Barbara Lee
Barbara Jean Lee (née Tutt; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician and social worker who has served as a U.S. representative from California since 1998. A member of the Democratic Party, Lee represents California's 12th congressional district (numbered as the 9th district from 1998 to 2013 and as the 13th district from 2013 to 2023), which is based in Oakland and covers most of the northern part of Alameda County. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, it is one of the nation's most Democratic districts, with a rating of D+40.[1]
For other people named Barbara Lee, see Barbara Lee (disambiguation).
Barbara Lee
9th district (1998–2013)
13th district (2013–2023)
12th district (2023–present)
Peter DeFazio (as chair)
13th district (1990–1992)
16th district (1992–1996)
2
Born and raised in Texas, Lee was educated at Mills College and the University of California, Berkeley. She started her career by working on the presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, and she later was involved with the Black Panther Party. After working as chief of staff for U.S. Representative Ron Dellums, Lee served in the California State Assembly from 1990 to 1996 and in the California State Senate from 1996 to 1998.
Lee was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1998 special election to succeed Dellums. A noted progressive, she chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus from 2005 to 2009 and the Congressional Black Caucus from 2009 to 2011.[2] In addition, she is the vice chair and a founding member of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, and a co-chair of the House Democratic Steering Committee.[3] She has played a major role in the antiwar movement, notably in her vocal criticism of the Iraq War and for being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11 attacks.[4][5]
Lee was a candidate for the United States Senate in the 2024 election to succeed late senator Dianne Feinstein,[6] a race that she would lose to Rep. Adam Schiff and former baseball player Steve Garvey. During this race, Lee would forgo re-election to the House of Representatives.
Early life and education[edit]
Lee was born Barbara Jean Tutt on July 16, 1946, in El Paso, Texas. She is the oldest of three daughters of Mildred Adaire (née Parish; 1924–2015) and Garvin Alexander Tutt (1924–2007), a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.[7] When she was born in a segregated hospital, her mother was left in the hallway, as the hospital refused to assist her.[8] Lee is African American; according to a DNA analysis, she descends primarily from the people of Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone.[9][10] She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, where she was taught by the Sisters of Loretto.[11][12] She was the only African-American Girl Scout in El Paso, and she recalls having faced racial discrimination throughout her childhood.[13]
Lee's parents divorced in 1955.[14] Five years later, she moved to California with her mother and two sisters. She 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.[15][16] When she was 15, Lee had a back-alley abortion in Ciudad Juárez.[17] She 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.[18][19] Lee describes the marriage as abusive, and she became homeless following the divorce.[20]
She 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.[21] She later attended the University of California, Berkeley, from where she graduated in 1975 with a master of social work.[22] Throughout college, Lee was a single mother of two on public assistance and food stamps, and she often took her children to class because she was unable to afford child care.[23]
Early political career[edit]
Lee worked for the Glendale Welfare Council and later as a statistical clerk for the California Department of Labor Statistics.[18][24] As president of the Mills College Black Student Union, Lee invited Representative Shirley Chisholm to speak on campus. She 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.[25] Lee later said Chisholm was a mentor who inspired her to run for office.[26] Also while a student, 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.[27] Lee was surveilled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation due to her involvement with the Black Panthers.[19]
As a graduate student, Lee founded the Community Health Alliance for Neighborhood Growth and Education (CHANGE), a community-based mental health clinic.[28] She was later offered an internship in the office of Representative Ron Dellums, who represented an Oakland-based district. Following the internship, she took a full-time job in Dellums's office and eventually became his chief of staff.[29] Lee was one of the only African Americans and women to hold a senior staff position on Capitol Hill.[30] After leaving Dellums's office in 1987, she returned to the Bay Area and founded a facilities-management company.[31]
California State Legislature[edit]
Lee was elected to the California State Assembly in 1990 to succeed Elihu Harris, who retired to successfully run for mayor of Oakland. She served three terms in the Assembly, and she was elected to the California State Senate in 1996. She resigned her seat in the State Senate after winning a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998.
Lee was the first African-American woman to represent Northern California in the California State Legislature.[30] During her time in the Legislature, she authored 67 bills that were signed into law by then-Governor Pete Wilson, a Republican; among those bills were the California Schools Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the California Violence Against Women Act.[32] Lee also worked to defeat California's three-strikes law and was an early champion of LGBTQ+ rights.[33]
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.[30]