California Democratic candidates vying for Rep. Barbara Lee’s (D-CA) congressional seat will be tasked with addressing a surge in crime across multiple cities.
California's 12th Congressional District is considered to have some of the most crime-ridden areas in the Golden State, with Oakland consistently ranking as one of the most dangerous cities in the nation. A report this year from MoneyGreek analyzed FBI crime statistics from 2021 and ranked Oakland as the 11th most dangerous United States city to live in.
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The narrative that violence controls the streets of Oakland has long plagued California lawmakers and can be expected to be a priority for candidates as they work to establish their message on crime ahead of the 2024 election.
The current candidates include Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board Director Lateefah Simon, Dr. Jennifer Tran, an ethnic studies professor at California State University East Bay, and Tim Sanchez, a local businessman and entrepreneur.
Lateefah Simon
Simon, 46, has a long track record of working in the criminal justice field, having played a key role in operating Back on Track, a program to reduce recidivism among young adults charged with low-level offenses. When Vice President Kamala Harris was the San Francisco District Attorney, she selected Simon to lead the initiative.
“There needs to be a voice of someone who was a teen mom, who has been housing insecure, and was in the juvenile justice system,” Simon said in an interview with San Francisco Chronicle, pointing to a need for someone with her experience in Congress. Simon had her first daughter at 18, and she recognized the “government wasn’t working for people like her,” according to her campaign site.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) selected Simon as a senior adviser on police reform, and in that role, she aimed to increase measures around police responses to those who want to participate in protests and demonstrations, according to a 2020 press release.
Simon was appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the Board of Trustees for California State University to discuss racial justice in education. In 2016, Simon was elected to serve on the BART Board of Directors for District 7, and she became president of the board in 2020.
Simon appears to be the current favorite in Democratic circles, announcing early on and bringing in major endorsements. EMILYs List, “the nation’s largest resource dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women to office,” endorsed Simon in May. Other prominent supporters include Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who is running to replace Newsom in 2026, Attorney General Rob Bonta, 10 members of the state legislature, and more than a dozen former and present elected members of District 12.
“I’ve spent my life fighting for those folks, and I will work to take our shared stories and experiences to the halls of Congress so I can continue our fight,” Simon said in a campaign announcement. “That’s how we make change on a national level. And that’s why I’m running for this seat.
Dr. Jennifer Tran
A California State University, East Bay professor and Oakland resident is the most recent candidate to join the congressional race. Dr. Tran is an educator, small business leader, and community organizer, working with elected officials to support law enforcement and the district through various programs.
“Just seeing our communities in crisis like this and the upcoming budget cuts that are going to affect our communities, whether it's social services or public safety or small businesses, I'm running because our communities are in crisis and they can't wait,” Tran told the Washington Examiner.
Tran said she will tackle the district's rise in criminal activity by having a comprehensive and coordinated approach to public safety, meaning she’ll work with multiple departments across different levels to address crime.
“I've been working with our local elected officials to also support our law enforcement at multiple levels as well as MACRO [The Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland] to support our communities with nonviolent emergency responses,” Tran said.
“And our city is in deficit and this is affecting the decisions we make and we shouldn't have to choose between social services and our public safety.”
Tran urged funds to be used as an incentive to boost police staffing numbers, along with providing new technology and modernizing investigations for officers, to reduce crime in the East Bay.
“And we want our police officers to do their job,” Tran said. “We want them to do their job in a way that doesn't reproduce the harm against our black and brown communities. And at the same time, the victims of violence are needing support and need support in an expedient manner.”
Tran is focused on change locally, noting that while asking for federal resources is important, the funding has not been allocated to the 12th district in the past, pointing to President Biden's Community Violence Intervention Strategies. As part of a 2021 DOJ program in an effort to reduce violent crime, Tran said that the funds went to 15 cities across the country but not in northern California.
California lawmakers have focused heavily on the fentanyl crisis this year. The illicit drug continues to take lives nationwide, and candidates will likely face pressure over the issue. Nearly 6,000 Californians died from fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2021, according to the state’s department of public health. There is no sign of the crisis diminishing this year. San Francisco, which borders the 12th district, has received help from the California National Guard issued by Newsom to combat the city’s fentanyl epidemic.
Tran said that as the President of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce she has heard stories from diverse communities, stressing the importance of individuals having a “space in which people do not feel judged, in which they are feeling validated and they are feeling seen.”
Tran, who worked on the Oakland Community Policing Advisory Board, said many believe having police officers respond to nonviolent emergencies is extremely costly. Instead, Tran wants to address public safety through an environmental and community-building lens, ending the polarization between law enforcement and community members.
“How about we have community ambassadors like Chinatown, how about we have funding for beautification ... so that our neighborhood is more attractive,” Tran said, adding that shared vision can help reduce crime.
Tim Sanchez
Tim Sanchez, 53, declared his candidacy in March, focusing his campaign on measures such as expanding healthcare and supporting 13 justices on the Supreme Court.
If elected to the 12th Congressional District, Sanchez writes on his campaign site, he will push for common sense gun safety laws, including background checks and an assault weapons ban. That legislation has been a high priority for Democratic lawmakers in California.
Last year, the California legislature passed two strict bills to promote more civil oversight regarding assault weapons. The Firearm Industry Responsibility Act, which will take effect in July, regulates the firearm industry. The act bans the manufacture, sale, or importation of guns or firearm-related products that are “abnormally dangerous and likely to cause an unreasonable risk of harm to public health and safety.” A Senate bill went into effect at the start of the year where private civil suits can enforce violations of the state assault weapons ban.
Sanchez, like his fellow Democratic contender Simon, is focused on criminal justice reform. The new congressional hopeful wants to pass reform “that removes qualified immunity for cops” and hopes the change will fund “a mental health responder force trained to deal with incidents that require a different approach,” according to this campaign site.
Another aspect of criminal justice Sanchez hopes to explore is ending “cash bail for non-violent offenders who have been sitting in jails for years awaiting their turn to have their day in court.” The California Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that setting bail at an amount too high, which the individual cannot afford, is unconstitutional.
Sanchez received an endorsement from the Bold PAC guided by Rep. Linda Sanchez and the House Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Sanchez told the San Francisco Chronicle in a May interview that he does not support criminalizing individuals living on the street. Sanchez said he also wants to find a way to advocate on behalf of small businesses and those experiencing homelessness.
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California’s 12th District is located in the coastal area of Alameda County and includes the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda, Albany, Piedmont, and most of San Leandro. The district was shifted to encompass the former geography of the 13th district in the 2020 redistricting.