Oakland council member is new mayor

Oakland City Council member Sheng Thao emerged as the winner of the city’s mayoral race under its rankedchoice voting system, with a margin of 682 votes over her nearest opponent.

Thao, 37, will become the city’s youngest mayor in 75 years and also the first Hmong-American woman to lead a major U.S. city.

The Hmong are an ethnic minority who fled Laos in the 1970s after being persecuted by communist forces for supporting U.S. Cold War efforts in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

Four of the top 10 U.S. metro areas by Hmong population are in California. Northwest Arkansas is home to more than 2,000 Hmong.

One of 10 children born to refugees who fled genocide and eventually settled in California, Thao made her personal story a central element of her campaign to run California’s eighth-largest city.

She overcame an impoverished childhood in Stockton and survived domestic violence in her early 20s. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in legal studies, at times living in her car with her infant son.

“I’ve been through a lot to get to this moment, and have had so many people lift me up in order to get here,” Thao said after the vote count was released late Monday.

Thao got active in Oakland politics after her graduation from Berkeley, serving as a staff member to a city council member and later as chief of staff before being elected to the council herself in 2018.

While working in city government, she cultivated many of the political allies and labor unions that supported her mayoral campaign.

Thao will assume leadership of a city beset by surging crime, homelessness and housing costs that are eroding the quality of life for its 430,000 residents.