Lateefah Simon, a BART board director, police reform advocate and former recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, is the first major candidate to launch a campaign to replace Rep. Barbara Lee as the East Bay’s representative in the House on Tuesday — and she is clearing the field of potential rivals.
Simon, a Democrat who is also a member of the California State University Board of Trustees, said her lived experience, starting with being raised by a single mother in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood, would shape the type of House member she would be.