Former mayor known for guaranteed income programs launches bid for California lieutenant governor

SACRAMENTO, California — Michael Tubbs is running for lieutenant governor of California, returning to politics four years after voters in his Central Valley hometown ousted him as one of the nation’s youngest mayors after he relaunched guaranteed income programs for the poor that made him a star.

The 2026 campaign, announced Wednesday, offers Tubbs a soft landing spot as he gains experience running a statewide campaign for a position that receives little public attention and is largely ceremonial. The primary job is to fill in when the governor is out of state, and the only real power comes from serving on the boards of the University of California and California State University.

But Tubbs sees opportunities in office similar to those he had as mayor of Stockton. He combined the power of his personal story with ambitious plans for the often-forgotten city to become a rising figure among Democrats in the state, who were looking for inspiration after Republican Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.

“Often it’s not about the formal role or legal authority of a position, but about the leader in that position … and how he or she can use that position to get things done and make it big or make it meaningful to the people they seek to serve,” Tubbs said.

Tubbs was raised by a single mother and his father served time in prison. He graduated from Stanford and interned in the Obama White House before being elected Stockton’s first black mayor in 2016, when he was just 26.

His biggest success was getting funding from Silicon Valley for a guaranteed income program that paid poor people $500 a month with no restrictions on how they could spend the money. The program, a relaunch of an old idea, led to dozens of similar programs across the country, culminating in the California Legislature Set aside $35 million for guaranteed income programs for pregnant women and former foster children.

But Tubbs’ celebrity status turned off some Stockton voters, and he lost his re-election bid in 2020 to Republican Kevin Lincoln, then a little-known figure.

Since then, Tubbs has followed a familiar script for political rehabilitation. He has served as a unpaid adviser to California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and published his memoirs while working with a coalition he founded to launch guaranteed income programs across the country.

For Tubbs to complete his comeback and win office, he will have to face off against some formidable candidates with deep experience in Sacramento, including Democrats Fiona Ma, who is completing two terms as state treasurer, and Sen. Steven Bradford, who is known for leading California closer to becoming the first state to offering reparations for slavery.

“I have a track record of doing the hard things,” Tubbs said. “When we think about the problems that Sacramento has created or that Sacramento has tried to solve, I’m just not convinced that those same problems can be solved by people who have spent decades in Sacramento.”

Lieutenant governor has been a stepping stone to the governorship for some, including Newsom, who served as lieutenant governor for eight years before being elected to his current position in 2018. Democrat Gray Davis also held the position in the 1990s before winning the state’s top job, and current Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis is a strong contender in a field of candidates to replace Newsom in the 2026 election.

Tubbs said he considers the job itself important. But he still has his eyes on the future.

“I hope to do such a great job … that four to eight years from now, after the job, I have all kinds of options to do things,” he said.