That’s why, as a non-profit leader, school board member, city councilmember and mentor – and now a leader in the California Assembly – Tony has been making real progress for more than 20 years on the big issues facing Californians today, including the economy, education, the environment and crime and safety.

“To get it right, we need to give our youth a California as good as its promise,” says Tony. “To get there, we need to do the real work to improve our schools, reduce dropout rates, create sustainable jobs that preserve our environment and invest in job training opportunities to build a 21st-century workforce.”

Tony has helped build our district’s economy from the ground up, creating innovative job training and workforce housing programs and creating sustainable jobs for California youth. His current project, CEO Youth, is succeeding in improving school attendance and reducing dropout rates. Tony has been at the forefront of combating gang and gun violence in his community in Richmond, and actively involved in regional crime and safety efforts along the I-80 corridor.

As a leader in the California Assembly, Tony has brought people together make the East Bay a better place for everyone and to move our state forward:

• Passing legislation to protect our youth against tobacco, protect women from workplace discrimination and protect our environment against methane gases and cancer-causing pollution;
• Making it easier for high school students to gain access to high-wage career development through local community colleges and secured more funding for mental health services for youth, veterans and communities of color;
• Creating California’s first earned income tax credit to help address the staggering economic inequality that still exists in our communities today;
• And even more – click here to check out Tony’s accomplishments during his first year in the Assembly.

Tony served on the Richmond City Council from 2005-2008. He served as Council Liaison to Richmond’s Youth Commission and Workforce Investment Board and the Council Liaison to the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Tony was also a member of the California League of Cities Environmental Policy Committee and the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee. He was a Fellow in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Children and Family Fellowship program and is a graduate and former student body president of Temple University.

Tony also served on the West Contra County School Board from 2008-2012, at which point he focused on his work with CEO Youth at the Lincoln Child Center and mentoring youth in the community.

Every day that I work as your Assemblymember, I am inspired by the dedication, creativity and grit of the people of our East Bay communities.

Together, we passed legislation to protect our youth against tobacco, protect women from workplace discrimination and protect our environment against methane gases and cancer-causing pollution.

Together, we made it easier for high school students to gain access to high-wage career development through local community colleges and secured more funding for mental health services for youth, veterans and communities of color.

And together, we created California’s first earned income tax credit to help address the staggering economic inequality that still exists in our communities today.

The East Bay is blessed with the most astounding riches in California; yet too many of our neighbors suffer in poverty. We lead the world in environmental innovation; yet bear the brunt of generations of environmental injustice.

For me, it all comes down to this shocking statistic: A child born in the poorest neighborhoods of the East Bay can expect to die almost 15 years earlier than a child born in its wealthiest neighborhoods.

If being a progressive means anything, it means fighting with everything we have to end this injustice.

I have earned the support of the California Teachers Association, California Nurses Association, California Professional Firefighters, Sierra Club, California Democratic Party and leading Democrats like Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Barbara Lee, Mark DeSaulnier and Loni Hancock.

Please join us in this fight by honoring me with your vote. Thank you.

Tony Thurmond

www.TonyThurmond.com

Claire Chiara is a senior at UC Berkeley double-majoring in economics and political science and a candidate for State Assembly in California's 15th District.

As a Millennial Californian and a young woman, she feels very strongly about protecting freedom and opportunity for future generations and ensuring that both California and the United States remain at the forefront of innovation, civil liberties, and limited, representative government. Claire strongly believes that the power to improve the world rests in the hands of the individual, not the government, and seeks to ensure that all Californians have equal opportunity and empowerment for success.

I'm running because the voters of my district and my state deserve to hear a new voice and deserve to have a new choice on their ballots. 

For too long, our elected officials have maintained the status quo in Sacramento and failed to champion the needs of everyday people, instead choosing special interests or partisan politics over working Californians, small business owners, and children in public schools. I am a strong believer in self-determination, the American dream, limited government, and individual rights, and I feel Sacramento has simply fallen short of representing my fellow constituents and me. 

So it's time for a change.  

As a student of public schools my entire life through college, I am a strong supporter of public education, and I think it's critical for our great state to reform its broken educational system to ensure all students are made a priority and guaranteed equal access to opportunity. 

Here in the Bay Area, we live in one of the fastest-growing regions of the country, and we need to elect legislators who recognize that and seek to preserve it, not stifle it with regulation. I will always be a champion of innovators and businesses. I would be honored to have your support and your vote.