The congresswoman from the 9th District is Barbara Lee, a Democrat who won an April 1998 special election. Lee spent her childhood in Texas and says her political thinking was shaped by her early exposure to race discrimination. While in labor with her, Lee’s mother was at first denied treatment at an El Paso hospital. Lee attended a segregated school in that city until her parents sent their children to a Catholic school. In 1960, the family moved to Southern California, where Lee was the first black cheerleader in her high school, a distinction she won after enlisting the help of the local chapter of the NAACP. In 2008, Lee authored a memoir, Renegade for Peace and Justice, in which she discussed her experiences as a single welfare mother raising two children while attending college, and her early days of social advocacy. “In order to go the policy front, I had to do the personal,” she said. Lee graduated from Mills College in Oakland and got a degree in social work at the University of California at Berkeley. She started a community mental health center in Berkeley and then worked as a staffer for 12 years for Rep. Ron Dellums, who chaired the House Armed Services Committee. She was elected to the California Assembly in 1990 and to the Senate in 1996. After Dellums announced he was resigning, he endorsed Lee as his successor, and she won the special election with 67% of the vote. Read More

The congresswoman from the 9th District is Barbara Lee, a Democrat who won an April 1998 special election. Lee spent her childhood in Texas and says her political thinking was shaped by her early exposure to race discrimination. While in labor with her, Lee’s mother was at first denied treatment at an El Paso hospital. Lee attended a segregated school in that city until her parents sent their children to a Catholic school. In 1960, the family moved to Southern California, where Lee was the first black cheerleader in her high school, a distinction she won after enlisting the help of the local chapter of the NAACP. In 2008, Lee authored a memoir, Renegade for Peace and Justice, in which she discussed her experiences as a single welfare mother raising two children while attending college, and her early days of social advocacy. “In order to go the policy front, I had to do the personal,” she said. Lee graduated from Mills College in Oakland and got a degree in social work at the University of California at Berkeley. She started a community mental health center in Berkeley and then worked as a staffer for 12 years for Rep. Ron Dellums, who chaired the House Armed Services Committee. She was elected to the California Assembly in 1990 and to the Senate in 1996. After Dellums announced he was resigning, he endorsed Lee as his successor, and she won the special election with 67% of the vote.

In the House, Lee is at the far left of the ideological spectrum. She wants to reduce the nation’s weapons stockpiles and cut Pentagon spending sharply. She supports increased funding for international AIDS programs, and after a visit to Cuba, called for steps to end the 40-year trade embargo. She led a delegation of Democrats there in 2009 to discuss trade and other issues with its Communist-run government. As the co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus, she laid out an agenda with three priorities: economic justice and security, protection of civil rights and liberties, and promotion of global peace. She was a founder of the Out of Iraq Caucus, a group of the most vocal antiwar House members.

Lee has consistently opposed military action to the point of being a lonely but principled voice. As most Democrats voted to authorize bombing of Serbia in 1999, Lee was the only House member to oppose a resolution supporting U.S. troops. In September 2001, she was the only member of Congress to vote against the resolution authorizing the use of force in response to the terrorist attacks. “If we rush to launch a counterattack, we run too great a risk that women, children, and other noncombatants will be caught in the crossfire,” she said. Her vote brought a torrent of national attention. Lee received threats of violence, and the Capitol police provided her with 24-hour protection. But there were supportive rallies in her district. During the debate in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq, Lee offered an alternative calling for diplomatic action, which was defeated 355-72.

In 2008, Lee became chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, which she calls “the conscience of the Congress.” In February 2009, she criticized Senate cuts in the House-passed version of President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill. She and other caucus members subsequently lamented Obama’s plans to add troops in Afghanistan and they have pressured Obama to pay more attention to minorities.

In 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave Lee a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. She was one of 14 Democrats to vote against the Iraq war funding bill on the House floor. “My conscience is that we can’t put up more money to fund this war,” Lee said. In July 2008, the House passed, 399-24, her bill to prevent permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq or U.S. control of Iraqi oil. The House also passed her bill to encourage states to divest from companies that do business in Sudan, in protest of the genocide in the Darfur region. As Republican criticism mounted over earmarked spending, the special-interest provisions added to spending bills, Lee remained a staunch defender of the practice. “I’ll tell them to come to my community and see what we can accomplish with whatever federal dollars we can get,” she said in 2009.