History is being made! For the first time in almost 30 years, a Green Party candidate has advanced to the general election for State Assembly District 14. Mark Rendón, a retired educator and union organizer, talks about his aspirations, why he’s challenging Democrat Buffy Wicks, and his fight for CalCare, a billionaire tax, and getting corporate money out of California politics.
History is being made! For the first time in almost 30 years, a Green Party candidate has advanced to the general election for California State Assembly District 14 (AD-14). Mark Rendón, a retired educator and union organizer, joins Wokeland to ask the question California Democrats don’t want to answer: after decades of a Democratic governor and a Democratic supermajority in the legislature, why hasn’t life in California gotten better?
Mark makes the case that Democrats and Republicans answer to the same corporate donors, and that the people running Sacramento have put California up for sale. While rents climb, data centers get proposed in our backyards, and hundreds of thousands of Californians go unhoused, the state hands tax credits and loopholes to the same people funding campaigns. Newsom is campaigning against the billionaire tax, while over 200 California billionaires hold an estimated $2 trillion.
Mark also breaks down how Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, chair of the Appropriations Committee, let the CalCare bill die without a vote, and what Medicare for All would mean for Californians, including the Oakland students he’s watched go without the healthcare they need.
Mark Rendon is the Green Party candidate for California Assembly District 14.
Disclosure: Wokeland host Elsa is a registered Green and a volunteer with the Mark Rendón for AD-14 campaign. This episode was produced independently, with no funding from the campaign. All opinions are her own.