California is the world’s 4th largest economy.

Let’s fight to bring California’s wealth back to all people so everyone can thrive.

Dr Butch Ware in a white shirt with gold embroidery, speaking into a microphone standing in front of a banner that reads "WARE FOR GOVERNOR" with an illustration of a smiling man wearing glasses.

I’m Butch Ware, an educator dedicated to serving the people.

For over 20 years, I’ve studied how power works & how people have challenged it.

I teach history to show that the systems we live under were built by people. This means we can pivot, redesign & build something better for everyone.

The same Californian spirit fueling bold ideas & reinvention can also drive how we deliver justice.

I’m not backed by billionaires. I’m guided by the past, accountable to you & focused on what actually works.

From CrisiS to Care:

Our Platform

A promotional poster for Butch Ware's 2026 California gubernatorial campaign featuring his portrait, campaign policies, a QR code, and the candidate's social media handle.

 platform 

Our campaign is built on a human rights foundation, every demand and every policy we put forth is to reinforce and protect the inalienable rights of all people.

    • Fund Social Housing across CA

    • Fund Community Land Trusts

    • Decriminalize Homelessness

    • Housing First; ban forced institutionalization or treatment as a condition of housing

    • Statewide rent control with no exemptions; Repeal Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act

    • Cap speculative ownership of all high-density housing

    • Ban speculative purchase of single-family homes

    • Close loopholes that allow developers’ to avoid affordable housing construction mandates

  • Implement CalCare, a universal single payer healthcare system for EVERY CA resident, regardless of income, gender, age, immigration status, with NO insurance premiums, copays, deductibles, coinsurance. CalCare’s 7 principles are:

    • Universal coverage

    • A single public program

    • Fully comprehensive benefits

    • Freedom to choose your care provider

    • Free at the point of service

    • A just transition

    • Patient care based on patient need

    • Purchase and cancel all student debt to public and private schools

    • Reinstate tuition-free state and community colleges

    • Equitable funding for CA’s public schools regardless of zip code

    • Free lifelong vocational training and continuing education

    • Ensure affordable housing for full-time students

    • Work with the state legislature to increase pay for all CA educators

    • Direct the State Treasurer and other state agencies to divest all CA public institutions

    • Freeze any non-divested state spending by Executive Order

    • Veto any spending legislation that is not divested 

    • Appoint state agency board members who prioritize divestment

    • Urge the state legislature to repeal anti-BDS laws

    • Prevent enforcement of anti-BDS law by Executive Order

    • Reinvest divested funds to support the immediate needs of Californians

    • Demilitarize police forces

    • Eliminate private prisons and detention centers

    • Ensure fair and transparent judicial process, fund public defenders

    • Ban mandatory minimum sentences and end cash bail

    • Support restorative justice, rehabilitation, reintegration, and reparations for victims of police violence

    • Train and build alternative emergency responder workforces 

    • Enforce existing gun laws

    • Empower the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) that investigates police misconduct

    • Support the release and exoneration of political prisoners

    • Close CA’s ICE facilities including private ICE detention centers

    • Block state & municipal police cooperation with ICE and end the “arrest-to-deportation pipeline”

    • Bar ICE operatives from state legal facilities

    • Expand California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to income-eligible residents, regardless of immigration status

    • Expand the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to undocumented workers

    • Implement public works programs to drive full employment at living wages

    • Raise CA minimum wage to $25/hr and index future increases to living wages and inflation

    • Support measures to increase unionization of CA workforce

    • Support expanding worker-owned cooperatives

    • Establish a California Public Bank      

    • Implement wealth and vacancy taxes

    • Incentivize a Green economy in CA

    • Implement steep progressive state income tax and reduce regressive taxation

    • Support amending Prop 13 and enacting “Split Roll” to close commercial property tax loophole

    • Ensure people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and all other historically marginalized communities are able to live, work and thrive equitably in CA.

    • Promote collective liberation through restorative justice for all people of color harmed by white supremacist racialized policies 

    • Protect the rights and safety of all CA residents, regardless of citizenship

    • Promote Universal Design in all state facilities, processes and institutions

    • Support the implementation and funding of Reparation for CA’s Black American Freedmen

    • Establish a CA tribal land stewardship agency to consolidate existing state programs

    • Support Federal recognition of all CA tribal nations and bands

    • Expand Indigenous Nation Landback programs

    • Fund Tribal land co-management agreements

    • Enact a Statewide Publicly-Owned Energy Grid

    • Ban all new oil/gas drilling & fracking in CA, and cap all inactive wells

    • Create a statewide renewable, electric public transit system

    • Establish an indigenous-led land stewardship and wildfire prevention program

    • Reclaim and protect water rights as a public resource

    • Protect California’s unique biodiversity and CA coastal lands

    • Decommission existing nuclear facilities and prohibit construction of new facilities

    • 100% CA publicly funded elections

    • Proportional Representation in CA

    • Ranked Choice Voting

    • Ban Corporate lobbying

principles

  • We bring the people's agenda to the Governor's desk. California Democratic Party’s super majority trifecta has blocked life-saving and essential legislation on healthcare, housing, economy, education, climate and more.

    WE END THE ROADBLOCKS.

  • We Californians should own our government, not the billionaires. Decades of crooked politics have turned our state into a money and land grab for multinational corporations and their bought politicians.

    WE STOP THEIR GRIFT.

  • We reject the divisive use of identities and ideologies that have been weaponized to isolate  us from each other by current systems’ institutions.

    WE FIGHT IN SOLIDARITY AND COMMUNITY.

  • We build movements to empower communities with electoral power, putting the Green Party, as a political apparatus, in the hands of working people to use in our fight FOR the working class.

    WE WIN TOGETHER.

At the core of our campaign:

Every dollar helps move California from crisis to care.

Invest in a future where housing, healthcare & education are rights.

How History Informs Our Future

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