Rowena Brown was narrowly leading her closest challenger for Oakland’s at-large City Council seat Tuesday night with 28.42% of first-choice vote based on early returns from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office.
Of the nine other candidates, former Oakland police chief LeRonne Armstrong was second with 27.95% of the first-choice votes and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employee Charline Wang had 20.63%. None of the rest of the candidates cracked double digits, with Shawn Danino getting 4.99%, Cristina ‘Tina’ Tostado getting 4.32%, Mindy Pechenuk getting 4.03% and Kanitha Matoury getting 4.01%, with Fabian Robinson, Nancy Sidebotham and Selika Thomas all under 3%.
The outcome will be decided by ranked-choice results the county hasn’t released yet.
The candidates were running to fill Oakland’s single at-large City Council seat, which was left vacant when incumbent Rebecca Kaplan chose not to run for re-election.
Brown, Assemblymember Mia Bonta’s district director, collected an extensive list of endorsements from local and state politicians, including Bonta and her husband Rob, who is currently California’s attorney general.
She also had the support of Kaplan, BART board director Lateefah Simon and councilmembers Dan Kalb, Treva Reid, Carroll Fife and Nikki Fortunato Bas, along with several unions and the Alameda County Democratic Party.
Brown identified herself on her website as an East Bay native who is Black and queer and who lost both of her parents by the age of 17.
Armstrong, a West Oakland native, was fired by Mayor Sheng Thao in 2023 after 24 years on the force and has since sued the city for wrongful termination.
Some of his endorsements include Oakland city councilmembers Reid, Janani Ramachandran, Noel Gallo and Kevin Jenkins, as well as the Oakland Police Officers Association, Iron Workers Local 378, Teamsters Local 70 and Oakland Firefighters Local 55, among others.
Wang is an East Bay native who grew up visiting her grandparents in West Oakland and who now lives in the Eastlake/San Antonio area.
She works for the U.S. EPA on civil rights and environmental justice issues, according to her campaign website.
Wang’s endorsements included the Sierra Club, East Bay YIMBY, Teamsters Local 70, Oakland Firefighters Local 55, Alameda County Supervisor Lena Tam, outgoing District 1 Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb, the Alameda County Green Party and the Wellstone Democratic Club.