Barbara Jean Lee (née Tutt; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician who has served as the 52nd mayor of Oakland since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a U.S. representative from California from 1998 to 2025, representing California's 12th congressional district (numbered as the 9th district from 1998 to 2013 and as the 13th district from 2013 to 2023). She also served in both houses of the California State Legislature from 1990 to 1998.

Born and raised in Texas, Lee was educated at Mills College and the University of California, Berkeley. She started her career by working on the presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm and was later involved with the Black Panther Party. After working as chief of staff for U.S. Representative Ron Dellums, Lee served in the California State Assembly from 1990 to 1996 and in the California State Senate from 1996 to 1998.

Lee was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1998 special election to succeed Dellums. Her district was based in Oakland and covered most of the northern part of Alameda County; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+40, it was one of the most Democratic districts in the country. A noted progressive, she chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus from 2005 to 2009 and the Congressional Black Caucus from 2009 to 2011. She was also founding member of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and co-chaired the House Democratic Steering Committee and the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. She is known for playing a major role in the antiwar movement throughout her time in Congress—most notably in her vocal criticism of the Iraq War and for being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11 attacks—and for her work with President George W. Bush to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS through the creation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

In 2024, Lee chose not to pursue re-election in the House and instead ran for Senate to succeed Dianne Feinstein. Lee lost in the jungle primary to Republican Steve Garvey and fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who won the seat in the general election. After leaving Congress, Lee announced her campaign for mayor of Oakland in the 2025 special election triggered by the recall of Sheng Thao and defeated former city councilmember Loren Taylor. She was sworn in on May 20, 2025, becoming the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Oakland.

Lee was born Barbara Jean Tutt on July 16, 1946, in El Paso, Texas. She is the oldest of three daughters of Mildred Adaire (née Parish; 1924–2015) and Garvin Alexander Tutt (1924–2007), a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. When she was born in a segregated hospital, her mother was left in the hallway, as the hospital refused to assist her. Lee is African American; according to a DNA analysis, she descends primarily from the people of Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, where she was taught by the Sisters of Loretto. She was the only African-American Girl Scout in El Paso, and she recalls having faced racial discrimination throughout her childhood.

Lee's parents divorced in 1955. Five years later, she moved to California with her mother and two sisters. She attended San Fernando High School in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she worked with the NAACP to become the school's first African-American cheerleader, and she graduated in 1964. When she was 15, Lee had a back-alley abortion in Ciudad Juárez. She married Carl Lee, a member of the United States Air Force, and moved with him to England after high school; they had two children, and then divorced when Lee was 20. After the birth of her first child in 1966, Lee returned to California's San Fernando Valley. Lee describes the marriage as abusive, and she became homeless following the divorce.

She later moved to the Bay Area and attended Mills College, where she served as president of the college's Black Student Union, and she graduated in 1973 with a bachelor of arts in psychology. She later attended the University of California, Berkeley, from where she graduated in 1975 with a master of social work. Throughout college, Lee was a single mother of two on public assistance and food stamps, and she often took her children to class because she was unable to afford child care.

Lee worked for the Glendale Welfare Council and later as a statistical clerk for the California Department of Labor Statistics. As president of the Mills College Black Student Union, Lee invited Representative Shirley Chisholm to speak on campus. She was inspired to register to vote by Chisholm's visit, and she went on to work on Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign, serving as one of her delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Lee later said Chisholm was a mentor who inspired her to run for office. Also while a student, Lee volunteered at the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center and worked on Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 campaign for mayor of Oakland. Lee was surveilled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation due to her involvement with the Black Panthers.