Victoria Fierce

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Victoria Fierce

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

University of Akron, 2011

Personal

Birthplace

Cleveland, Ohio

Profession

Director of Operations for the California Renter's Legal Advocacy and Education Fund

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Twitter

Campaign YouTube

Victoria Fierce ran for election for an at-large seat of the AC Transit Board of Directors in California. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Fierce completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Fierce was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from the University of Akron with a bachelor's degree in 2011. Fierce's professional experience includes working as the Director of Operations for the California Renter's Legal Advocacy and Education Fund.

Elections

2020

See also: Municipal elections in Alameda County, California (2020)

General election

General election for AC Transit District Board of Directors

Incumbent H. E. Christian Peeples defeated Victoria Fierce and Dollene Jones in the general election for AC Transit District Board of Directors on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	H. E. Christian Peeples (Nonpartisan)	61.2	311,444
		Victoria Fierce (Nonpartisan)	24.8	126,268
	Submit photo	Dollene Jones (Nonpartisan)	13.7	69,475
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	1,397

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 508,584
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

To view Fierce's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Victoria Fierce completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Fierce's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Victoria Fierce and I ride the bus. I'm running for the AC Transit Board of Directors, At-Large, because I think the bus should work for everyone. I'm a community organizer. My entire adult life has been spent getting people excited about cities and the public transit that knits us together. I'm running on a platform of competency, efficiency, and collaboration with east bay cities. If we're going to be serious about adapting to our quickly degrading climate, we need a transit agency capable of making it happen with more bus lanes, more BRT, a universal bus shelter guarantee, and a tax on rideshare.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• If we're going to save our planet from climate disaster, we must immediate decarbonize our streets with a tax on rideshare
• AC Transit won't survive this pandemic unless we increase ridership by moving people faster than a private car with more bus lanes
• Riding the bus should be a luxury experience, no matter who you are, where you ride, or what the weather is. I'll make sure everyone can wait in comfort with a universal bus shelter program

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm incredibly passionate about urban justice. For the last 5 years, I've been better known as a housing organizer, working to ensure that California can provide enough housing equal to its needs. That's why I'm proud to say I work for the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, where I sue suburbs who violate state housing laws. Many new transit-oriented housing laws were passed in recent years, but it is my enforcement work that gives them real impact.

Housing is only half the climate problem; if we're going to maximize our public investment in new housing, we need to make sure that transit is keeping up with it. Improving our transit network to reduce car dependency and ownership will reduce pedestrian deaths disproportionately borne by communities of color while increasing economic opportunities for riders of color. It will also reduce air pollution near our busy streets and freeways, which is often the only place in town a person of color can afford to rent. I fully believe that transit justice is climate justice and racial justice. I know that Black lives matter, and I will act like it as your next AC Transit Director.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

AC Transit is one of only two transit districts in California with an elected board. Most other districts are agencies ran by the county they cover, but AC Transit is its own special district. This gives it a unique role in uniting the various governments of the East Bay. The At-Large position covers the entire transit district making it an especially unique role within and already unique district.

It is also one of the largest and most used transit networks in the country. Millions of people rely on it to thrive. It is also seen as a national leader in fuel cell technology and bus electrification. When AC Transit weighs in on state transit legislation in Sacramento, legislators listen.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Elected officials need to have experienced some kind of oppression in their lives if they're going to try and fight it. At various points in my life, I've lived in poverty and at different times I've enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle. An elected official needs to understand what it means when you've got -$250 in the bank come Monday morning and payday isn't until Friday, but you still need to get groceries and pay the bills.

Its also important for an elected official to have a strong desire to make government serve the people. Many might feel that government is at worst an unwanted intrusion into their lives, or at best an incompetent organization that wastes public funds; I believe a lot of this is because of the last 40 years of anti-government sentiment in California combined with government's aversion to "becoming political" in its messaging. I want an anti-fascist AC Transit that isn't afraid to occasionally tweet "black lives matter" or outright ban nazis from service, I want a district that proudly flies a rainbow flag on every bus during pride while calling out Elon Musk for his anti-transit rhetoric.

These things require that an elected official maintains an unwavering dedication to the very basic idea that Government Can Be Good.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

As an engineer, I don't know the meaning of the word "impossible". Just a short 5 years ago, it was unheard of that any kind of modification to Prop 13's property taxation scheme would be on the ballot, and now we all have an opportunity to support it in the form of Prop 15. We put humans on the moon; I believe that we can also successfully bring more BRT to the East Bay.

As a community organizer, I have a deep understanding of how to structure an organization to accomplish its mission. If you have a terrible culture, its no wonder that your only employees will end up being people who don't mind racism, sexism, transphobia, biphobia, or a number of other terrible things. A good, healthy, inclusive culture that respects and centers its marginalized is the key to success, and that culture comes from its leaders who act as examples.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

As an AC Transit director, my core responsibilities would be to ensure that the district is providing high quality reliable transportation in service of the people. This means more than grandstanding with a popular platform, it means knowing that concrete action must be taken followed by taking those actions. Its one thing for me to say that AC Transit should endorse Seamless Bay Area for a unified bay area transit network; its another thing to bring forward a resolution that binds the district to in-depth collaboration with our neighboring agencies with a focus on the rough edges of transfer times, fare structures, and other points of rider interaction.

At the end of the day, I have a platform and it my responsibility to implement that platform in a way that brings about meaningful, substantive changes.

What legacy would you like to leave?

By the time I'm done, we're going to have at least two more BRT lines, and we will have broken ground on the district's first subway line. Fares and their enforcement would be abolished, and no bus route would run with less than a 10 minute headway.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The earliest event of historical significance I can remember in my lifetime was the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. I was only two years old, but I remember watching the news coverage celebrating this incredible achievement. Ever since then, I've been deeply interested in space exploration and the science needed to support it. Its probably also what ended up turning me into a professional photographer decades later; photos of celestial objects inspired me to imagine a future world where humanity lives among the stars.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My very first job was working as a shop mechanic for a union construction firm when I lived in Northeast Ohio. There, I learned metalworking, the basics of engineering, even a few tricks about shop management. While it was only a summer job between school years, I did it for three years in a row. My time there gave me an in-depth perspective on the nitty-gritty details about how to keep a fleet of vehicles running. While just about anyone can run for a transit board election, few candidates can claim to know how to teardown and rebuild the engine in a bus.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Debt: The First 5000 Years. I think this is the book that got me interested in Modern Monetary Theory. It is a comprehensive history of debt and to a lesser extent, money itself. After the history, it describes a lot of the sociology and psychology that goes into making sheets of paper that say "US Dollar" into legal tender.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

I'm quite happy being the beautiful, intelligent, well-spoken, well-read, non-ADHD-afflicted community organizer that I think I am.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

In my spare time on most Sundays, I create chiptune music using my Gameboy and ukulele. So many accidental patterns and tunes I create while doing that end up stuck in my head.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

My own mental illnesses. I suffer from ADHD and clinical depression since I was young. There certainly are some days where my brain's chemistry simply won't let me focus on a task for the day, or I find it difficult to get out of bed. Medication helps, but this never fully goes away. It helps that I surround myself with people I love, who understand my struggle, and are able to support me in many ways.

I'm also a transgender woman. Proving my worth as a human is a life-long struggle in a cisgendered world. Many try to reduce me down to an identity like "trans woman" when in reality, I'm far more complicated than that. My gender identity is only a small part of who I am, and it is a lifelong struggle to fight against that reductionist effort, to prove that I'm a complete person. If I'm elected, I would be the first transgender person on the board of AC Transit, but that isn't the only legacy I want to be remembered by.

Are there any little-known powers or responsibilities held by this office that you believe more people should be aware of?

AC Transit was created from the ashes of the defunct Key System. At the time, the district was created to continue operations of the system's many suburban streetcar and train lines. Eventually, the tracks were ripped up and the trains replaced with bus service however, the district retains broad power to operate a transit system that includes trains.

Some might argue that we already have a subway system in the east bay that goes by the name of BART. While BART does indeed have underground trains providing rapid transit, most people don't live near a BART station. It is completely within the district's power to establish a comprehensive network of rail service that knits together the east bay. Imagine hopping on a train in Oakland's Laurel district subway station for a quick 8 minute ride to the Emeryville or Jack London Square Amtrak stations. It may sound far-fetched, but that's also what people said about socializing the private Key System into the public agency we now know as AC Transit. A better world is possible; we just have to ask for it.

Another little-known fact about AC Transit is that in the early 2000s, the district signed away its own authority to build and maintain its own bus shelters. Instead, ClearChannel communications has been delegated complete control over the design, maintenance, installation, and placement of bus shelters. Whats worse is that they're not required to base their decisions on the needs of our riders; instead, they plan based on where they expect the highest advertising revenue. Even more surprising is that they have a cap of 500 total shelters; no matter how many bus stops need a shelter, they're only permitted to build 500 of them, at most. This must be changed. We must prioritize the wellbeing and accessibility of our riders over the profits of ClearChannel.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes, absolutely. AC Transit covers dozens of disparate cities in the east bay and it spans two counties: Alameda and Contra-Costa. For now, the district is subject to the whims of its constituent cities when planning for routes, bus stops, and even installing maps of the system. Being able to work with cities and build consensus across disparate jurisdictions along with understanding the laws that regulate these interactions is a requirement for the job. Its also something I'm exceptionally qualified for as a community organizer who works in service of a vision of regional prosperity.

A city's laws might end at its borders, but the transportation needs of its people doesn't. Its important to have an At-Large director who understands this.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

The At-Large seat is unique on the board of AC Transit because it represents all of the cities it encompasses. This requires consensus-building skills, because not every city wants the same thing. It also requires an understanding of how public outreach works and the sorts of questions to be asking. Its 2020, and we're far beyond the question of whether or not we want green, low-carbon transportation in the form of bus lanes and bus shelters. Instead, we need to be asking where those lanes go and how the shelters will benefit the people. Showing up at a meeting and giving individuals the option to veto transportation isn't how you bring people to the table.

Its also important that an AC Transit director understands public transportation! Many elected officials don't ride transit, and yet they still make decisions on where it goes and who it supports. I'm proud to say I'm not one of those people; I ride the bus everywhere I go and I'm reliant on it to go about my life. I have the deep understanding of what it means to need public transportation that is required for an AC Transit director. It is difficult to explain the feeling you get when the bus tracker says another bus is coming in 5 minutes, only for it to never show up.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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