Tony Thurmond, seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, laid out an expansive progressive platform in a briefing with community media reporters.
The 57-year-old state superintendent of public instruction has staked out progressive policy terrain — including a push to institute single-payer healthcare, build two million housing units by 2030 and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — positioning himself as a public servant shaped by immigrant roots, poverty and public service.
Born at Fort Ord to a Panamanian immigrant mother who died of cancer when he was six, Thurmond and his younger brother were separated from their two siblings to live with an older cousin in Philadelphia they had never met, subsisting there on food stamps and government assistance. He went on to restaurant and social work before serving the last 18 years in elected office as a city council member, school board member, state legislator and twice as state superintendent.
In the April 30 briefing hosted by American Community Media, he made his case as a candidate for California’s governor.
‘Patients over profits’
On healthcare, Thurmond cited a personal loss to demonstrate the public need for single-payer.
“I had a brother who lost his job and lost his insurance right at the time that he developed a very rare liver disorder,” he said. “My brother didn’t drink or smoke, and because he didn’t have insurance, he couldn’t see a doctor, and his condition worsened to the point that he lost his life. He was only 35 years old. No person should lose their life simply because they don’t have health insurance.”
He described the Republican budget reconciliation act known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — which he called “the big ugly bill” — as devastating for the Medi-Cal enrollment and Affordable Care Act premiums.
“Medi-Cal is a federal entitlement, and that means if you qualify, you get it,” he said, pledging to work toward flipping congressional control toward a Democratic majority to reverse the bill’s effects and “to build out a healthcare system that places the emphasis on patients over profits.”
Housing and affordability
Affordable housing drew Thurmond’s most detailed proposals.
He described a plan to unlock surplus school district land across every California county to build 2 million housing units by 2030, with the state providing startup funds for pre-development work.
“This doesn’t mean that if you’re a school district employee, your employer is going to be your landlord,” he said. “It just means that districts will now have resources to work with developers who can build housing for teachers and classified staff” — including, he said, nurses, public safety workers and city and county employees.
Thurmond is backing a voter-decided $10 billion affordable housing bond and calling for down payment assistance grants for first-time buyers.
On rent control, he said he supports statewide expansion while allowing property owners a reasonable annual increase to cover maintenance costs. He called for reviving urban redevelopment agencies and pressed for low- or no-interest loans for urban small businesses navigating permitting burdens.
He also floated a more unorthodox proposal: allowing students from municipalities in Mexico close to the border to dually enroll in California high schools and community colleges, arguing it would help address school district revenue gaps due to declining enrollment, bolster community college numbers and fill workforce gaps in currently understaffed sectors.
To fund these housing, healthcare, school and job programs, Thurmond suggested a tax on “people who have more than, say, $150 million in assets” in order to resource a tax credit for working- and middle-class Californians; he has also endorsed the California Billionaire Tax Act — a one-time 5% tax on the roughly 200 state residents with a net worth over $1 billion.
“We are experiencing a crisis of supply and demand. The state has not invested in affordable housing in over a decade,” he said. “The governor and the state can’t just make prices go down, but we can create conditions that ultimately will support bringing costs down in two ways. One, immediate relief for Californians in the form of this tax credit … and two, building more housing.”
Rounding out his domestic platform, Thurmond called for a universal childcare program, which he framed as relieving working parents while supporting the women- and women-of-color-led small businesses that largely provide childcare.
Research shows that while such a program could cost up to $21 billion a year to subsidize all families, it could also add up to $23 billion to the state’s economic output, effectively paying for itself — partly by enabling more than 100,000 mothers to enter the workforce.
Taking on ICE
On immigration, Thurmond said he was the first gubernatorial candidate to call for dismantling ICE and showed no sign of backing away, pledging to “work with Congress to abolish ICE and to create a better system.”
“ICE was supposed to be a way to keep us safe, as they said,” he noted. “But who are they keeping us safe from? Look at who’s being deported — people who work as childcare workers and farm workers. Meanwhile, people are losing their lives for speaking out against ICE.”
He described the federal immigration enforcement apparatus as driven less by public safety than private profit, pointing to private immigration detention companies GEO Group and CoreCivic, which together donated nearly $2.8 million to President Trump’s 2024 campaign.
As of last year, private companies operated all of the top 20 detention centers nationwide and 86% of ICE detainees were held in facilities run by for-profit companies. Eight such centers are in California.
“I believe that the whole purpose behind President Trump’s dangerous and reckless immigration policy is to help his friends make money,” Thurmond said.
He noted that he has already passed legislation keeping ICE out of California schools and hospitals, has supported legislation taxing and banning for-profit prisons and is now sponsoring state legislation imposing a 50% tax on any company operating an ICE detention center in California.
“Core Civic is already telling its investors that they may have to leave California. Good riddance,” he added. “Because there is a financial objective to this immigration policy, we have to hit them in their wallet. We have to meet them where they are.”
He said he would direct the California Highway Patrol to arrest ICE agents who violate state law, “create a real pathway to citizenship” and restore health coverage to undocumented immigrants.
“It will save money,” he said, “as people are not going to emergency rooms for care that could be done in a more preventative way.”
In the polls
Thurmond was asked directly about his standing in the race, having failed to qualify for the May 5 CNN gubernatorial debate due to polling numbers below the network’s 3% threshold.
Recent polls show Thurmond’s support between 1% and 2% among likely voters.
He was unapologetic.
“I just don’t think that polls elect anyone. People do,” he said. “I’ve been in five elections where I was out-polled, outspent and flat-out told that I would never win.”
He noted that the Los Angeles Times scored him the winner of an eight-candidate debate two days prior.
“My name is on the ballot. I’m in it to the end, and I’m running to win,” he said. “I don’t want to work for another governor. I’m not looking for a job in anybody’s administration. This is the last office I’m ever going to run for.”
