2022 Oakland mayoral election

The 2022 Oakland mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the mayor of Oakland, California. The previous incumbent mayor Libby Schaaf was term-limited. Sheng Thao won the election and was inaugurated as mayor in January 2023.

The position is non-partisan. The election was held using instant-runoff voting, the rules of which include voters ranking their top 5 candidates. If one candidate receives a majority (greater than 50%) of the #1 ranked votes, they win the election, but if no candidate meets that criteria, then the candidates with the lowest votes are eliminated and tallying continues to the #2 ranking, and so on until a single candidate receives a majority of votes. Following election day, ballot tallying showed that no candidate received the minimum >50% of the vote necessary to win outright. The two candidates with the most #1 ranked votes were Councilmember Loren Taylor and Councilmember Sheng Thao, with Taylor receiving slightly more votes. Vote tallying continued for over a week, before Thao was eventually declared winner on November 21. The final tally, after rank tallying, had Thao with 50.3% of the 113,636 votes and Taylor with 49.7%.