194 Billionaires. 40 Million of Us. We're Just Getting Started.

Photo Credit: PSL

I'm Ramsey Robinson, a mental health social worker from Bayview, and I ran for governor to say out loud what the billionaire class spends millions to keep you from believing: the 194 billionaires who hoard $1.2 trillion in this state didn't build that wealth. We did. And we can take it back. Our socialist campaign was never about one election. It was about showing that working people can build the independent power to win housing, healthcare, and a good union job for everyone. We proved it. We ran the top third-party campaign in the race for Governor and finished tenth overall, putting the Peace and Freedom Party on screens across the state on election night.  Here is what we won, what the June 2 vote means, and how you join what comes next.

194 Billionaires Rigged It. We're Taking It Back.

Start with the math they don't want you to do. California workers create a $4 trillion economy every year. The 194 billionaires at the top hold more wealth than the poorest 27 million of us combined. That is not an accident. It is theft. It’s capitalism working exactly as designed.

I watched Governor Newsom call taxing the rich "damaging" while he vetoed reparations for Black Californians and heat protections for farmworkers. I watched ICE tear families apart while billionaires got richer off our labor. The Democrats run

everything in this state, and working people still can't make rent. That's not failure. That's them doing their job, for the people who actually pay them. Seventy-four percent of Californians already say we need a third party. They're right. We need our own.

I didn't learn this in law school or on Wall Street. I learned it on the front lines of the housing crisis, the mental health crisis, and the war on Black communities. I see what billionaire politics does to families every single day. That's why I ran.

We Already Won What the Billionaires Can't Take Back

We never ran to win the establishment's horse race, only to manage the affairs of a corporate-owned system. Instead, we ran to build the movement that takes our wealth and power back so that we could build a system for and by us. By that measure, we won big, and the wins are permanent.

We built a people powered campaign. Our campaign reached millions of Californians, and our message spoke to the crises they live in every day. Tens of thousands chose to get involved and build the socialist movement. We engaged 4,130 volunteers, and together we made history. We knocked on 42,125 doors. We called 45,224 registered voters. We collected 51,000 signatures to completely waive the undemocratic filing fee. A million people saw our advertisements. Thousands joined the socialist movement, and they are ready to keep fighting until we win.   

We proved we can pay for it. Our research demonstrated that the whole platform is completely achievable with a permanent tax on the ultra-wealthy. With a permanent 1% tax on fortunes over $30 million, plus an extra 3% on the billionaires, we can fund our entire platform. That guarantees free healthcare, housing as a human right, and a guaranteed union job at $30 an hour. And it's all possible under California law right now. That's not radical. That's what the richest state on earth can afford today. "How will you pay for it?" used to shut us up. Not anymore. 

We built a statewide socialist movement on working-class money.  Working people donated over $174,000 to send our 22,500 mailers, print thousands of palm cards, and carry our campaign across the state. Vote Socialist California volunteers hosted fundraisers, donated their hard-earned money, and brought their families into socialist politics. Not one dollar of corporate cash. The billionaire-funded politicians swore that was impossible. We proved them wrong in every region of the state. 

We proved socialism is winning. Everywhere we went, in the communities both parties wrote off, people were hungry for an honest socialist program. From New York to right here in California, working people are choosing socialism, because it's just common sense: the people who create the wealth should control it. It's the demand of the majority, finally said plainly. 

The Vote Is In. Here's What It Means.

• PFP is on the map. We ran the top third-party campaign in the race for Governor and finished 10th out of 68 candidates, with 743,000 votes for the Vote Socialist California slate. That ranking did real work. When the results aired, networks across California put the top ten on screen, and the Peace and Freedom Party was on them, in front of millions who have never seen a socialist campaign break through. Every one of those votes was a worker telling the billionaire class and both their parties: we are done waiting. 

• The contrast. Big Oil, corporate America, and a billionaire spent fortunes to win this race. We didn't take a dollar of it. California's working class put us on the ballot for free and powered this campaign on small donations and volunteer hours. Their money bought ads. It could not buy a movement, and our movement is the one thing they can't outspend.

• Where we grew. Both parties wrote off the working class in places like San Luis Obispo, Fresno, Stockton, Palmdale, and Vallejo. They came out anyway, fired up to canvass and introduced their coworkers and friends to people-powered politics. Thousands packed our rallies in Bakersfield, Porterville, and the Inland Empire, ready to build the movement in their neighborhoods, mosques, churches, and workplaces. 

• What it confirms. Whoever the billionaire class installs in Sacramento, the lesson holds: only we can build the power to control the wealth we create. Running an openly socialist, working-class campaign in this race showed that working people are excited to build socialism in California. 

This Was Never About One Election

Here's the part the billionaires hope you'll miss: an election doesn't free anybody. Organized people do.

The farmworkers who marched 335 miles made Newsom sign the bill he swore he'd veto. The LAUSD workers, the bus drivers, the cafeteria workers, the special ed aides who walked the picket lines found the $5.2 billion the district swore wasn't there. The 6,500 San Francisco educators who went on strike and won a $183 million contract the mayor swore the city couldn’t afford. Nobody gave them those wins. They organized and took them. That is exactly how we win everything in our platform. 

A socialist on the ballot without a movement behind them is just one more politician who gets ground down. A movement with that candidate is a force the rich cannot buy off. This campaign was the starting line, not the finish. We win when we build a movement, because when millions of us get together, the billionaires get scared.

And we don't have time to wait. Rents keep climbing. Wildfires keep burning. ICE keeps tearing families apart. Our elders keep rationing medicine. The billionaire class wants us to take a breath, calm down, and trust the next round of Democratic primaries. We don't have time for that. The wealth is being stolen right now, and we take it back by organizing right now.

Don't Just Vote. Build the Socialist Movement.

If this rings true to you, don't let it end at the ballot box. There are two things to do, and they do different work.

Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation. That's how you fight. The PSL is the organization that keeps building working-class power between elections and long after them. Joining is showing up, getting trained, and taking on real work alongside thousands of others building socialism in our communities. This is the most important thing you can do, and it's the heart of everything we built. Get involved here.

Register Peace and Freedom. That's how you vote. Five minutes, and you keep a working-class party on California's ballot for every fight to come. Stop voting for your landlord's favorite politician. Register with the fastest-growing party in the state and make it official: you're done waiting on the Democrats.

And bring your people. Your coworkers, your union, your tenants' association, your congregation. This campaign is just the beginning. We're building a movement that organizes working people everywhere.

You built this state. Every road, every hospital, every school. It's time we controlled the wealth we create. The billionaires only keep it because we haven't yet been organized enough to take it back. We just proved we can build socialism in California. Now let's go take what's ours.

In solidarity, 

Ramsey Robinson

Mental health social worker. Organizer. Your 2026 candidate for Governor. 

Peace and Freedom Party · Vote Socialist California · Party for Socialism and Liberation