2025 Oakland Special Election Endorsements
Loren Taylor
Why Loren Taylor is Empower Oakland’s #1 Choice for Mayor
Loren Taylor is the most prepared candidate to be Mayor of Oakland, and all Oakland voters should rank him #1. He is the only viable candidate with experience in City Hall — and the only one championing common sense, practical ideas to improve our city. In fact, many of Oakland’s most popular reforms originated from Taylor, and are now being embraced by multiple Mayoral candidates and other leaders. He’s also presented by far the most detailed policy positions and practical plans across public safety, housing, budget stabilization, business revitalization, and government accountability.
Proven Track Record
As a city council member, Taylor had a track record of getting things done in Oakland:
- He fought back efforts to defund the police, advocating for an outcomes-focused approach to public safety
- Taylor authored and secured unanimous support from the city council to pass the city’s first encampment management policy
- He created the “Blue Ribbon Equitable Business Tax Task Force” which brought together community and business stakeholders to identify solutions that encouraged economic development
Taylor’s record reflects a dedicated leader willing to take on tough problems and work across differences to deliver real solutions.
Public Safety
Taylor believes in fully staffing our police department, using technology to improve the efficiency of our officers, and reducing red tape that prevents police from doing their jobs. His 10-point plan on public safety is by far the most detailed plan we’ve seen from any candidate in the last year.
Budget & Economic Growth
Taylor understands that truly stabilizing Oakland’s finances requires addressing the structural deficit — an issue he’s been sounding the alarm about for years. Taylor’s background in business is particularly well suited for this challenge. Taylor intends to:
- Focus on renegotiating the city’s contracts that are crippling our spending
- Pursue grants and other funding opportunities to grow city revenues
- Decouple the sale of the coliseum from the city budget to avoid using short-term fixes to address long-term problems
Taylor has expressed a willingness to make the hard, undoubtedly unpopular, choices to steer Oakland away from bankruptcy, rebuild a healthy, sustainable budget, and lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.
Why Loren Taylor Over Barbara Lee?
Taylor’s main opponent is Barbara Lee, who has been a formidable force in national politics for the past 25+ years, representing Oakland on the national stage with dedication and resolve throughout her long and distinguished career in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Lee could be a powerful spokesperson for the city, helping to rebuild Oakland’s reputation with businesses and the public. Her ability to bring people together and leverage political relationships at the county and state levels could be valuable assets, particularly when it comes to securing resources and funding. These are positives we can get behind.
However, we are cautious about Lee for multiple reasons:
- Lack of policy depth: She has been exceptionally light on policy details, offering little insight into how she would actually tackle the most pressing issues.
- Limited understanding of city government: Lee has admitted she is unfamiliar with Oakland’s inner workings.
- Support for the status quo: Lee backed Mayor Sheng Thao despite mounting evidence of corruption and incompetence. And we are concerned Lee would continue the status quo rather than change it.
New Generation of Leadership
On balance, while we respect Lee’s contributions in Congress, Taylor offers more than just experience and practical policies — he represents a new generation of leadership. He’s focused, goal-oriented, and unafraid to make tough calls. As an engineer by training, he tackles problems by digging into root causes and is driven by what works.
All this leads us to believe Taylor is the right leader, who will make the right decisions on behalf of all Oaklanders as the city navigates the very real challenges ahead.
We encourage all Oakland voters to rank Loren Taylor #1 for mayor.
Charlene Wang
Why Charlene Wang is Empower Oakland’s #1 Choice for District 2
Charlene Wang brings a unique combination of passion and policy expertise that will be an incredible asset to the Oakland City Council. We were initially impressed last November when she came on the scene as a first-time candidate running for the At-Large city council seat. Despite having no institutional backing or name recognition, her campaign was full of fresh ideas and made the race better and more competitive.
Since then, she has only elevated her candidacy in the District 2 race and has demonstrated a strong command of Oakland’s challenges and strengths. Her experience at local, state, and federal levels of government are evident in her detailed responses to our questionnaire, which is linked below and deserves to be read in full. She consistently pairs thoughtful analysis of Oakland’s problems with innovative, practical policy fixes. She identifies crime as “the top issue facing District 2 and Oakland as a whole” and lists the budget crisis as her second most important issue.
On crime… Her proposed solutions include the use of bait cars and revising the chase policy. She also advocates for better use of police technology, such as speed cameras, Flock cameras, drones, and more use of voice-to-text transcription for police reports. Additionally, she proposes better use of OPD civilian employees, data-driven reform of Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO), and stronger enforcement of anti-sex trafficking laws (especially relevant to District 2).
To reduce recidivism, she supports a “program that hire[s] formerly incarcerated people to repair potholes.” Finally, she calls for a target of 900 officers, partly achieved through improving the police academy applicant pipeline. This is exactly the kind of common-sense, multi-pronged approach that is likely to improve public safety.
On the budget… Wang’s proposals include reducing management salaries, performance-based budgeting, “making [police] internal affairs at least partially civilian,” and growing revenue through simplified permitting, pursuit of renewable manufacturing, and hiring full-time grant writers.
On housing and urbanism… Her solutions are well-nuanced: she knows that Oakland needs to build more affordable housing for low-income households, and also understands that many working families make too much to qualify for affordable housing, but still struggle with housing costs. For those households, she supports streamlined permitting so we can build more housing overall.
Finally, Wang is strong on community engagement. She is the most responsive of all the candidates we interviewed this election cycle. Her persistence in getting in front of District 2 voters has earned her wide support from numerous community leaders and shows she will do the work to truly listen to neighbors’ concerns as an elected official.
We believe she could dramatically improve the ailing relationship between city council and District 2 residents and is exceptionally well-prepared to be an effective councilmember and civic leader.
We encourage you to watch Charlene Wang’s in-person interview and read her responses to our questionnaire.
We urge all District 2 voters to rank Charlene Wang as #1 on their ballot.
Vote "Yes" on Measure A
Why You Should Vote Yes on Oakland Measure A Sales Tax Increase
Empower Oakland endorses Measure A — not because it’s a perfect solution, but because the consequences of rejecting this measure could be devastating to the city’s fiscal solvency.
The fact of the matter is, we take serious issue with how we got here. Oakland’s budget crisis is years in the making, driven by an overreliance on one-time fixes (e.g. asset sales and federal grants) and irresponsible spending (e.g. city employee compensation that grew 2.5x faster than inflation).
However, Oakland’s financial reality cannot be ignored. Without this additional sales tax revenue, the city faces fire station closures, even longer police response times, and deeper cuts to essential services. The status quo is simply untenable for Oakland’s businesses and residents.
We considered rejecting this tax to force the city to get serious about financial reform. But in the end, the cost to everyday Oaklanders would be too high. This revenue is needed and it provides a predictable funding stream beyond political cycles.
But this measure alone is not enough. The real solution is electing leaders who will demand fiscal responsibility and long-term reform. To ensure real change, we urge voters to elect Empower Oakland’s endorsed candidates Loren Taylor for Mayor and Charlene Wang for City Council (D2) — leaders committed to fixing Oakland’s budget for the long haul.
We urge all Oakland voters to vote “Yes” on Measure A.
