A progressive star politician and one of the country’s youngest mayors who received national recognition for guaranteed income programs for the poor but then was booted out of office by voters in his Central Valley hometown announced he was running for statewide office in California.
Former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs officially launched his 2026 campaign for California lieutenant governor on July 17.
Tubbs has served as Gov. Gavin Newsom's special adviser for economic mobility and opportunity since 2021. He said this experience and his journey raising three young children is why he entered the race.
Other notable candidates previously announced for the office included Treasurer Fiona Ma, Sen. Steven Bradford, and Sausalito City Councilmember Janelle Kellman.
How did Stockton's guaranteed income program work?
Stockton’s experiment in a guaranteed income program — the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, or SEED, which paid residents $500 a month with no strings attached — began in 2019. It gave 125 people below Stockton's median household income an unconditional monthly stipend.
A 2021 analysis of a guaranteed program in Stockton found full-time employment increased among participants after the first year of receiving the money. When asked by researchers what they had been using the $500 on each month, recipients reported that 40% of the money was spent on food, 25% on merchandise and 12% on utilities.
“For the city of Stockton, which has had its ups and downs, for us to now be at the center of a global conversation about what capitalism and the economy look like in the 21st century, it’s very special,” Tubbs told the Stockton Record in 2020.
The Stockton pilot program inspired other unconditional cash programs across the country. As of 2023, CalMatters counted more than 40 unconditional cash programs that have launched or are preparing to launch this year, giving cash to more than 12,000 residents total.
"The work we did in Stockton was instructive to me about what needs to be happening statewide," Tubbs told the Record as he announced his campaign for the statewide office. "The state is at a crossroads where in the next 10 years, the choices we make will determine the next 100, and particularly for young folks. California just isn't affordable. We oftentimes are not able to buy houses. We're not able to settle here. I'm tired of seeing my friends leave California to go elsewhere, so I'm running to make sure that my children have a California even better than the California that I remember and have enjoyed and have lived in my entire life."
Who is Michael Tubbs?
Tubbs was raised by a single mother in Stockton, a city with a population of 321,000. His father was incarcerated most of his life. He received a scholarship to attend Stanford University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and a Master of Arts in Policy, Leadership, and Organization Studies in 2012.
After graduating college, Tubbs returned to his hometown to run for the Stockton City Council. The same year, he was elected as the District 6 representative and served on the council until his election to the mayor's office in 2016. At 26, Tubbs became Stockton's first Black mayor and the youngest person elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
"Being from a community like Stockton, it gives you something. It gives you a little bit of hustle. It makes you very resilient. It's also taught me how to work with people who are different than me, who look different from me, who speak different from me," Tubbs said. "When I was mayor, we had three Republicans and three Democrats on the council. You just learn how to get things done."
He garnered national attention for establishing one of the nation's first universal basic income pilot programs and was the subject of the HBO documentary "Stockton On My Mind."
Despite the recognition, Tubbs lost his 2020 reelection bid to current Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln by nearly 13% points, continuing the city's trend of one-term mayors.
The following year, he accepted a job offer from Newsom and moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Anna, and their children.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
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