From the East Bay to Congress, Lateefah Simon Is Ready to ‘Fight Like Hell’

For Lateefah Simon, who will almost certainly be heading to Washington next year to succeed Rep. Barbara Lee in the East Bay, election night was a mix of local hope and national devastation.

After voters sent former President Donald Trump back to the White House, Simon told KQED that she’s “ready to work” come January — and there’s a lot of work to be done.

Simon, a BART board member and a longtime Bay Area colleague and friend of Vice President Kamala Harris, had broad support from the Democratic Party, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Lee, who congratulated Simon from Harris’ deflated watch party on election night.

“I’m so honored to pass the baton to you,” Lee said in a video message. “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.”

Simon, who will represent Alameda County after Lee leaves office following 26 years in Congress, told KQED she is prepared to do just that.

“We have to fight like hell,” she said Thursday. “To ensure that the people of the United States have health care, that we push back on the Trump administration’s promise to gut Social Security. Women like my children, my girls, do not have the right to pursue bodily autonomy in the state of this country.”

The Associated Press hadn’t officially called the race as of Thursday afternoon, but with about a quarter of the votes counted so far, Simon is leading fellow Democrat Jennifer Tran with 63%. Simon said the House administration had already reached out to arrange travel to its freshman orientation next week.

When she arrives on Capitol Hill, Simon said she’ll focus not only on guarding against the Trump administration’s likely extreme policies but also on public transportation and safety — policy areas she’s been influencing in her home state for years. She is a former president of the BART board, which she has sat on since 2016, and served as co-chair of Gov. Gavin Newson’s police reform task force in 2020.

Simon also campaigned on closing loopholes in federal gun laws, focusing on mental health and addiction treatment, and pursuing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Despite having big plans to bring to the national stage, Simon said she knows it will be an uphill battle. On Tuesday, Republicans flipped both the Senate and the presidency. Control of the House of Representatives — and whether the U.S. will have a divided government — still hangs in the balance, but Republicans have held the lower chamber of Congress since 2022.

“I understand the House of Representatives; I understand the political process,” Simon told KQED. “I know full well that I’m not coming in next week to introduce a ton of new legislation.”

Trump’s looming second presidency is obviously top of mind.

“We have to literally cling on to the rights that we have fought for,” she said.

As for Harris, whose 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Simon worked on: “She has big work to do.”

“As one of the most powerful women in the world, she’s run an amazing race,” Simon told KQED. “She has been just a consummate professional. She’s been a political light [and] that’s not going away.”

KQED’s Brian Watt contributed to this report.