Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a longtime advocate for progressive issues and a leader in social justice and anti-war causes, on Tuesday formally announced her run for Dianne Feinstein’s highly coveted U.S. Senate seat.
In a video released by her Senate campaign, Lee leans on her biography; growing up in the segregated south, her successful fight to integrate her high school cheerleading squad, escaping a violent marriage, her time as a homeless mother and her determination to attend college as a single mom.
“To do nothing has never been an option for me,” Lee says in the nearly three-minute video produced by the political consulting firm Left Hook. The veteran Democrat, who is 76, also addresses those who say her age might be a liability.
“For those who say my time has passed, well when does making change go out of style?,” she asks in the video.
Lee has represented Oakland and neighboring East Bay cities in the U.S. Congress since 1998, when she won a special election to replace Ron Dellums — who she once worked as a staff member — after he resigned the seat. She has been easily reelected every two years since then.
Even before heading to Washington, Lee had a long history in public office, including stints in California’s state Assembly and Senate.
Lee is the third prominent Democratic member of Congress from California to join the increasingly crowded field of candidates seeking to replace Feinstein, who last week announced her plans to retire at the end of the current term after serving for more than 30 years. Even before Feinstein’s decision was made public, nationally recognized Reps. Katie Porter, of Orange County, and Adam Schiff, of Los Angeles, had already jumped into the race.
An aide to Lee says her campaign — launched during…
Read the full article here
