Oakland Rising Action Endorses Rebecca Kaplan for Alameda County Board of Supervisors, District 3 in the 2022 General Election

Published by Oakland Rising Action on

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, AUGUST 9 2022

 

Media Contact: liz suk

Executive Director, Oakland Rising Action

[email protected]

 

OAKLAND, CA – Today, Oakland Rising Action, a community-led political organization focused on supporting candidates and issues that drive a progressive agenda for working-class, immigrant and communities of color living in the flatlands, announced their continued endorsement for Rebecca Kaplan for Alameda County Board of Supervisors, District 3. Kaplan soundly won the 2022 Primary with 13% more votes than her closest competitor and is now headed into the General Election. The Third Supervisorial District includes the cities of Alameda and San Leandro; a portion of the city of Oakland, including the Chinatown, San Antonio, Fruitvale and Melrose areas; the unincorporated communities of San Lorenzo and Hayward Acres; and a portion of the unincorporated community of Ashland.

There’s a big opportunity on the Board of Supervisors to change how our public money is distributed: right now, vast amounts at the county level are given to the sheriff to lock people up and criminalize our communities while denying funding the structures that keep us safe – healthcare, affordable housing, jobs with thriving wages, and mental health support. Kaplan is interested in changing that and has made a commitment to partner with community on achieving these goals of community reinvestment.

“With two decades of experience in elected office, Rebecca Kaplan is the best choice to lead our county on issues of housing and homelessness, mental health services, and community safety. As a member-at-large for the AC Transit Board before her current role on Oakland City Council, she has shown that she is effective and experienced in working at the county level,” said Oakland Rising Action’s Executive Director liz suk, “We hope she will continue to support movement-building on issues such as community benefit agreements, police reform, immigration, rights of working people, housing justice, environmental justice, and more.”

“I am so honored to receive the endorsement of Oakland Rising Action for our campaign for Alameda County Supervisor. Community grassroots advocacy is so important to building better policy – and working together we can build a future of more justice and health for the public,” stated Rebecca Kaplan.

Rebecca Kaplan currently serves on the Oakland City Council as the only At-Large City Councilmember and Vice Mayor, serving all of Oakland since her election in 2008. Before she joined City Council, she was an elected director on the AC Transit Board. In her years of serving Oakland, she has fought for worker rights and protections, healthcare, women’s rights and reproductive freedom, LGBTQ equality, environmental and public health, transit access, homelessness and tenant rights, prisoner rights, ending mass incarceration, racial justice, and more. 

Rebecca attended MIT as an undergraduate and began grassroots organizing on campus, eventually graduating from Stanford Law School with a law degree. During her seven years at the AC Transit Board of Directors, she worked to expand late night bus service, opposed outsourcing, expanded bike-transit connections, solar power, and sustainable fuel initiatives. Kaplan also sat on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board where she represented Oakland and advocated for cleaner air and public health – winning millions of dollars and making changes in policy.

During the pandemic, she worked hard to ensure COVID-19 vaccination access across Oakland for everyone. She has also restored funding for vital public services such as first responders and mental health crisis responders. She currently serves on the Alameda County Transportation Commission, which oversees $8 billion in transportation funding. We will continue to push Kaplan to build trust with our communities and commit to active community engagement in order to represent our communities and responsibly co-govern with organizations and labor to fight for resources so we can all thrive.

The statewide general election will take place on November 8, 2022. For more information about Kaplan’s campaign, please visit supervisorkaplan.org

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Oakland Rising Action is a community-led political organization focused on supporting candidates and issues that drive a progressive agenda for Oakland’s working-class, immigrant and communities of color living in the flatlands of Oakland. Through a thorough process that includes a written questionnaire and panel and/or individual interviews, Oakland Rising Action endorses those candidates that most align with our values, vision, and emerging progressive strategy for Oakland. To ensure that alignment, our endorsement process engages activists, organizers and leaders of Oakland’s progressive left at all stages.