As of Jan 2020, 20.6% of all Californians were living in poverty. That’s over 7.9 million Californian Men, Women, Two Spirit, Trans & Gender Nonconforming, Children, all ethnic identities, Veterans, our Elders, the Disabled, your neighbors, family and maybe even… you… all living in poverty.  According to federal data, pre-pandemic, our State was home to obscene wealth and the highest population of poverty in the United States.  We know the sheer number of those living in poverty have substantially increased as a result of COVID-19 and our subsequent economic crises and government mismanagement.  

Poverty is a human-made creation, a political phenomenon which – be it a policy failure or policy success – legislates the value and existence of some people as less than, as undeserving, as an absence of positive action and work ethic.  I believe and I know this to be false.  The Poor in this country, in our great State, are not operating in systems which are conducive for us to thrive.  Hard working people fall out of orbit, and it’s entirely too hard to get back.  As my brother recently shared, “It’s not that this country has no safety net, it just doesn’t have a ladder back up.” It’s extremely expensive to be Poor, as our government and economic systems operate and profit off this suffering substantially.  I believe it’s time that we raise the floor for everyone, permanently.  You see, when #OurCalifornia’s most marginalized are protected and succeed – we all win.

Neither of the State’s two dominant parties have had our best interests at heart for almost two centuries now. Both have abused our trust while enriching themselves and their donors at #OurCalifornia’s expense. The crises we continue to experience in California stem from a political system that has lost touch with its people – and we sadly keep electing individuals who are not transparent, responsive, or accountable to us. The theme that I hear most in my conversations with you is that we want to hear, care for, and lift up the whole. #OurCalifornia’s campaign and my 2022 gubernatorial run is about our work together to make this type of government finally come to fruition for us all.

I am running as a No Party Preference candidate, extremely proud to operate outside the partisan duopoly.  More importantly I am running as a Socialist. This label should be less alarming than the fact that until 2021 there were zero socialists in the California state legislature – while Capitalism is proved harmful to our state by the poverty in our State. We all inherently believe we all can achieve greater, be it luck, or hard work and opportunity, while some place our support behind systems which is designed for the recognition and protection of our humanity; it’s time we have a government dedicated to helping us achieve that and improving our material conditions.  This is #OurCalifornia.  Our programs and policies are only interested in investing in #OurCalifornia, building sustainable, resilient communities and economies to do and be better for us all.

Ending Poverty in California is in all of our collective self-interests.  Whether we realize it or not, we each pay a high price for exacerbating poverty in our society. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2019 federal budget includes almost $800 billion for means-tested, anti-poverty programs — it’s enough to consume almost 50% of all federal income tax revenues with programs that fail to even address the basic needs of eligible participants – and it leaves us no closer to ending poverty.  Our State programs are no different.  And what this should tell you isn’t that these programs can’t work – but that means-tested programs don’t.  

Ending poverty for #OurCalifornia is not only the moral, ethical & compassionate thing to do – it is cost-avoidant. In California, data has proven for decades now that providing homes for the unhoused saves taxpayers millions of dollars in publicly funded healthcare costs, ER visits and long-term hospitalizations, policing, and imprisonment.  The 10th Decile Project proved all this, saving Angelenos $9-$14 for every dollar spent, while also significantly improving the overall health of Los Angeles County’s most vulnerable residents  – the same residents who also had the highest Medicaid costs of all users in the region.  It’s a method that has worked so well and provides such consistent results that our State has already adopted and implemented it with their Whole Person Care Program for an extremely small number of Californians in dire need.  For-profit healthcare providers are adopting it across the country to improve care and save themselves massive sums of money – mind you, they’ve adopted this and all while they continue to exploit the government and general public for obscene amounts of wealth on our very existence and health needs.

Investing in programs that End Poverty in California and holistically protect all of #OurCalifornia’s residents, children, communities and environment is both basic and radical – it’s also smart and effective economic policy.

COVID-19 and subsequent economic crises have upended us all, but #OurCalifornia was neglected since long before I was born. The first “End Poverty In California” campaigns was nearly 90 years ago, during the Great Depression. The issues we’ve all faced for far too long have simply been compounded by this pandemic and austerity measures upon us now are cruel, inhumane & unacceptable. As a Socialist I support redress and Ending Poverty for every citizen of this planet.  Specifically as #OurCalifornia’s gubernatorial candidate – I am calling to End Poverty in California, as part of a broader movement to redistribute wealth and power to all people who have been oppressed and exploited under capitalism and devastating effects of neoliberalism in this State.  The debt is owed.

I believe we are capable of ensuring a minimum standard for the quality of life here, and that a comfortable existence is available to all and provided collectively by us all.  I believe we can achieve greatness – healthcare as a human right, housing as a human right, an end to homelessness, a booming economy, increasing all our wealth, the Green New Deal, expanding our Second Amendment rights, dismantling Big Tech, strengthening local, sustainable and resilient communities and so much more.  I believe we can achieve this greatness when we finally have a government that supports and works for us all, instead of being beholden to Lobbyists, Special Interests, Big Corporations, and all of the Wealthy who own them. The debt is owed.

I will be honored to protect and fight for Main Street – not Wall Street.  I intend to do something no Governor of California has done before me – utilize the same prosecutorial and legislative tools solely used against the Working Class to formally prosecute and hold Wall Street and California’s wealthy accountable.  The debt is owed.

I will challenge unconstitutional State and Federal laws, champion the rights of our most underserved and marginalized communities, End Poverty in California and fully support the non-incremental and transformative systemic change #OurCalifornia deserves. The debt is owed.

California needs a wholesale transformation of its political, social and economic cultures, and that won’t happen as long as Democrats or Republicans hold the reins for their Corporate donors.  This duopoly has won at the expense of #OurCalifornia – and I am no longer interested in ceding rhetorical or literal ground.  I have no reason to compromise on improving your material conditions & I’ll continue to do so without hedging, being apologetic or timid.

#OurCalifornia, my government will fight for you and implement the robust safety net and socially democratic rights we all deserve.  My name is Adriel Hampton and I’m honored to make this Gubernatorial run.  I look forward to becoming your Governor, a Governor for the People, for #OurCalifornia, for 2022.