Incumbent concedes Oakland District 3 seat to housing activist Carroll Fife

Oakland City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney has conceded the District 3 council race to Carroll Fife, who was leading by a wide margin in updated election results Tuesday, according to election officials and Fife’s office.

Fife, a Moms 4 Housing co-founder, had 49.4 percent toward the 50 percent plus one vote she needs to officially be declared the winner.

Fife said her reaction to the apparent win is tempered because all the votes have not been counted, but she is nonetheless “elated.”

Fife co-founded Moms 4 Housing, which led four mothers to occupy a vacant home at 2929 Magnolia St. to call attention to Oakland’s homelessness crisis and vacant, investor-owned properties in the city. Moms 4 Housing called for and continues to call for housing to be a human right.

Fife said in an interview Monday that “people should be put before profits,” and that making housing a human right in Oakland is what must happen.

She added that issue is not limited to Oakland.

The election results will not be certified until Dec. 3 and the results are not yet the official, final results, said Tim Dupuis, Alameda County’s registrar of voters. But he said that Tuesday will be the last big push of vote counting, even though more votes may come in.

Fife thanked all the people who helped her to the apparent win, and she said it “is just the beginning.”

She said in a statement:

“Our campaign is transitioning into a permanent political organization dedicated to passing transformative legislation and building a progressive majority on the Oakland City Council.”

Fife said her priorities are to “divest from police and invest in community,” get every homeless person in Oakland into a home as soon as possible, and “create progressive tax structures to correct social and racial inequities.”