1. Barbara Jean Lee is an American politician who served as a US representative for California from 1998 to 2025.
69 Facts About Barbara Lee
1. 2.
Barbara Lee started her career by working on the presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, and she later was involved with the Black Panther Party.
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Barbara Lee was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1998 special election to succeed Dellums.
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In 2024, Barbara Lee chose not to pursue re-election in the House and instead ran for Senate to succeed Dianne Feinstein.
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Barbara Lee lost in the jungle primary to Republican Steve Garvey and fellow House Democrat Adam Schiff, who won the seat in the general election.
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In January 2025, Barbara Lee announced her campaign for mayor of Oakland following the recall of Sheng Thao.
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Barbara Lee is the oldest of three daughters of Mildred Adaire and Garvin Alexander Tutt, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.
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Barbara Lee is African American; according to a DNA analysis, she descends primarily from the people of Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone.
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Barbara Lee was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, where she was taught by the Sisters of Loretto.
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Barbara Lee was the only African-American Girl Scout in El Paso, and she recalls having faced racial discrimination throughout her childhood.
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Barbara Lee attended San Fernando High School in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she worked with the NAACP to become the school's first African-American cheerleader, and she graduated in 1964.
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When she was 15, Barbara Lee had a back-alley abortion in Ciudad Juarez.
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Barbara Lee married Carl Lee, a member of the United States Air Force, and moved with him to England after high school; they had two children, and then divorced when Lee was 20.
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Barbara Lee describes the marriage as abusive, and she became homeless following the divorce.
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Barbara Lee later moved to the Bay Area and attended Mills College, where she served as president of the college's Black Student Union, and she graduated in 1973 with a bachelor of arts in psychology.
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Barbara Lee later attended the University of California, Berkeley, from where she graduated in 1975 with a master of social work.
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Barbara Lee worked for the Glendale Welfare Council and later as a statistical clerk for the California Department of Labor Statistics.
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Barbara Lee was inspired to register to vote by Chisholm's visit, and she went on to work on Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign, serving as one of her delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.
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Barbara Lee later said Chisholm was a mentor who inspired her to run for office.
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Also while a student, Barbara Lee volunteered at the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center and worked on Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 campaign for mayor of Oakland.
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Barbara Lee was surveilled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation due to her involvement with the Black Panthers.
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Barbara Lee was later offered an internship in the office of Representative Ron Dellums, who represented an Oakland-based district.
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Barbara Lee was one of the only African Americans and women to hold a senior staff position on Capitol Hill.
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Barbara Lee was elected to the California State Assembly in 1990 to succeed Elihu Harris, who retired to successfully run for mayor of Oakland.
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Barbara Lee served three terms in the Assembly, and she was elected to the California State Senate in 1996.
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Barbara Lee resigned her seat in the State Senate after winning a special election to the US House of Representatives in 1998.
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Barbara Lee was the first African-American woman to represent Northern California in the California State Legislature.
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Barbara Lee worked to defeat California's three-strikes law and was an early champion of LGBTQ+ rights.
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Barbara Lee was a member of the California Commission on the Status of Women and founded the California Commission on the Status of African American Males.
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Barbara Lee was re-elected to the House of Representatives 12 more times.
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In lieu of running for a 14th term, Barbara Lee campaigned to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate in 2024.
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Barbara Lee originally represented California's 9th congressional district, from which she served until 2013.
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Barbara Lee later represented the 13th district from 2013 to 2023, and she represented the 12th district from 2023 until 2025.
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Barbara Lee's district was located in Alameda County and includes the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda, Albany, Piedmont, San Leandro, and most of San Lorenzo.
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Barbara Lee endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries.
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Barbara Lee gained national attention in 2001 as the only member of Congress to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, stating that she voted no not because she opposed military action but because she believed the AUMF, as written, granted the president overly broad powers to wage war at a time when the facts regarding the situation were not yet clear.
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Barbara Lee "warned her colleagues to be 'careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target".
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Barbara Lee's vote made national news and a large and extremely polarized response, with the volume of calls gridlocking the switchboard of her Capitol Hill office.
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Barbara Lee was criticized by politicians and in editorial pages of conservative-leaning newspapers, such as John Fund's column in The Wall Street Journal.
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In July 2019, Barbara Lee voted against a House resolution condemning the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel.
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In October 2020, Barbara Lee co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemning Azerbaijan's offensive operations against the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Barbara Lee opposed the Biden administration's decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine.
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Barbara Lee is a strong advocate for legislation restricting the availability of guns.
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Barbara Lee participated in the 2016 sit-in against gun violence in the House of Representatives.
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Barbara Lee introduced the Women and Climate Change Act in February 2018.
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The bill is named for Shirley Chisholm, who helped inspire Barbara Lee to become involved in politics when Chisholm ran for the Democratic nomination for president; Barbara Lee was the Chisholm campaign's Northern California chair.
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In 1968, Barbara Lee began volunteering at the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center in Oakland.
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Barbara Lee worked on Bobby Seale's 1973 campaign for mayor of Oakland.
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Barbara Lee disagreed with the National Park Service removing funding for a Black Panther Legacy Project in 2017.
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Barbara Lee has supported a number of efforts to reform cannabis laws in Congress.
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Barbara Lee was an original cosponsor of the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act when it was first introduced in 2011.
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In 2005, Barbara Lee was one of 31 House Democrats who voted not to accept Ohio's electoral votes in the 2004 presidential election.
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Barbara Lee backed an amendment to reduce the size of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, but a majority of Democrats and Republicans rejected it.
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Barbara Lee has made affordable housing a top priority, particularly in the East Bay.
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Barbara Lee has supported and backed legislation meant to expand home ownership opportunities, improve public housing quality, and assist the homeless.
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Barbara Lee was among the 46 Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.
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On March 15,2013, Barbara Lee announced the official relaunch of the Congressional Social Work Caucus to the 113th Congress as its new chair.
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Barbara Lee co-chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus with Lynn Woolsey from 2005 to 2009.
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Barbara Lee chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2009 to 2011.
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On November 28,2018, Barbara Lee lost an attempt to become chair of the House Democratic Caucus to Hakeem Jeffries.
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On November 30,2018, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi announced that she had recommended Barbara Lee to become one of three co-chairs of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee alongside Rosa DeLauro and Eric Swalwell.
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Barbara Lee was the United States representative to the 68th, 70th, and 72nd sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.
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In January 2023, it was reported that Barbara Lee planned to run in the 2024 election for the United States Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, after she revealed her intentions to members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
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Barbara Lee formally launched her Senate campaign in Oakland on February 21,2023.
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On March 5,2024, Barbara Lee failed to advance to the November general election after finishing fourth in the jungle primary.
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Barbara Lee married Carl Barbara Lee after graduating high school in 1964.
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Barbara Lee described the marriage as abusive, and she divorced her husband when she was 20.
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In 2003, Barbara Lee was recognized as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Arundhati Roy and Kathy Kelly.
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In 2010, Barbara Lee took the food stamp challenge and appeared in the documentary film Food Stamped.