OAKLAND — Barbara Lee opened her first news conference as Oakland’s mayor-elect with a nod to her Catholic upbringing and education in El Paso, Texas, leading a packed room in a moment of silence for Pope Francis, who died earlier Monday.

Progressive icon and former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee is the new mayor of troubled Oakland, California, a city she represented for more than two decades in Congress.

Votes are still being counted, but with her closest competitor having conceded, Barbara Lee is now considered the mayor-elect of Oakland.