Barbara Lee is a sitting member of the United States House of Representatives and of the Democratic Party. At present, she holds her seat via the 12th District of California, which includes Oakland and Berkeley.
In previous years, Lee represented the state's 9th and 13th Districts. Associated with the far-left wing of the political spectrum, Lee has been the source of controversy over the years. From within her party and without. Indicators are that she's now getting ready to put her strategies to the test on a statewide level.
Prepping to make a run for the United States Senate
Barbara Lee is gearing up to be a candidate for the U.S. Senate, report Politico and Axios. The Senate seat in mind is next scheduled to come up for election in 2024. It's currently held by Democrat Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein is a longtime incumbent and has been a Senate Committee chair multiple times over. But she is expected by many to retire rather than run for another term in the Senate.
According to reports, Lee has told a number of her colleagues that she intends to run in the upcoming race. But she's waiting for a couple of factors before making her announcement official. One, is for Feinstein to formally declare one way or another what her plans are.
The other is for the recent devastating storms in California and their aftermath to at least settle down some.
Lee's House colleague, Katie Porter, opted to go ahead and move forward with her candidacy declaration. Porter serves in the House of Representatives from California's 47th District. The timing of her Senate campaign announcement did, as it would turn out, prove to bother some onlookers.
Lee got her political career started as a staffer for New York U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential campaign. Afterward, she worked on the campaign of prominent Black Panther Bobby Seale's unsuccessful Oakland Mayoral campaign in 1973. Eventually, Lee became a member of the staff of the controversial U.S.
Representative Ron Dellums.
In 1990, Lee was elected to the California State Assembly. Six years later, she won a seat in the California State Senate. She would be elected to the U.S. House for the first time in 1998. That year, Dellums, by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, resigned from Congress. Lee would win the special election to fill the vacancy.
Is the daughter of a United States Army officer
Barbara Lee is a native of El Paso, Texas. Her father was a career U.S. Army officer, who would reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. She would graduate from high school in San Fernando, California; near Los Angeles.
Lee would later go on to graduate from Mills College in Oakland. There, she became president of the school's black student union. Later, she receivied a master's degree in social work from the University of California, Berkeley.
