Lateefah Simon poses for a portrait after signing paperwork for her congressional campaign candidacy at the Alameda County Registrar of Voter's Office in Oakland on Dec. 6, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Lateefah Simon, a BART Board member, has a commanding lead to replace Rep. Barbara Lee, who stepped down after 26 years representing Congressional District 12 in the East Bay. In initial results, Simon received 63% of the vote, while her opponent, Jennifer Tran, received 37%.
Simon’s connections with the Democratic Party made her an early favorite to represent the district, which spans Alameda County and includes Oakland, Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont and San Leandro, with a population of more than 750,000 people.
Lee, who was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night, sent a video of encouragement to Simon.
“I am so honored to pass the baton to you,” she said. “Let us continue to stand up for the values of the 12th Congressional District and continue building a broad coalition, working together for a better world. Congratulations again, my sister.”
Lateefah Simon takes a selfie with a supporter at an election watch party at Town Fare in Oakland on Nov. 5, 2024. (Nisa Khan/KQED)
Spirits were high at Simon’s election watch party at the Oakland Museum of California. She took the stage at 9:30 p.m. and thanked the crowded room.
“When you send me to Washington D.C., understand that every single voice in this room and beyond — in the seven cities that we will represent — will be front and center,” she said.
Tran, a political newcomer and CSU East Bay ethnic studies professor, said the Democratic Party didn’t give her fair consideration. She aligned herself with the East Bay’s political moderates and wrongly accused Simon of supporting the movement to defund the police.
Jennifer Tran speaks during a rally calling for the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao at Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland on Oct. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
In campaign ads, Tran, who is president of Oakland’s Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, railed against what she called “the corporate mega party” and criticized Simon for not agreeing to debate with her.
Simon fundraised over $2 million, while Tran’s war chest never broke $300,000.
At a campaign event on Saturday, Lee and Simon cast their ballots together at Mills College, their shared alma mater.
“Let me just say the very first time I voted was in 1972 for Shirley Chisholm for president. And today I get to vote for Kamala Harris for president and Lateefah Simon for Congress. How good can it get?” Lee said, smiling in a black shirt that read “Trust Black Women” and featured photos of Harris, Simon, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, among others.
Oakland City Councilmember Treva Reid (left), Congressional candidate Lateefah Simon and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (center) at a campaign event on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, at Mills College in Oakland. (Annelise Finney/KQED)
Simon, like Lee, is a single mom and has long championed women. At 19, Simon became the executive director of the San Francisco-based Young Women’s Freedom Center, a nonprofit focused on ending the incarceration of young women.
At 26, Simon became the youngest woman to be selected for the MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the “Genius Grant.” Later, she worked in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office under Harris, directing the office’s anti-recidivism program for young people.
She serves on a series of boards, including the Board of Trustees for the California State University system and the Akonadi Foundation, an Oakland-based racial justice philanthropic organization.
On the campaign trail, Simon pledged to close loopholes in federal gun laws, invest in mental healthcare and addiction treatment, decrease defense spending and push for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.
“Barbara Lee is still, poll-wise, one of the most beloved electeds that we’ve had,” Simon said Saturday. “The folks here in the 12th district, they actually need someone to continue this legacy and shift material conditions.”
On Tuesday night at the Oakland Museum of California, Simon’s family showed up to support her, including her mother and her uncle, Timothy Simon.
“Lateefah was born in the revolution,” Timothy Simon said. “She was born of parents who believed in a Black economic agenda. She was born of grandparents who were part of the great migration here to California, seeking opportunity and fleeing those red states that Lateefah is about to take on in the House of Representatives.”
