Who is Barbara Lee?
Born in El Paso, Texas, Barbara Lee moved to San Fernando, California, after grammar school.
She has long been an advocate of racial justice. In high school, she worked with the NAACP to integrate her high school cheerleading squad, she said.
Later as the president of Mills College’s Black Student Union, invited the first African American woman elected to Congress, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, to speak on campus. Lee has written that she registered to vote as a result of the meeting, and worked for Chisholm’s presidential campaign.
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While attending Mills College, she notes, she received public assistance as a single mother raising two sons.
She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on psychiatric social work.
Lee, 77, married the Rev. Clyde W. Oden Jr. in 2020. She raised two sons as a single mother.
What political party does Lee belong to?
She is a Democrat.
What experience does she have?
The representative from Oakland was first elected to Congress in 1998 in a special election.
A co-chair of the Policy and Steering Committee, she is the highest-ranking Black woman in the House Democratic leadership. She headed the Congressional Black Caucus from 2009 to 2011.
In the House, she sits on the Budget Committee and the Appropriations Committee.
Earlier she served in the California legislature, and founded the Community Health Alliance for Neighborhood Growth and Education -- or Change -- and a facilities management company in the East Bay.
What are her key issues?
While in Congress, she has worked to pass protections for women and the LGBTQ community and to obtain funding for global AIDS programs.
She has been a supporter of Medicare for All, canceling student debt and ending America's war on drugs, which she calls unjust, classist and racist. She would establish a national cap for rent and make housing a human right. She has also called for steeply raising the minimum wage.
She is an advocate of abortion rights and was among the members of Congress who talked about their own abortions during a congressional hearing. Hers was in the mid-1960s, she was 16, abortion was illegal in California at the time and a family friend helped to send her to what she called a “back-alley clinic in Mexico.”
She has called for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Who has endorsed her?
Among her endorsements are a roster of Oakland Athletics' players, Shooty Babitt, Dusty Baker, Rickey Henderson, Dave Stewart and Tye Waller.
She has the backing of California Democrats Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Maxine Waters.
Who is Lee running against?
Two Democrats, Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter, and Republican Steve Garvey. In all, twenty-seven names appear on the ballot.
When is California’s primary and general election in 2024?
The state's primary is Tuesday, March 5. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
What is Barbara Lee best known for?
She was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for use of military force after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. She opposed the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“In the face of countless death threats, I was the only ‘no’ vote,” CNBC quoted her as saying.
