Oakland political leader Peggy Moore and her wife, Hope Wood, died late Friday night, May 10, following a head-on collision on State Route 76 in unincorporated San Diego County. The news brought a flood of tributes on social media, as friends and colleagues remembered the couple.
According to multiple media reports, Moore and Wood were passengers in a Jeep Gladiator that was traveling westbound on the highway at 11:17 p.m. when a Chrysler 300 that was driving east swerved into the westbound lanes, striking the Jeep. In addition to Moore and Wood, the driver of the Jeep was killed as was the driver of the Chrysler, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. A third car, a Toyota Camry, which was behind the Jeep, was involved in a minor side-swipe, according to the reports.
It is not known why the Chrysler veered into oncoming traffic.
Moore, 60, had long been involved in Oakland politics. She managed the successful 2014 mayoral campaign for Libby Schaaf and served as a senior adviser to her. In 2016, she unsuccessfully ran for the at-large seat on the Oakland City Council, facing lesbian incumbent Rebecca Kaplan. Moore also worked as an organizer for Barack Obama's winning 2008 presidential campaign.
In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter Monday, Schaaf said that she was devastated by the loss of Moore and Wood. During her 2014 mayoral campaign, Schaaf said that she and Moore "spent all day, every day together for a year."
"She molded me into the mayor I became — in the most beautiful ways our democracy needs more of," Schaaf said. "She was centered in love."
Schaaf said that she hosted a gathering at her home Saturday evening with her former campaign and City Hall staffers. "I was so shocked. I wanted to create a space to celebrate her and Hope," she said. "It's a devastating loss for me personally and for democracy."
Schaaf added that Moore was the only member of her campaign team to come to work for her in City Hall as a senior adviser. Moore stayed until she launched her own City Council campaign, and then Schaaf said that she came back to City Hall for the last few months of Schaaf's tenure. (Schaaf had been reelected in 2018 and left office in January 2023. She is currently running for state treasurer in 2026.)
Schaaf said that recently, Moore and Wood had been mostly living in Orange County to be closer to Wood's family. Moore maintained an apartment in Oakland, Schaaf said. Moore had also been spending time with her family in Oklahoma City, which is where she celebrated her 60th birthday.
"I was on a Zoom call with her days ago," Schaaf said.
Kaplan stated that Moore was a "dedicated community leader."
"May her memory be a blessing," she wrote in a text message. "Her death is a shock and a great loss."
Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) knew both women.
"I'm heartbroken to hear of the tragic loss of Peggy Moore and Hope Wood," Lee wrote on X. "Peggy was a friend, an activist, and one of the best organizers I knew. Her passion and fight for justice and equality is what brought her and Hope together.
"Together they organized, changed hearts and minds, and helped to create a world where who you love doesn't limit your freedoms," she added. "Both Peggy and Hope made an impact on our community, on our city, on our state, and on our nation that will be felt for generations to come."
Started consulting firm
In 2019, Moore and Wood, 48, started Hope Action Change Consulting. On the site, they wrote that they fell in love while working on the 2008 Obama campaign.
"As women of color, we are experts at the dance of values in the workplace," they wrote on the site. "We have lived outside the main streets of society in the intersections of our gender and our race, and we have learned to navigate a path through many streets where we have not been welcome. Despite the difficulties of this journey, we are full of optimism for where our path leads."
Moore and Wood were married in a ceremony at Oakland's Lake Merritt on July 29, 2013. It was a month prior that same-sex marriage returned to being legalized in California after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an appeals court decision that Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban passed by voters in 2008, was unconstitutional.
On Facebook, friends remembered the couple.
"We want you to know how much we loved you both," Brendalynn Goodall, a member of the Alameda County Democratic County Central Committee, and her wife, Nancy Hinds, wrote. "The news of your passing has left us feeling shocked, numb, and incredibly sad. It's hard to believe you are no longer here. You were more than just friends — you were family.
"We shared so many unforgettable memories and experiences together — from life's ups and downs to discussions about politics, community, family, relationships, careers, and even our beloved pets," added Goodall. "We were always there for each other, through thick and thin."
Longtime DJ Page Hodel was also stunned by the news. "I am still doubled over ... literally speechless over hearing the news of the tragic passing of our beloved Peggy Moore and her wife Hope Wood," she wrote on Facebook.
Moore is also remembered for co-founding Sistahs Steppin' in Pride, which took place in Oakland beginning in the early 2000s. Kaplan mentioned it as one of Moore's accomplishments. For a decade, it brought the East Bay's diverse queer women's community together in celebration during the last weekend of August. Up to 2,000 queer women attended the event at its peak, Moore told the B.A.R. in 2011, the last year of the march.
The event had started as the East Bay's version of the dyke march held in San Francisco and took place in conjunction with the old East Bay Pride. When that event stopped in 2003, Sistahs Steppin' in Pride stepped up, so to speak, to make sure there was a queer presence in the East Bay.
The new Oakland Pride started in 2010. Last year, a combined Oakland Pride and Pridefest parade and festival were held in early September.
Wood was a former teaching fellow for Harvard Kennedy School's Leadership Organizing, Action: Leading Change course and a UCLA teacher education program alumna, according to the couple's consulting website. She had devoted more than two decades of her life to organizing across California and the United States.
Moore and Wood's friend Lisbet Tellefsen organized an impromptu memorial Sunday, May 12, at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater where Moore and Wood were married. Schaaf said that she attended.
"There were lots of [people wearing] Sistahs Steppin' in Pride and Moore for City Council T-shirts," Schaaf said.
"She was an amazing leader for the LGBTQ+ community," Schaaf added. "She brought her full self to everything she did."
Updated, 5/13/24: This article has been updated with a statement from Congressmember Barbara Lee.
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