Political Notes: Queer Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran to seek reelection

Coming just weeks after Oakland saw the election of a new mayor and lesbian city councilmember, both of whom have yet to be sworn into office, queer Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran will officially launch her 2026 reelection bid next month. The first-time mom already has lined up a who’s who of political leaders to back her candidacy for the District 4 council seat.

Among the host committee for the May 7 event are Congressmember Lateefah Simon (D-Oakland), California Treasurer Fiona Ma, and outgoing interim Oakland Mayor Kevin Jenkins who holds the District 6 council seat. Former mayor Elihu Harris and former city councilmember Treva Reid are also on the organizing body.

“We are entering a new era of Oakland politics. Councilmember Ramachandran has been a trailblazing voice of reason since assuming office, with the audacity to fight for common sense policies. She is ready to seize the moment with a new set of Oakland leaders, and elevate her fight for a safe and vibrant Town,” noted an emailed invite to the launch event and fundraiser for Ramachandran’s campaign.

In 2021, the social justice attorney had jumped into the race for an open state Assembly seat called due to Governor Gavin Newsom tapping Rob Bonta (D) to be state attorney general. Yet Bonta’s wife, Mia (D), won that election.

The following year, when then-councilmember Sheng Thao decided to run for Oakland mayor, Ramachandran ran to succeed her in the District 4 seat. Her election at the age of 30 made Ramachandran the youngest councilmember in Oakland's history, as well as the council's first LGBTQ woman of color and first South Asian member.

Her district includes much of the Oakland hills and the neighborhoods of Dimond, Glen Highlands, Montclair, Glenview, Laurel, and Redwood Heights, among others. Following Thao’s recall as mayor last year amid a wide-sweeping federal corruption probe of East Bay officials, Ramachandran was an early backer of seeing long-serving congressmember Barbara Lee be elected mayor in the special election held April 15 to serve out the remainder of Thao’s term through 2026.

Lee, who left the House last year after opting to launch an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 2024, was declared the winner of the mayoral race April 18 when a second vote count was released by Alameda County elections officials. Winning the special election for the District 2 council seat that became vacant when former councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas won election to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last November was Charlene Wang, a lesbian who had mounted an unsuccessful bid for the council’s at-large seat last November.

In a series of musical chairs on the council, lesbian former at-large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan was tapped as the interim District 2 councilmember and will depart as soon as Wang takes her oath of office. Wang will serve alongside Ramachandran and queer at-large Councilmember Rowena Brown, who won her race for the citywide seat last fall.

In the special election for the district council seat centered around Lake Merritt, Ramachandran had endorsed Wang. It means she should have several new allies at Oakland City Hall less than a year after reportedly being “exiled” by Thao and her council allies, as reported by the East Bay Insiders Substack newsletter.

While one of the more progressive LGBTQ political leaders in the Bay Area, Ramachandran also has proved to be a pragmatic politician unafraid to raise pointed questions about Oakland’s fiscal priorities and policies. She was a vocal critic of the plan to sell the city’s share in the Oakland Coliseum complex to the African American Sports Entertainment Group as a way to balance the budget last year, a $125 million sale that was supposed to be completed this May but was recently delayed to 2026.

Over the winter, Ramachandran led the fight to reverse the city’s plans to close fire stations, several in her district in the Oakland Hills. In both policy fights, Ramachandran utilized her social media platforms to post videos of herself explaining the issue and expressing her positions on and critiques of the proposals to address it.

Last November, she gave birth to a baby boy with her partner, Osage Edebiri. Of South Indian ancestry, her first name of Janani means “mother” in Sanskrit.

The couple are both vocalists and perform together as the singing duo wish u were us; his stage name is Osagie the Great. Last August, while pregnant, Ramachandran was cast as a singing dancing nun in the musical “Sister Act” staged at Oakland's Joaquin Miller Park amphitheater as part of the long-running Woodminster Summer Musicals series.

As the invite to her campaign kickoff promises “special guests, musical performances, and hors d’oeuvres,” guests may get another chance to hear Ramachandran show off her musical chops.

It takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, at Torch Oakland. The rooftop venue is located at 1630 San Pablo Avenue and offers views of Oakland City Hall.

Attendees are asked to make a donation of at least $15 to Ramachandran’s reelection campaign coffers. To do so online, click here.


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