On Sunday March 8, The Solano Pulse was granted the opportunity to interview the Socialist California Governor candidate, Ramsey Robinson.
Robinson met with us on an hour-long Zoom call to discuss living wages, equality, collective liberation, and his efforts to aid California through the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Peace and Freedom Party of California.
Ramsey Robinson was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and as a teenager moved to Los Angeles. He lived there for about 20 years, making note that Hartford belongs to his youth, and Los Angeles belongs to his adulthood. Three to four years ago, he moved to the Tenderloin, a neighborhood located in San Francisco’s financial district, and currently juggles his candidacy with his work as a mental health counselor/social worker.
Robinson’s earlier feats of activism include his help in leading the Shut ‘Em Down campaign (a nationwide protest against the prison system’s approach to political prisoners and industrial slavery), along with co-organizing protests against police brutality; primarily that of Sawandi Toussaint (El Monte, California). Even before he became a socialist, Robinson worked with homeless families between 6th and San Pedro in Los Angeles to tutor and mentor their children. This became the catalyst to his calling: helping the community.
He expressed that what really pulled him into the line of politics though, was the death of Banko Brown, a San Francisco native, trans person of color, and community organizer who’d reportedly become homeless weeks before his death. Using the voice of his community, Robinson and hundreds of others were able to, “pressure Brooke Jenkins, the D.A., to release the footage that showed Banko’s innocence.”
Ramsey Robinson’s always been a working man, stating, “I’ve been a worker in crisis every year that I’ve been a worker.”
He sympathizes with the nearly 40 million people that live in California, emphasizing the 2.3 million Californians who do not have health insurance according to Cal Matters and the roughly million of us behind on rent per the Public Policy Institute of California.
“I work two jobs,” Robinson admitted, “full time, and at the end of the month I still can’t cover rent and health insurance.”
A big emphasis was put on our trillion dollar economy (CA GDP placed it around $2 trillion in 2024), as well as the over 150 California billionaires that control this number (Business Insider places it between 199 and 214). Elaborated more further down, a vibrantly animated Robinson explained one of the leading factions of his campaign, and how he intends to help people economically.
Even more passionately, Robinson explained how he wants to fill up the approximately 1.2 million empty houses California has and call a State of Emergency to freeze rent for all.
There will also be a push to stop landlord corruption and create even more housing, asserting, “We’re going to build 1.4 million public homes, social homes.”
Regarding other local matters of fear, Robinson was asked what he would do in regards to ICE, specifically matters like the John E. Moss Federal Building and Trump’s failed push to turn Travis Air Force Base into a detention center.
What would you immediately do to go against companies like CoreCivic–the largest for-profit prison contractors in the US per themselves–and essentially stop them?
“Oh, everything in my power as governor. The attempt to try and use different spaces to detain folks like us, our folks? No. We will do everything in our power as governor to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“[We will] tell the National Guard to stand down and go home.”
Ramsey Robinson also made it very clear that he intends to aid all marginalized groups in California. Black-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latin Americans, our LGBTQ+ community and more. He discussed with the Pulse how he’s had to live in difficult housing situations, and how he intimately knows the wage disparity plaguing us.
The wage disparity is one that affects many individuals based on their ethnicity/race, as well as their gender. According to a report done by the state of California’s Civil Rights department, for every 11 black workers and 20 latino/native workers, only one from each group earned the highest pay range achievable— $144,560. Meanwhile, around 1 in 3 white and Asian workers already fell into that bracket.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s data from a few years ago lends more insight. In 2022, black women earned only 63.7 cents to a white man’s dollar, and latina women earned only 40. Robinson is determined to up wages to $30 an hour regardless of your class, race, and sex/gender.
“Guaranteed housing, jobs at $30 an hour, childcare, a dignified retirement, that is going to everyone regardless of immigration status.”
This brings comfort to those who wish to vote for him, especially college students who Robinson has personally agreed will receive free education once implemented into office.
Our final question asked, How do you feel like [volunteers getting enough signatures to avoid ballot fees] has really impacted you as not just the socialist candidate, but as you, Ramsey Robinson?
“Oh, it has confirmed my belief and my experience of how wonderful, beautiful, and powerful, we– us folk, are. I always knew it, in my head.
“And you know, on the one hand, I’ve worked so many jobs… just working with people like myself. And you know, like I come from a working class family, too. I was working low wage jobs, and I always knew how resourceful and intelligent and creative and beautiful folk like us are, how powerful we are.”
You can learn more at https://www.ramsey4gov.com/ and on his TikTok/Instagram, @ Ramsey4gov.
Institute for Women’s Policy Research: https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Black-Women-Wage-Gap-Fact-Sheet-2024.pdf
