California Working Families Party

We are a grassroots political party building a multiracial movement of working people to transform CA and the country. Text CA to 30403 to join us. 🐺

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Happy International Women’s Day & Women’s History Month! Today and every day we’re celebrating and getting progressive women into office. In 2022 we were proud to endorse 26 women, many of whom are women of color, for offices across California ranging from school board to state legislature. We’re proud of the WFP women making history every day in office & we can’t wait to help grow their presence! 🐺

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Money talks!

#BigOil is in the pockets of our California Legislators, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans. As gas prices skyrocketed in California as a result of #BigOil and their corporate greed, does anyone find this surprising? 👀

#BigOil is polluting our planet and our democracy, buying their right to hurt working families and their pockets with no penalties. It's time to #StopBigOilGreed and urge our legislators to pass an Oil Price Gouging Penalty.

Money talks, but so does collective power! Sign our petition to support Senate Bill x1-2 and urge your legislators to do the same.

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Joe Goldberg visits Sacramento

Well… hello there.

Who are you?

Based on your vibe… politician. 

The pin on your blazer… says Democrat

You say you’re for the people,

but your campaign contributions from big oil…

well, they say otherwise.

You like a little controversy.

Okay, I bite.

Hmm, you're not

the standard Democrat

posing to be progressive to hold on to votes.

Too left on identity politics for the Republicans.

What kind of Democrat are you?

Excuse me.

You sound assertive,

like you're about to debate a colleague on why we shouldn’t pass an oil price gouging bill,

and you murmur your first word to me.

Are you with the Working Families Party?

Guilty.

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California Environmental Voters just released a 2022 score card for California legislators. While California as a state improved its score, there’s still so much to address to ensure a healthy future for our communities. Every Republican in the legislature took oil money & 64% of Democrats did too! We need legislators who will take bold action to address climate change & champion #WorkingFamilies, NOT legislators who are not beholden to big oil. Let's #StopBigOil and elect #WFP champions in 2024.

See how your legislator scored here: https://envirovoters.org/scorecard/

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California, let's #StopBigOil

In 2020, while working families across California suffered economic turmoil amidst a global pandemic, we also saw peak gas prices reaching as high as nearly $6. While oil companies claimed that the cause of this increase was state taxes or the war in Ukraine,

the reality is that these prices were the result of price gouging and corporate greed.

In 2021, California taxes on oil had not increase and the United States was EXPORTING more petroleum than it was importing. Crude oil costs were actually dropping as gas prices remained high.

Long story short, oil companies took advantage of Californians in an already trying time for the sake of their own financial benefit. As a result, oil companies saw RECORD profits and face no penalties.

In effort to stop this from happening again, California Senator Nancy Skinner introduced Assembly Bill 2, an oil price gouging penalty bill. This bill is what working families across California need & deserve, but it won’t pass without support from our CA Legislators.

Sign our petition to let your legislator know that you’re watching & you expect their support for SB2 to #StopBigOil : https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-an-oil-price-gouging-penalty

[janekim]

#YearofRabbit California Policy Dream List for Working Families

One year ago, I joined the Working Families Party to expand its organizing to the largest state in the nation- California.  Tasked with the goal of activating an electorate which overwhelmingly voted for Bernie Sanders for President in 2020 and identifying and winning candidates who actually represent the working families of California, we got to work.

California Working Families Party endorsed 59 candidates in the 2022 election cycle and hosted more than 300 events– doorknocking, phonebanks, text banks and virtual townhalls to support them.  In a promising story of California’s future, 56 of our WFP endorsed candidates identify as people of color and the majority are women.

In our inaugural year, eight California Working Families Squad Legislators, committed to fight for tenant protections, climate justice and fair wages won, expanding our corporate free squad in Sacramento from two to eight.  While Democrats dominate California, too many legislators have sided with big money, choosing Big Oil or Big Pharma over the health of our communities. In fact, Big Oil (more on this later), is the biggest political spender in California funding 78 out 120 state legislators.

Six Working Families mayoral candidates won,  Karen Bass for Los Angeles Mayor, Paloma Aguirre for Imperial Beach Mayor,  Ulises Cabrera for Moreno Valley Mayor, Eduardo Martinez for Richmond City Mayor, and Rex Richardson for Long Beach City Mayor and Sheng Thao for Oakland Mayor. (Check out our GOTV Rally for Karen Bass for Los Angeles Mayor with Senator Bernie Sanders co-hosted by the California Working Families Party!)

California WFP also backed progressive champions for Board of Supervisors, City Council and Board of Education races to impact local communities and build a pipeline of candidates for higher office.  This is a promising bench in California where three out of four eligible voters under 30 is a person of color. 

California Policy Dream List 2023-2024

“Liberals want to do nice things. And progressives understand that you have to take on powerful special interests to make it happen.” U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

Winning office is not our goal. Winning a Working Families policy agenda which lifts all working Californians is our goal.  As we enter #YearofRabbit, a zodiac animal known for steadily moving towards their goal, here’s my California Policy Dream List- winnable, fundable + impactful.

1. Grow our California Squad to 20 by 2026, ensuring corporate free, Working Families champions make up ⅙ of our California legislature.  

While this may seem small, a group of 20 courageous and energetic leaders can move an agenda while activating and organizing our base.  They can shine a light on the corporate backed legislative agenda and introduce a peoples first policy agenda to positively impact the lives of everyday Californians.

2. Medicare for *ALL* Kids

At least 4M children across our nation lack access to health care today. While our ultimate goal is Medicare for ALL, starting with children is a good start. Imagine a world where all newborn babies, rich and poor, go home with a name, birth certificate and health insurance.

Providing children with health care is relatively cheap. The average child's medical needs, including vaccines and checkups, are routine, low-cost and preventative. Children make up a quarter of the U.S. population, but generate less than 12% of total health care spending and children would improve Medicare’s financial profile by lowering average costs.

Guaranteeing coverage for all kids would benefit all families– low-income and working-class families would be enrolled automatically without paperwork or expensive outreach and education programs in multiple languages. Medicaid is currently the third-largest anti-poverty program, responsible for raising 2 to 3M people out of poverty— reducing medical debt and bankruptcies. Medicare for Kids is also a subsidy to middle-class families who currently spend money on co-pays for visits and medication and sometimes significant or unaffordable deductibles. In fact, private health care does not guarantee access to care when out of pocket costs effectively eliminate access.  In addition, all children will get continuous, uninterrupted care with a familiar doctor instead of getting yanked in and out of coverage due to parent’s change of employment, job loss or change in income.  

Finally, we will raise a generation of voters who will not view Medicare as a socialist fantasy or nightmare but a generation which will have normalized a single payer healthcare system.

Oh, it’s also popular. According to a 2019 poll by Data for Progress poll, 80% of registered Democrats support Medicare for Kids.

3. Take on Big Oil

Big Oil is the biggest political spender in California, yet most voters in our blue state are unaware of the power the industry holds in Sacramento.  78 out of 120 California legislators, Republicans and Democrats, accepted oil money.  California is the 7th largest oil producing state and continues to approve fracking permits as wildfires and smoke choke our communities. Worse, over 7M Californians live within one mile of an active oil well, putting them at greater risk of asthma, cancer and early births.

After a decade of organizing, this past September, the California legislature finally passed a bill (SB 1137) to ban NEW oil drilling within 3200 feet of homes, schools and playgrounds and within days, Big Oil announced they were gathering signatures to repeal this bill. Other billionaire corporations also unhappy with policies to support workers, gathered signatures to overturn AB 257, a first in nation bill to establish sectoral bargaining for fast food workers. Both have qualified for the November 2024 ballot.  

We can defeat those pro-corporate ballot initiatives and go on offense. Finally tired of $8/gallon headlines, Democrats announced they would introduce a bill to penalize oil price gouging. Financial reports revealed that the five companies producing 97% of all of California’s oil and gas, quadrupled their profits in the first nine months of 2022. California had the highest gouge gap in the nation–billions of dollars went from the pocketbooks of hardworking Californians only to enrich billionaire CEO’s and shareholders. It’s time to fight back.

4. Raise the Minimum Wage: One Job Should Be Enough

The Fight for 15 had real, measurable impacts on workers' pay.  This January, California’s minimum wage rose to $15.50 and an estimated 5.6M Californians will earn at least $20B more, an amount larger than all of California’s major public assistance programs combined.

Yet, we have still not kept up with the living wage needed across California.  There is not a single county where a minimum wage worker can afford to rent a two bedroom apartment for themselves and their family. New York and Rhode Island introduced $21/hour and Idaho and Massachusetts introduced $20/hour. California can and should continue to lead this fight for minimum wage workers, the vast majority of whom are women.

And we should raise the minimum wage for all workers including incarcerated inmates who currently make pennies on the hour for jobs which include fighting California’s wildfires.

5. Tax Extreme Wealth

During the pandemic, billionaires grew $2 trillion while millions of Americans filed for unemployment or risked their lives as essential workers.  44% of that wealth grew in California alone.  California has the most billionaires and the highest poverty rate in the nation. This is a policy failure.  

In month, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Washington all introduced a Wealth Tax on the extreme rich.  The California Wealth Tax is modeled on US Senator Elizabeth Warren's, specifically targeting extreme wealth over $50M and $1B. If passed, it would generate $22.3B/year for California.  California has one of the most progressive income tax rates in the country, effectively taxing for example, a rich doctor who primarily earns their money through income.  However, the wealthiest Californians report very little income– avoiding taxes on the vast majority of their wealth. We should remedy this inequity and tax all wealth.

5. Free Bus Pilots 

It is exciting to see cities such as Washington DC and Boston pilot fare free bus programs while New York legislators consider similar proposals.  Free bus programs make public transportation more accessible, encourage people to ride instead of drive, reduce congestion and pollution, and disproportionately benefit low-income individuals and families (again without the hassle of paperwork, expensive outreach programs and bureaucratic income verification). Imagine cities which provide free buses for residents and visitors to ride to work, school and play!

California is changing

Over the next decade, we are going to see the continued growth and power of California voters currently under 45. And they are disproportionately people of color and immigrants.

California is ready to lead a working families agenda for the nation.  There is a growing base of multiracial, cross-class voters that want to tackle widening wealth inequality, the untenable affordability crisis, and wildfires turning our communities to ash. Our challenge is to organize that base of voters into a movement that can make this wish list a reality and deliver for the people. 

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A Democratic majority isn’t enough – California needs a Working Families Party majority. 

What is the Working Families Party?

The Working Families Party (WFP) is a national political party that organizes outside the two parties. We recruit, train, and elect transformational leaders up and down the ballot all across the country. This is not just an idea — it’s reality. We then organized with them to win major victories for working families — like higher wages, a fairer criminal justice system and getting money out of politics. Now we’re here in California and we invite you to learn more about us and more importantly, join us! 

California is not as progressive as people think. Republicans and corporate-backed Democrats are blocking the legislation that working families need most, like medicare for all, tuition-free colleges, and bold action to address climate change. We can change this. If you’re fed up with billionaire-driven politics as usual, we invite you to find a political home in the California Working Families Party. 

California is a state with the highest number of billionaires and the highest poverty rate in the nation. We have a real opportunity to lead for the nation – because we are not just a progressive electorate, we are also a wealthy state which can afford to enact the policies that cement our state as our nation’s progressive trailblazer. And we can show what happens for millions of Americans when we provide universal health care, tuition-free college and boldly address climate change.

If that sounds good, we welcome you to our political home! You can learn more about us and connect with our organizers here: https://linktr.ee/cawfp

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*taps the mic*

Mic check, 1, 2. Is this thing on?

Yes? Okay.

*ahem*