Lateefah Simon will, in fact, do it
U.S. rep, 12th Congressional District
Having already defeated Jamie Joyce in the primary, 84 percent to 15, Lateefah Simon will obviously not be unseated by her in November, when, for some reason, the ballot will feature a rematch over Barbara Lee’s old seat.
Oakland Review of Books
It’s almost interesting how little traction Joyce got, despite her oh-so-clever “We Can Do It!” signs. Almost because, insofar as both candidates are progressive-coded Democrats in a very blue District 12, they scan as different kinds of progressive. On the one hand, you have the Black community organizer, municipal politician, and party woman who was appointed to and endorsed for various things by people like Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom. And on the other, a white lady from Berkeley whose entire CV is her time in the tech industry—and in various nonprofit spaces criticizing and seeking to reform the tech industry—as well as endless websites and policy plans about being MAD! about the tech industry (and also, for some reason, Epstein).
One is almost tempted to be interested in the way the race articulates the cleavage between two very different kinds of demographically progressive East Bays. But it’s not actually that interesting. Sometimes it’s simpler than that. Simon is an incumbent, well-positioned, uncontroversial, and nobody dislikes her, as far as we can tell. In office, she’s done basically the kind of things you’d expect her to be doing in a GOP-controlled Congress where there’s not much a first-term Democratic House member could do (and her “priorities” page is so standard, I couldn’t bring myself to click any of the extremely predictable links).
Joyce, on the other hand, is a self-appointed outsider running vaguely against the Democratic Party and “business as usual,” with a few endorsements from people like Tristan Harris, Brewster Kahle, and three Epstein survivors (for some reason), and has nothing specifically to say about why Lateefah Simon shouldn’t be in Congress. There’s almost something charming about how hard her enormous, endless website tries to funnel you towards her giant “750+ page bill” filled with anything she could think of that would get her imagined constituency’s socks rolling up and down, and which turns out to be an absolute dog’s breakfast of AI and anti-ICE and anti-surveillance policy ideas (and Epstein, for some reason).
But not that charming, ultimately. There’s a spot on her website where you can suggest something else to throw in her omnibus (“7 people have voted so far”), so I did.
Find more of our voting guide here.