The 2022 Oakland mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of
Oakland, California
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
. Incumbent mayor
Libby Schaaf
Elizabeth Beckman Schaaf (born November 12, 1965) is an American politician who served as the 50th Mayor of Oakland, California from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served on the Oakland City Council.
Schaaf won ...
was
term-limited.
Sheng Thao
Sheng Thao ( RPA: ''Seeb Thoj'', Pahawh: '; born July 18, 1985) is an American politician who served as the 51st mayor of Oakland, California from 2023 to 2024. She was the first Hmong American mayor of a major city in the United States. She wa ...
won the election and was inaugurated as mayor in January 2023.
The position is non-partisan. The election was held using
instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where Sequential loser method, one or more eliminations are used to simulate Runoff (election), ...
, the rules of which include voters ranking their top five candidates. If one candidate receives a majority (greater than 50%) of the #1 ranked votes, they win the election, but if no candidate meets that criteria, then the candidates with the lowest votes are eliminated and tallying continues to the #2 ranking, and so on until a single candidate receives a majority of votes. Following election day, ballot tallying showed that no candidate received the minimum >50% of the vote necessary to win outright. The two candidates with the most #1 ranked votes were Councilmember
Loren Taylor
Loren Manuel Taylor (born July 26, 1977) is an American politician who served a member of the Oakland City Council from the 6th district from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he ran for List of m ...
and Councilmember
Sheng Thao
Sheng Thao ( RPA: ''Seeb Thoj'', Pahawh: '; born July 18, 1985) is an American politician who served as the 51st mayor of Oakland, California from 2023 to 2024. She was the first Hmong American mayor of a major city in the United States. She wa ...
, with Taylor receiving slightly more votes. Vote tallying continued for over a week, before Thao was eventually declared winner on November 21.
The final tally, after rank tallying, had Thao with 50.3% of the 113,636 votes and Taylor with 49.7%.
Candidates
Qualified
*
Ignacio De La Fuente, former
city councilor from the 5th district and candidate for mayor in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
and
2006
2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
Events
January
* January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.
* January 12 – A stampede during t ...
*Greg Hodge, former school board member
*Tyron Jordan, paralegal
*Peter Liu, entrepreneur and perennial candidate
*Treva Reid,
city councilor from the 7th district
*John Reimann, retired carpenter and Carpenters Local 713 secretary
*Seneca Scott, housing activist
*
Loren Taylor
Loren Manuel Taylor (born July 26, 1977) is an American politician who served a member of the Oakland City Council from the 6th district from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he ran for List of m ...
,
city councilor from the 6th district
*
Sheng Thao
Sheng Thao ( RPA: ''Seeb Thoj'', Pahawh: '; born July 18, 1985) is an American politician who served as the 51st mayor of Oakland, California from 2023 to 2024. She was the first Hmong American mayor of a major city in the United States. She wa ...
,
city councilor from the 4th district
*Allyssa Victory, labor union attorney
Disqualified
* Monesha "MJ" Carter
* Derrick Soo
Endorsements
Results
Notes
References
External links
Maps show which Oakland neighborhoods helped elect Sheng Thao mayor(''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'', December 20, 2022)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakland mayoral election, 2022
2022 California elections
2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
2022 United States mayoral elections
2020s in Oakland, California