During the fall of my junior year, I interned in Intergovernmental Affairs in The White House with a focus on outreach to local elected officials. Although I hated the menial tasks the job required, it gave me a window into the power of local government.

Michael Tubbs

Categorized in : Me Power Government Focus

We have a bunch of folks starting off life already behind, born into communities that don't have a lot of opportunity, my mom always used to say,' You have to get out of Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs.' ... But I want Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs to be [ a place people ] want to live in.

Michael Tubbs

technology

I jumped at the opportunity.

Michael Tubbs

top-news

And I know, for me, I want to live in a community where people's basic needs are met.

Michael Tubbs

top-news

I think it will make people work better and smarter and harder and also be able to do things like spend time with their families because we're not robots. We're not just designed just to work all day and run a rat race.

Michael Tubbs

politics

But again, before we can even call for that, we need to see if it works and we need to try it and if it doesn't work, there's a conversation about, OK, well, why didn't it work and how can this apply to the next solution we need to implement?

Michael Tubbs

politics

We're not just designed just to work all day and run a rat race. We're designed to be in community, to volunteer, to vote, to raise our kids. And I think the more inputs and investments we can give in people to do those things, the better off we are as a community.

Michael Tubbs

day community work people

I chose Anna as my wife because she is so kind yet so strong and challenges me to become a better person. She has a heart of gold and is unafraid about speaking to and living her values.

Michael Tubbs

me wife challenges heart

Growing up, when I'd throw out the trash, I'd toss it and dart because all the cats would come running. That's why I still don't like cats.

Michael Tubbs

cats like trash growing-up

In our economic structure, the people who work the hardest oftentimes make the least. I know migrant farm workers who do back-breaking labor every day, or Uber drivers and Lyft drivers who drive 10 to 12 hours a day in traffic. You can't be lazy doing that kind of work.

Michael Tubbs

day you work people

For whatever reason, in this country we have a very interesting relationship with poverty, where we think people in poverty are bad people.

Michael Tubbs

think bad-people relationship people

In college, I was so blessed to have relationships with those who did the civil rights movement.

Michael Tubbs

relationships college blessed rights

I thought I'd be a low-key producer or something, politics and film at the same time. But also, I'm not a big movie person - my girlfriend gets mad at me because I go to sleep whenever we go to the movies.

Michael Tubbs

me politics sleep time

We all aren't in government, we all aren't CEOs, but we all are somebody.

Michael Tubbs

ceos somebody government

Work does have some value and some dignity, but I don't think working 14 hours and not being able to pay your bills, or working two jobs and not being able - there's nothing inherently dignified about that.

Michael Tubbs

value nothing think work

I tell people all the time, the status quo is so untenable to me. Like, literally, I have no patience for it.

Michael Tubbs

me time patience people

Growing up, I read all three of Frederick Douglass' autobiographies by the time I was 12.

Michael Tubbs

up growing-up three time

When I was in high school, people would ask me what I wanted to do, and I would always say I wanted to 'lead marches and give speeches.'

Michael Tubbs

me high-school people school

I was born and raised in the south side of Stockton, California, to a mother still in high school and a father in a juvenile detention facility.

Michael Tubbs

born mother father school

As the documentary 'True Son' illustrates, my campaign for city council started really small - with eight mostly political neophytes in my living room and with young people knocking on doors.

Michael Tubbs

city political people son

I harbor no illusion that government and elected office is a panacea for all of society's ills.

Michael Tubbs

illusion society government office