Six weeks before the special election to replace former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, candidate Loren Taylor has disclosed that he had a life-threatening liver condition last year, and had a transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.

If you haven’t been following the upcoming special election in Oakland to replace the recalled ex-Mayor Sheng Thao, the election is about six weeks from today on April 15. The major candidates are longtime congressional representative Barbara Lee, the former Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor who lost by a whisker to Thao in the 2022 mayoral race, and Thao’s former chief of staff Renia Webb, who’s framed herself as a whistleblower on Thao’s alleged bribe-taking.    

When the former councilmember Taylor announced his candidacy last month, he made some vague reference to “a recent struggle with a rare disease” where he said he was “facing major organ failure.” He added that “I fought for my life in December,” but he had not elaborated on what this medical issue was.

That is, until Tuesday. Taylor gave a sit-down interview with KTVU, during which he revealed he had liver transplant surgery in December because of a rare genetic condition affecting his liver. He added that he was in and out of hospitals for much of 2024.

"I've been given the gift of life, additional time to realize my impact, my vision," Taylor told KTVU. "I really do feel like I have a new lease on life because of this transplant. Because of someone else's tragedy, the organ donor whom I am now the beneficiary of."  

He had the procedure performed at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.

So would this affect Taylor's ability to do the demanding job of running a city with nearly 500,000 residents? Doctors say he should be able to do just fine.

"The prognosis, both short term and long term, should be excellent," Mayo Clinic Transplant Center chair Dr. Bashar Aqel said to KTVU. "There were a few things that worked in his favor. As you know, he's young. He's healthy and the transplant happened in a timely manner.”

Taylor is likely to be on medication for the rest of his life, and is also making a point to encourage people to get the organ donation designation on their state ID.

As far as the mayor’s race goes, there’s another debate (they’re calling it a “mayoral forum”) this Saturday, March 8 at the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, though registration is at full capacity, and there is not currently a livestream link listed. But the bigger debate, for which only Taylor and Barbara Lee have qualified as of press time, is the Tuesday, March 11 mayoral debate that will be broadcast and streamed on KTVU.  

Related: Candidates Running to Replace Sheng Thao Face Off In First Oakland Mayoral Forum [SFist]

Image: Loren Taylor via Facebook