Sept. 3, 2026Methodology v3.0 · State metrics: 12 source systems, data through 2023–2025 by metric
Political Grades
government — just the stats

CitiesCA

Oakland

Mayor Barbara Lee · Democratic · in office since May 20, 2025

The Executive Summary

Mayor Barbara Lee (D) has led Oakland since May 2025; Oakland is not yet scored — a mayor's record opens only after enough years in office for the lagged data to say anything fair; the card below says exactly where each metric stands.

Share this summary
Barbara Lee
Mayor of Oakland, CA · Democratic · since May 20, 2025
Roster position
#45
by population (2025 est.)
Unemployment 4.9% (2025)Too early
Median household income $102,235 (2024 · constant 2024 $)Too early
Poverty rate 11.9% (2024)Too early
Government formStrong mayor

Barbara Lee has not been in office long enough to be scored — attribution opens two years in, the same rule applied to governors.

Sources: unemployment BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics · median household income Census ACS 1-year, CPI-U deflated · poverty rate Census ACS 1-year (B17001). Unemployment runs through 2025; income and poverty through 2024. The 2025 unemployment point is an eleven-month average — October 2025 was never collected during the federal shutdown — and it is included and flagged here under the same rule the state pages apply to the same statistic (one statistic, one rulebook, as of v2.6; through v2.5 city pages excluded it instead, and the changelog says so).

Scored on economic outcomes only — unemployment, real median income and poverty. Crime, housing and health are not yet included, so this is a narrower measure than a governor’s. Government form follows standard reference classifications and was not verified city by city. Methodology

Share this card

Oakland sits in CA, whose governor Gavin Newsom holds a scored statewide record (No. 20 of 29). State outcomes are not the mayor’s grade — a city is not a state — but they’re the nearest verified context today.