Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13) today endorsed Jovanka Beckles’s campaign to represent Assembly District 15 today. Hon. Barbara Lee declared:
“I am pleased to join Oakland Councilmember Dan Kalb, El Cerrito Mayor Pro Tem Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto, Berkeley Board of Education member Judy Appel, East Bay MUD Director Andy Katz, Cheryl Sudduth-Política and Owen Poindexter in endorsing Jovanka Beckles for the 15th Assembly District.
“We have the opportunity to elect a proven progressive who will take her experience to Sacramento to support an agenda reflective of the needs and aspirations of her constituents.
“I hope you will join us in voting for Jovanka Beckles who is well prepared to take on the difficult challenges which face our district, the state and the nation.”
Expressing her gratitude, Richmond City Council member and candidate for AD 15 Jovanka Beckles said:
“I am humbled and inspired to be endorsed by one of my sheroes, the person who singly stood up in Congress against pro-war forces in Washington after 9/11. We all need the kind of courage Barbara Lee demonstrates as we face the multiple crushing challenges of today – from climate change to soaring economic inequities; crises of police violence, mass incarceration and judicial injustice; corporate domination of our political system; and the cynical creation and manipulation of divisions in our society.”
Lee entered politics as a radical activist and has admirably held to her principles. She volunteered with the Black Panthers in the late 1960s and worked on Bobby Seale’s 1973 Oakland mayoral campaign. She succeeded Ron Dellums whom she recently eulogized as “the late, great, beloved” Ron Dellums and in whose offices she rose from intern to chief of staff before embarking on her own career in elective office in the California State Assembly and Senate, 1990-1998.
Her service in Congress began in 1998, representing what is now the East Bay’s 13th Congressional District, only the 20th African American woman in Congress since its first meeting in 1789.
Congressman Ro Khanna (CA-17) recently said of Lee, “I have often said that if John F. Kennedy were writing ‘Profiles of Courage’ today, there would be a chapter on Barbara Lee. Her vote in opposing the blank check to war is one of the most courageous acts of modern time.”