Loren Manuel Taylor (born July 26, 1977) is an American politician who served a member of the

Oakland City Council The Oakland City Council is an elected governing body representing the City of Oakland, California. Since 1998, Oakland has had a mayor-council government. The mayor is elected for a four-year term. The Oakland City Council has eight council me ...

from the 6th district from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he ran for

mayor of Oakland The city of Oakland, California, was founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1854. The city uses a strong mayor form of government. Until the early 20th century, all Oakland mayors served terms of only one or two years each. Oakland mayors now serv ...

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 ...

, narrowly losing by 0.6% to fellow city 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 ...

. Following Thao's

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (baseball), a baseball term * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ReCALL (journal), ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted langua ...

and subsequent indictment, he ran again for mayor of Oakland in the 2025 special election to replace her. He lost by a margin of 5.4% to former congresswoman

Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (; 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 (United States), Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a United States House of Repr ...

Early life, education, and career

Taylor was born and raised in

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 ...

. A third-generation resident of Oakland, he attended Oakland public schools and graduated from

The College Preparatory School The College Preparatory School (CPS or College Prep) is a four-year private non-residential high school in Oakland, California. The school's motto is ''Mens Conscia Recti'', a Latin phrase adapted from Virgil's ''Aeneid'' that means "a mind a ...

in 1995. He earned a

bachelor of arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

, a

master of science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, and a

master of business administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Prior to his political involvement, Taylor was a

biomedical engineer Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

and management consultant for businesses and nonprofit organizations. His community involvement included serving as a board member of the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area and the West Oakland Health Center.

Political career

Oakland City Council

Taylor first ran for Oakland City Council in 2018, defeating 4-term incumbent

Desley Brooks Desley Brooks is a politician in Oakland, California. She served as a Councilmember on the Oakland City Council from 2002 to 2018. In January 2011, Brooks was also inaugurated as the vice mayor of Oakland. Early life and education Brooks was b ...

with 64.3% of the vote after five rounds of ranked choice voting. He represented the 6th district, which included the

East Oakland East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland takes up the largest porti ...

neighborhoods of Maxwell Park, Millsmont,

Havenscourt Havenscourt is a neighborhood of Oakland in Alameda County, California. Schools Middle school campus located in the Havenscourt neighborhood housing the Coliseum College Prep Academy Coliseum College Prep Academy, commonly referred to as "CC ...

, and Eastmont. As a city councilmember, Taylor focused on homelessness and economic development. In response to the 68% increase in Oakland's unhoused population, and the explosion of encampments in the city, he partnered with other councilmembers to enact the Permanent Access to Housing (PATH) plan, which sought to close the racial disparities of homelessness. He voted for the creation of a new homeless encampment management policy that would designate high and low sensitivity areas and allow unhoused individuals to camp in low sensitivity areas. He also worked with the Black Cultural Zone, a community development corporation consisting of 20 Oakland-based nonprofits, to establish the Akoma Outdoor Market, one of several programs it runs on a city-owned lot in East Oakland. Taylor also helped secure funding from Google in a public-private partnership with the City of Oakland to build a new commercial kitchen for aspiring restauranteurs at the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in East Oakland and recruited students at the

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business (branded as Berkeley Haas) is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a Public university, public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a pub ...

to advise and partner with Oakland entrepreneurs and small business owners. Taylor served on the City Council for one term, declining to run for re-election to run for mayor of Oakland in 2022, which he narrowly lost to Sheng Thao. He was replaced by Kevin Jenkins, who became interim mayor following Thao's recall in 2024. After leaving office, founded Empower Oakland, an advocacy organization focused on educating and engaging Oakland residents on local issues.

2025 Oakland mayoral campaign

Thao was recalled in 2024 amid a corruption scandal that led to her indictment on federal bribery charges in January 2025. Following this, Taylor announced his candidacy in the

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to replace her, joining a field of eight other candidates, including former Congresswoman

. He is running on a platform focused on public safety, budget reform, and homelessness. On the campaign trail, Taylor called for funding three academies a year to bring the police department up to 800 officers within three years and investing in more technology, including license plate readers, drones and voice recognition. With respect to the city budget, he has said the city must make “tough, hard, necessary choices” to balance revenue with expenses and believes the city needs to refinance its debt and reevaluate its pension liabilities. He also believes solving homelessness means getting people housed and that he will prioritize fully implementing Oakland's encampment management policy. Initial results showed Taylor earning over 51% percent of the vote in the second ballot after the Oakland mayoral election was held on April 15, 2025. However, the election would be called in Lee's favor after the results shifted on April 18.

Personal life

Taylor lives in East Oakland with his wife, Dr. Erica Taylor. They have two children together.

References

External links

Loren Taylor's Official City Council Webpage

News coverage of Loren Taylor in the Mercury News

Loren Taylor on NPR's Forum with Michael Krasny (talk show host) discussing Oakland's 2020 homeless encampment management policy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Loren 1977 births 21st-century California politicians American biomedical engineers California Democrats Case Western Reserve University alumni Haas School of Business alumni Living people Oakland City Council members University of Connecticut alumni African-American city council members in California Candidates in the 2025 United States elections