Barbara Jean Lee (née Tutt; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician who has served as the 52nd mayor of Oakland since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a U.S. representative from California from 1998 to 2025, representing California's 12th congressional district (numbered as the 9th district from 1998 to 2013 and as the 13th district from 2013 to 2023). She also served in both houses of the California State Legislature from 1990 to 1998.
Born and raised in Texas, Lee was educated at Mills College and the University of California, Berkeley. She started her career by working on the presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm and was later involved with the Black Panther Party. After working as chief of staff for U.S. Representative Ron Dellums, Lee served in the California State Assembly from 1990 to 1996 and in the California State Senate from 1996 to 1998.
Lee was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1998 special election to succeed Dellums. Her district was based in Oakland and covered most of the northern part of Alameda County; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+40, it was one of the most Democratic districts in the country. A noted progressive, she chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus from 2005 to 2009 and the Congressional Black Caucus from 2009 to 2011. She was also founding member of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and co-chaired the House Democratic Steering Committee and the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. She is known for playing a major role in the antiwar movement throughout her time in Congress—most notably in her vocal criticism of the Iraq War and for being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11 attacks—and for her work with President George W. Bush to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS through the creation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
In 2024, Lee chose not to pursue re-election in the House and instead ran for Senate to succeed Dianne Feinstein. Lee lost in the jungle primary to Republican Steve Garvey and fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who won the seat in the general election. After leaving Congress, Lee announced her campaign for mayor of Oakland in the 2025 special election triggered by the recall of Sheng Thao and defeated former city councilmember Loren Taylor. She was sworn in on May 20, 2025, becoming the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Oakland.
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Early life and education
Lee was born Barbara Jean Tutt on July 16, 1946, in El Paso, Texas. She is the oldest of three daughters of Mildred Adaire (née Parish; 1924–2015) and Garvin Alexander Tutt (1924–2007), a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. When she was born in a segregated hospital, her mother was left in the hallway, as the hospital refused to assist her. Lee is African American; according to a DNA analysis, she descends primarily from the people of Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, where she was taught by the Sisters of Loretto. She was the only African-American Girl Scout in El Paso, and she recalls having faced racial discrimination throughout her childhood.
Lee's parents divorced in 1955. Five years later, she moved to California with her mother and two sisters. She attended San Fernando High School in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she worked with the NAACP to become the school's first African-American cheerleader, and she graduated in 1964. When she was 15, Lee had a back-alley abortion in Ciudad Juárez. She married Carl Lee, a member of the United States Air Force, and moved with him to England after high school; they had two children, and then divorced when Lee was 20. After the birth of her first child in 1966, Lee returned to California's San Fernando Valley. Lee describes the marriage as abusive, and she became homeless following the divorce.
She later moved to the Bay Area and attended Mills College, where she served as president of the college's Black Student Union, and she graduated in 1973 with a bachelor of arts in psychology. She later attended the University of California, Berkeley, from where she graduated in 1975 with a master of social work. Throughout college, Lee was a single mother of two on public assistance and food stamps, and she often took her children to class because she was unable to afford child care.
Early political career
Lee worked for the Glendale Welfare Council and later as a statistical clerk for the California Department of Labor Statistics. As president of the Mills College Black Student Union, Lee invited Representative Shirley Chisholm to speak on campus. She was inspired to register to vote by Chisholm's visit, and she went on to work on Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign, serving as one of her delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Lee later said Chisholm was a mentor who inspired her to run for office. Also while a student, Lee volunteered at the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center and worked on Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 campaign for mayor of Oakland. Lee was surveilled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation due to her involvement with the Black Panthers.
As a graduate student, Lee founded the Community Health Alliance for Neighborhood Growth and Education (CHANGE), a community-based mental health clinic. She was later offered an internship in the office of Representative Ron Dellums, who represented an Oakland-based district. Following the internship, she took a full-time job in Dellums's office and eventually became his chief of staff. Lee was one of the only African Americans and women to hold a senior staff position on Capitol Hill. After leaving Dellums's office in 1987, she returned to the Bay Area and founded a facilities-management company.
California State Legislature
Lee was elected to the California State Assembly in 1990 to succeed Elihu Harris, who retired to successfully run for mayor of Oakland. She served three terms in the Assembly, and she was elected to the California State Senate in 1996. She resigned her seat in the State Senate after winning a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998.
Lee was the first African-American woman to represent Northern California in the California State Legislature. During her time in the Legislature, she authored 67 bills that were signed into law by then-Governor Pete Wilson, a Republican; among those bills were the California Schools Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the California Violence Against Women Act. Lee also worked to defeat California's three-strikes law and was an early champion of LGBTQ+ rights.
Lee was a member of the California Commission on the Status of Women and founded the California Commission on the Status of African American Males.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
After Dellums resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, Lee successfully ran in the special election to succeed him, winning 66% of the vote. She was elected to a full term later that year, winning 83% of the vote. She was re-elected to the House of Representatives 12 more times.
In lieu of running for a 14th term, Lee campaigned to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate in 2024.
Tenure
Lee originally represented California's 9th congressional district, from which she served until 2013. She later represented the 13th district from 2013 to 2023, and she represented the 12th district from 2023 until 2025. Her district was located in Alameda County and includes the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda, Albany, Piedmont, San Leandro, and most of San Lorenzo. The Cook Partisan Voting Index gives her district a rating of D+40, making it one of the most Democratic districts in the nation.
Lee's voting record as a member of Congress was ranked by the National Journal in 2007, based on roll-call votes on economic, social and foreign policy issues in 2006. Lee scored an overall 84.3%, meaning that she voted with a more liberal stance than 84.3% of the House. National Journal scored Lee as voting 82% liberal on economic issues, 92% liberal on social issues, and 65% liberal on foreign policy. The 92% rating on social issues came from Lee being grouped with 35 other House legislators who all tied for the highest, most liberal ranking. In 2006, Lee received a 4% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union. In 2016, GovTrack's 2015 Report Card on members in Congress ranked Lee the 3rd most progressive member of the House.
Lee endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries. In February 2019, she endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
By January 3, 2023, Lee had voted in line with President Joe Biden's stated position 99.1% of the time.
Lee gained national attention in 2001 as the only member of Congress to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), stating that she voted no not because she opposed military action but because she believed the AUMF, as written, granted the president overly broad powers to wage war at a time when the facts regarding the situation were not yet clear. She "warned her colleagues to be 'careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target'". Lee has said:It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events—anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation's long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration. I could not support such a grant of war-making authority to the president; I believe it would put more innocent lives at risk. The president has the constitutional authority to protect the nation from further attack, and he has mobilized the armed forces to do just that. The Congress should have waited for the facts to be presented and then acted with fuller knowledge of the consequences of our action.Her vote made national news and a large and extremely polarized response, with the volume of calls gridlocking the switchboard of her Capitol Hill office. Although it appears to have reflected the beliefs of the majority of her constituents, the majority of responses from elsewhere in the nation were angry and hostile, some calling her "communist" and a "traitor". Many of the responses included death threats against her or her family to the point that the Capitol Police provided round-the-clock plainclothes bodyguards. Lee was also criticized by politicians and in editorial pages of conservative-leaning newspapers, such as John Fund's column in The Wall Street Journal. In 2002, she received the Seán MacBride Peace Prize from the International Peace Bureau for her vote.
Committee assignments
For the 118th Congress:
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (Ranking Member)
Committee on the Budget
Caucus memberships and leadership
House Democratic Steering Committee (co-chair)
Medicare for All Caucus
Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity (chair)
Congressional Caucus on HIV/AIDS (co-chair)
Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus (co-chair)
Congressional Progressive Caucus (former co-chair and former whip)
Congressional Black Caucus (former chair, 2008–2010)
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
Health Care Task Force
Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety
United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus
Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus (vice chair and founding member)
Congressional Social Work Caucus (chair)
Congressional Arts Caucus
Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus (co-founder and co-chair)
Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus (co-chair)
Afterschool Caucuses
Congressional Cannabis Caucus (co-chair)
Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment
United Nations assignments
Lee was the United States representative to the 68th, 70th, and 72nd sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.
2024 U.S. Senate campaign
In January 2023, it was reported that Lee planned to run in the 2024 election for the United States Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, after she revealed her intentions to members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The report came a day after Representative Katie Porter announced her own candidacy. A third Democrat, Adam Schiff, had also announced his candidacy. Lee formally launched her Senate campaign in Oakland on February 21, 2023. On September 29, 2023, Feinstein died while serving in office. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to serve out the remainder of the term. On March 5, 2024, Lee failed to advance to the November general election after finishing fourth in the jungle primary. With at least 99% of votes counted, Lee trailed Schiff and Garvey by close to 1.6 million votes, and Porter by about 400,000 votes, with Lee failing to lead in any county. As Lee did not seek re-election to her House of Representatives seat, the defeat also ensured the end of her career in Congress by January 2025.
Mayor of Oakland
Campaign
Following the 2024 Oakland mayoral recall election, Lee announced that she would run for mayor of Oakland in the 2025 Oakland mayoral special election on January 8, 2025. The election was held on April 15, and Lee was one of 10 candidates who appeared on the ballot in the mayoral race. Initial results showed Loren Taylor earning over 51% percent of the vote in the second ballot. However, multiple media and news organizations called the race for Lee on April 18, three days after the election.
Tenure
Lee was sworn in during an Oakland City Council meeting on May 20, 2025. She is the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Oakland.
As mayor, Lee publicly endorsed State Senator Scott Wiener's Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, which would legalize multi-family housing near all transit stations statewide if passed.
Personal life
Lee married Carl Lee after graduating high school in 1964. She described the marriage as abusive, and she divorced her husband when she was 20. The marriage produced two children, Tony and Craig, whom she raised as a single mother. Both of Lee's sons now work in the insurance industry: Tony Lee is the CEO of Dickerson Employee Benefits, an African-American owned insurance brokerage and consulting firm, and Craig Lee is a senior executive at State Farm.
Lee married Rev. Dr. Clyde Oden Jr., a retired pastor from Oxnard, on New Year's Eve in 2019. They live together in Oakland.
In 2002, the Peace Abbey in Boston gave Lee the Courage of Conscience Award for her vote against the call to war after the September 11 attacks. In her speech, she said, "let us not become the evil that we deplore."
In 2003, Lee was recognized as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Arundhati Roy and Kathy Kelly. In 2010, Lee took the food stamp challenge and also appeared in the documentary film Food Stamped.
In 2014, Lee, Hill Harper, and Meagan Good contributed to Enitan Bereola II's bestselling book Gentlewoman: Etiquette for a Lady, from a Gentleman.
In 2015, Lee won the 43rd Thomas Merton Award.
In 2026, a person was arrested after Lee's city-owned car was stolen following a break-in at her mayoral office.
Lee is an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho.
Publications
Articles
Why lack of diversity in our foreign policy workforce is a problem for diplomacy, The Hill, February 29, 2024