Lee appeared in Minneapolis on Monday at the kickoff meeting for the Democratic National Committee, which is gearing up for battle with the Trump administration
by Eli WolfeAug. 25, 2025 .(Oaklandside.org)
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Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee joined heavyweights from the Democratic Party for a gathering in Minneapolis on Monday, where officials are mapping their next steps for fighting President Donald Trump.
On Monday, Lee gave a brief speech to Democratic officials who flocked to the Midwestern city for the first official meeting of the Democratic National Committee, which is the executive body that leads the Democratic Party and supports candidates throughout the country. Lee shared the room with major political figures, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman, who, earlier this summer, was wounded by a gunman who had set out to assassinate dozens of Democratic elected officials.
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The party, which is struggling with infighting and fundraising concerns, faces significant challenges, including an effort by Texas Republicans to redistrict Congressional maps to marginalize Democrats. The Democratic Party is also viewed as weak and ineffective by many Democratic-registered voters, according to a recent poll.
Democratic officials are trying to coalesce around a strategy to confront Trump, who in recent weeks has deployed the National Guard in D.C. and threatened to send troops to other Democratic strongholds to crack down on crime and support immigration raids.
Trump’s verbal attacks on cities run by Democrats — including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Oakland — have put mayors on the frontlines of this political battle, which may explain why Lee was brought in to address the party.
Lee, who served nearly 30 years in the House of Representatives before running for mayor of Oakland, has become increasingly vocal in her criticism of Trump since the president claimed that Oakland and other cities are “so far gone” because of crime problems.
“Now Donald Trump, you know he trashed Oakland, he lied about us, but Oakland is not afraid,” Lee said in her speech on Monday.
Lee said Oakland embraces its immigrant communities and that the city’s police department does not cooperate with ICE. Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from cities that offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, and deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles to support ICE raids.
“We are resilient, we are diverse, and we’re unstoppable,” Lee said.
Noting that she’s been a member of the Democratic Party for a long time, Lee emphasized that the party “must win” its upcoming electoral fights.
“We must win for working families, for low-income families, for the poor, for poor families, for our youth, for the unsheltered, those who are struggling to pay for groceries, housing, healthcare, education, and yes, those under attack by Trump,” Lee said. “And yes, we have to fight for our reproductive freedom and protect our trans community and our LGBTQ+ community, and all those who are under attack by Trump.”
Lee spent part of her speech defending the progress of her administration, which is closing in on its first 100 days later this week. She shared recent statistics that show several categories of crime appear to be declining in Oakland. And she cited her administration’s success in securing millions of dollars from Alameda County to support unhoused people and affordable homes.
Lee also bragged that Oakland is the “number one food city in America” and touted the city’s cultural outputs, from filmmaker Ryan Coogler to Tower of Power. She raised a fist when she said Oakland is the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, a group she once organized with.
Quoting Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, Lee said, “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines… You make progress by implementing ideas.”
ELI WOLFE
Eli Wolfe reports on City Hall for The Oaklandside. He was previously a senior reporter for San José Spotlight, where he had a beat covering Santa Clara County’s government and transportation. He also worked as an investigative reporter for the Pasadena-based newsroom FairWarning, where he covered labor, consumer protection and transportation issues. He started his journalism career as a freelancer based out of Berkeley. Eli’s stories have appeared in The Atlantic, NBCNews.com, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. Eli graduated from UC Santa Cruz and grew up in San Francisco.More by Eli Wolfe
