BART director leads pack of political newcomers running to replace Rep. Barbara Lee
"Established politicians only enter races where they have a good chance of winning," one political expert said.
OAKLAND — The race to fill an open seat in Congress, held until now by one of its most progressive members and representing one of the country’s Democratic strongholds, will be a battle of political newcomers.
One of the candidates seeking to succeed veteran Rep. Barbara Lee — who is vacating the seat to run for Senate — already has Gov. Gavin Newsom’s endorsement: BART Director Lateefah Simon.
No other candidates field much name recognition, which means Simon, who has served on the board since 2016 and previously sat on the Cal State University Board of Trustees, has a seemingly easier path than might be expected for a first-time Congressional candidate.
Given Newsom’s early endorsement, Simon’s candidacy also seems to represent a Democratic succession plan for a historically progressive district that spans Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, San Leandro, Albany and Piedmont.
“Established politicians only enter races where they have a good chance of winning,” said Jason McDaniel, a political science professor San Francisco State University, in an interview. “If they don’t, it’s often a sign they are facing someone who would be difficult to beat.”
Still, Simon will face challenges in March from fellow Democrats like Alameda City Councilmember Tony Daysog and Jennifer Tran, an Oakland native who is a professor of ethnic studies at Cal State East Bay and serves as president of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce.
Other races for open seats in the Bay Area appear to be more crowded. Rep. Anna Eshoo’s district, vacant after her three-decade tenure, has seen former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian and Assemblymember Evan Low join the race.
Lee herself faces tough competition for the open Senate seat against Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Katie Porter — whose own respective Congress seats are shaping up to be contested between candidates with a history of elected public service.
Simon is the only Black director on the BART board, Simon has a strong personal investment in the often-embattled transit system: she is legally blind and cannot drive.
She was briefly booted off the board in March 2022 after the agency discovered the address of her Oakland apartment did not fall within the boundaries of her elected district.
Public outcry led BART to backtrack, and the matter was resolved when Simon moved to Emeryville by June of that year, breaking lease at her apartment and moving her daughter to a new school.
It was a small hiccup for what otherwise has been a flashy rise in the public sphere. Simon was the youngest-ever woman to receive the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant at the age of 26 for her work to divert young girls from poverty and crime to better lives.
The San Francisco native worked for then-District Attorney Kamala Harris and attended Mills College.
Meanwhile, although Tran’s public profile may be relatively limited without experience holding office, she has been linked to a growing wave of anger over Oakland’s persistent crime problem.
She took part in a demonstration last year by business owners and moderate political advocates after a staple Vietnamese restaurant in the city, Le Cheval, had blamed its closure on break-ins.
Daysog, who’s served on the Alameda City Council and is currently the city’s vice mayor, hasn’t seen promising results in his previous runs for higher office, including a bid for Rep. Mark DeSaulnier’s seat in 2014 that won him just 3.4% of the vote.
Rounding out the Democratic field are software engineer Abdur Sikder, businessman Andre Todd, nonprofit worker Eric Wilson and Glenn Kaplan, who owns the Oakland bar Make Westing.
The Republican candidates hoping to make a dent in a district that voted 86% for Biden in 2020 are driving instructor Ned Nuerge and engineer Stephen Slauson, whose past electoral campaigns include single-digit-percentage voter support in challenges of Rep. Lee.