Michael Tubbs Quotes

To let the people know there was life beyond Shirley Dean, we decided to focus on voter registration; each day I set up my card table somewhere in the district, signed people up, and passed out noses.

You never get to too big to phone bank, that's my opinion.

We need to get young people excited about politics, excited about government.

My earliest memory campaigning was going to the dump to get petition signatures or handing out literature.

I started in politics as a fresh graduate wanting to make a difference, by bringing more political awareness and interest to young people.

When you walk into a field office, you have many opportunities. We'll hand you a call sheet. You can make calls. You can knock on doors, and they'll have these stacks there for you. They'll say: 'Harper, you've knocked on 50 doors. That's great. Here's how you compare to the rest of them.' But it's all very offline.

In 2008, I was a full-time volunteer for Barack Obama's first election. I'd take a carload of people and we'd go and canvass in a Native American community every evening.

By themselves, they are not enough; we also need to engage in political action.

Barack is at a level where he can't - no matter how much he wants to or how much we want him to - he's not going to come take out our garbage, so to speak. He can't be the garbage man and the president. He can't be the mayor and the alderman. He can't fill all those roles. So I always push for local, local activity on the political scene.

Everyone knows the presidential candidates and has an opinion about them. But as you get to smaller races, that evaporates and you can win through sheer elbow grease.

It's just impossible to ignore the activists in your party. These are the people who stuff the envelopes, and walk the precincts, and make the telephone calls, and do all the so-called grunt work that brings about a successful campaign.

Being out and about talking to residents and representing their views is, in my view, as important to politics as the grandstanding that takes place in Westminster.

I probably enjoy campaigning more than most other people in public office because I like people and I enjoy going out there and telling people what I've done.

My style is a little bit different than most conventional Republican Party chairmen. My style is more grass roots-oriented. I'm much more of a street guy. I love hanging out in boardrooms, but I prefer to be in neighborhoods and communities.

Young people have so much more power than they tend to think to be able to affect politics. And if people will organize and get involved and go out and knock on doors and hand out leaflets and make a change, then they can determine the future.

I've campaigned for people. I've campaigned across the country for people. I have supported people in local elections. I do work with groups and causes. So, I feel like I am a participant and a civically-engaged citizen.

You don't win elections on Election Day. You win them by what you do all year round, by the day-to-day good will you generate in each precinct.

Mandela drafted the M Plan, a simple, commonsense plan for organization on a street basis so that Congress volunteers would be in daily touch with the people, alert to their needs and able to mobilize them.

Put a lawn sign on your lawn; go door to door for your candidate. Register people to vote. There's so much we can do through our voices and time. That's what flips elections.

I started my campaign out of a Trader Joe's bag with a bunch of printed palm cards and an idea.

Be informed, ask questions, band together with your community, and fight at the local level. And make sure you take your local elections as seriously as the national ones.

I personally went canvassing door to door in a local race when I was in high school and thought it was kind of hilarious how worked up people got over such small stakes elections.

The problem with the Democratic Party is, we're like, 'If we just get another presidential candidate in there, everything will be OK.' We should be focusing on school boards, city council races, state legislatures.

I want to be high-profile with the average Angeleno. I want to be out there holding office hours on a curb in Boyle Heights.

When most kids were doing summer camp, I was doing the Arkansas festival circuit, passing out push cards, and shaking hands and tagging along with my dad to every nook and cranny in the state of Arkansas.