(Editor’s note: This post updated 1:34 pm ET with Taylor concession)
Oakland City Councilmember Sheng Thao declared victory in the Oakland Mayor’s race Monday, and her opponent the next morning conceded.
KRON reports new election results released Monday night have Thao increasing her lead over fellow councilmember Loren Taylor 50.3% to 49.7%.
According to ABC7, Taylor acknowledged to his supporters he does not have the votes to defeat Thao.
CBS5 reported on Friday, when Thao took the lead for the first time, Taylor said he would wait for more election results.
“I have never felt more hopeful about Oakland’s future, or more determined to lead the fight for it,” Thao said. “I’m excited to get to work building the safer, more affordable, more just Oakland we know is possible in the months and years ahead.”
She said the city owed Taylor a “real debt of gratitude” for his years of service to the city.
Thao would be the fourth Asian American to lead a large or medium size city. The others were elected last year. They are Michelle Wu of Boston, Bruce Harrell of Seattle and Aftab Pureval of Cincinnati.
Thao would also be the first Hmong American mayor in the country from a major or medium-sized city.
Not since 2011- 2015 when Ed Lee served as mayor of San Francisco at the same time as Jean Quan in Oakland have there been as many Asian Americans running a large or medium-sized city. Quan lost her reelection bid, but Lee served until his sudden death in 2017.
Thao says she will work for a “comprehensive” public safety program that will double-down on violence prevention.
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Just a minor correction: Ed Lee served as SF’s mayor until 2017 when he passed away unexpectedly.
That’s correct, but the period of overlap between him and Quan were the years stated in the article. We’ll try to make that more clear.