Sheng Thao

Sheng Thao (born July 18, 1985) is an American politician and the 51st mayor of Oakland, California.

She is the first Hmong American mayor of a major city in the United States.

Thao was born on July 18, 1985 and raised in Stockton, California.

Her parents were refugees from Laos who escaped Hmong genocide and eventually immigrated to the United States.

Thao was the seventh of ten children and grew up in poverty, spending some of her childhood in public housing.

At age 17, Thao moved out of her home and began working at a Walgreens store in Richmond.

After moving to Oakland in her 20s, she became a victim of domestic violence while in an abusive relationship.

Thao left the relationship when she was six months pregnant, and then lived in her car and couch-surfed before and after her son was born.

When her son was ten months old, Thao began attending Merritt College in Oakland while raising her son as a single mother and working as a research assistant.

After she completed an associate's degree in legal studies at Merritt College, Thao transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor's degree in legal studies and a minor in city planning.

While at UC Berkeley, Thao helped create the Bear Pantry, a program which provided food to food-insecure students.

Following her graduation from UC Berkeley in 2012, Thao worked for At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan as a paid intern.

Thao later worked for Kaplan at the Oakland City Council, becoming her chief of staff in 2017.

Her campaign also received support from labor unions, the Alameda County Democratic Party, and Ro Khanna, the U.S. representative for the 17th congressional district of California.

During the campaign, Thao related her own experiences, including childhood poverty, surviving domestic violence as a young adult, and being a renter, to her campaign for increasing funding for the Department of Violence Prevention in Oakland, increasing access to affordable housing and reducing homelessness.

Loren Taylor, one of her opponents, was endorsed by Libby Schaaf, the incumbent mayor of Oakland, as well as London Breed and Sam Liccardo, the mayors of nearby San Francisco and San Jose.

By the end of the campaign, Thao and Taylor were considered to be the two front-runners.

In June 2022, a former staffer filed an informal verbal complaint with the Public Ethics Commission that alleged Thao had Oakland City Council staff work on her campaign in a possible violation of state election laws, and the staffer was fired after refusing to work on Thao's campaign.

Thao denied the allegations and the ethics commission opened an investigation in June 2022.

After the matter was reported by a political blogger that supported one of Thao's competitors in October 2022, the allegations gained media attention.

On November 18, 2022, Thao won the election by 677 votes through a rank-choice voting system.

On November 22, 2022, the margin of victory increased to 682 votes, and her opponent Councilmember Loren Taylor conceded.

A recount was formally requested, but the required funding was not raised for the costs.

Thao stated she supported the recount.

Thao took office on January 9, 2023.

As mayor-elect, her proposals included the development of 30,000 units of new housing over eight years, rent control and other protections for tenants, improving safety and sanitation for unhoused residents, hiring more police officers, and increasing spending for education and violence prevention programs.

After a law firm hired during the previous year by the City of Oakland released an investigative report on January 18, 2023, alleging misconduct in the Oakland police department, Thao placed Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong on administrative leave on January 19.

During a press conference on January 21, Thao said "it's important that we look at taking the corrective action that is needed to make sure that we stay on track to make sure that we get out of the federal oversight," referring to the oversight the police department had been subject to for the past twenty years.

Thao fired Armstrong on February 15, 2023, and indicated she had lost confidence in his ability to reform the police department.

For several months, Thao's administration continued negotiations with the owners of the Oakland Athletics for the team to stay in Oakland, which had begun during the administration of Thao's predecessor, Libby Schaaf.

Thao decided to run for office in 2018, when the election for the district 4 City Council seat was an open race, lacking an incumbent.

Thao ran on the priorities of tackling Oakland's housing crisis, improving public safety with better response systems and community policing, and building public infrastructure such as libraries and parks.

Thao defeated six other candidates and won with 54% of the vote after seven rounds of tabulation.

For each of the rounds, she had the most votes of any candidate.

Thao began her term as a member of the Oakland City Council in January 2019.

Thao served in the Oakland City Council's 4th district seat, representing the neighborhoods of Montclair, Laurel, Melrose, Redwood Heights, and the Dimond District.

She was the first Hmong woman to be elected as a member of a city council in the state of California and the first Hmong person elected to the Oakland City Council.

On the city council, Thao served as president pro tempore.

During her tenure on the city council, Thao led efforts to expand the number of police academies from four to five, and co-authored ordinances approved by the council to address housing insecurity by expanding access for code-compliant RVs and mobile homes in the city.

On November 10, 2021, Thao announced her candidacy for Oakland mayor and the endorsements of council president Nikki Fortunato Bas, vice mayor Rebecca Kaplan, and Attorney General Rob Bonta.