Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.

Mayoral election in Oakland, California (2026)

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge-smaller use.png

U.S. House • Governor • Lt. Gov • Attorney General • Secretary of State • State executive offices • State Senate • State Assembly • Supreme court • Appellate courts • State ballot measures • How to run for office
Flag of California.png


2025
2026 Oakland elections
Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge.png
Election dates
Filing deadline: Pending
General election: TBA
Election stats
Offices up: Mayor
Total seats up: 1
Other municipal elections
U.S. municipal elections, 2026

The city of Oakland, California, is holding a general election for mayor in 2026.

Oakland has term limits for the position of mayor. Those limits are: Two consecutive four-year terms, may run again after a four year break.


Elections

Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.

Mayoral partisanship

Oakland has a Democratic mayor. As of September 2025, 66 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 23 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and two mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.

Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.

Help inform our readers

Take our candidate survey

See also: Survey

At Ballotpedia, we believe that everyone deserves meaningful, reliable, trustworthy information about their candidates. We also know that good information—especially at the local level—is hard to find. That's why Ballotpedia created Candidate Connection.

We ask all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Our survey helps voters better understand how their candidates think about the world and how they intend to govern—information they need to feel confident they're picking the best person for the role.

If you are a candidate, take our survey here. Or you can ask a candidate to take the survey by sharing the link with them.

Submit endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

Endorsements can be particularly helpful for voters trying to decide between candidates in local races, which often feature nonpartisan candidates. Endorsements from individuals and organizations can help voters better understand policy differences between candidates in these cases where little or no other news coverage of policy stances exists.

Candidates, share endorsements here. Readers, share endorsements you know about here.

About the city

See also: Oakland, California

Oakland is a city in California. It is the county seat of Alameda County. As of 2020, its population was 440,646.

City government

See also: Council-manager government

The city government of Oakland combines a council-manager system with a strong mayor system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive. The mayor, however, appoints a city manager to oversee the city's day-to-day operations and execute city policies.[1]

Demographics

The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.

Demographic Data for Oakland, California
Oakland California
Population 440,646 39,538,223
Land area (sq mi) 55 155,857
Race and ethnicity**
White 34.4% 56.1%
Black/African American 22.7% 5.7%
Asian 15.8% 14.8%
Native American 0.9% 0.8%
Pacific Islander 0.6% 0.4%
Other (single race) N/A 14.3%
Multiple 8.4% 7.9%
Hispanic/Latino 27% 39.1%
Education
High school graduation rate 84.3% 83.9%
College graduation rate 46.1% 34.7%
Income
Median household income $80,143 $78,672
Persons below poverty level 14.6% 12.6%
Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020).
**Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.


See also

Oakland, California California Municipal government Other local coverage
Seal of California.svg.png
Seal of California.png
Municipal Government Final.png
Local Politics Image.jpg

External links

Footnotes