After two weeks of counting, Oakland has a new mayor. Mayor-elect Sheng Thao will be the first Hmong American mayor of a major U.S. city.
"So hopeful and incredibly humbled by the whole experience and just really thrilled to bring a new energy for the city of Oakland," Thao told NBC Bay Area Tuesday.
Thao's parents are refugees from Laos. She's a survivor of domestic abuse. And when she left that relationship, she found herself homeless with her young son.Eventually, Thao went back to school and graduated with a degree in legal studies from UC Berkeley.When asked if she ever thought she'd find herself in politics, Thao said no.
"I was headed to law school," she said."That was my trajectory, but what happened was I couldn’t afford to pay for my son's clothes. During the very last year of my college career at UC Berkeley, I took on an internship that paired me with Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan’s office. That’s how I was introduced to her. As a paid intern, I really realized how local policies at the local level really impacted families that live on the margins, the most families, like mine.
Oakland Mayor-elect Sheng Thao speaks with NBC Bay Area's Gia Vang to discuss her goals and how she got into politics.While Taylor had more overall votes, he placed second in the city's ranked-choice voting instant runoff. "While it hurts to admit it, I do not see a viable path to making up the 682 votes needed to alter the outcome of this election," Taylor said.In a poll by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, gun violence and homelessness were top of mind for voters.
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