Oakland mayor election: Loren Taylor leading in early returns in special election

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Oakland mayor election results are still coming in Wednesday morning. Loren Taylor was leading in early returns in the special election 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.

Taylor addresses his supporters

Tuesday night, with his family by his side, Taylor talked about surviving a liver transplant in December and then spoke to the challenges ahead.

"Our city government is nearly broke but we will turn things around because this city is rich. We are rich with pride. Pride that persists in love for all things 510," Taylor said during an evening speech.

In 2022 Taylor led early on too but lost in the last round of rank choice voting. He ended up losing the race by less than a thousand votes. He is confident in this campaign.

"Those who spent their tireless effort knocking on doors, going to farmer's markets, donating your time, your money, your energy, and that money coming mostly in small increments; despite all of those negative attack ads that came out about how all these billionaires are fueling this campaign, no this is an Oakland led campaign. This is what it's about," Taylor said to a cheering crowd.

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.

Her supporters, including several Oakland elected officials who spoke, told the crowd of roughly 350 people that it's "too early" and close for the outcome to be set.

Several speakers, including Council member Carroll Fife made indirect jabs to Taylor, without naming him.

"It's close, but it is not over, and remember it looked like this two years ago," she said in reference to Taylor's 2022 early lead. "This fight is not even close to being over."

ABC7 News reporters Monica Madden and J.R. Stone contributed to this report.