Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong while serving on the city’s police commission, led the push. Harbin-Forte’s sister, Gail Harbin, eventually took over after Harbin-Forte began running for city attorney.