Tony Thurmond

On April 3, 2017, Thurmond launched his campaign for State Superintendent, choosing not to run for re-election for his seat in the State Assembly.

On September 15, 2017, Thurmond introduced a resolution in the California State Assembly calling for the Congressional censure of President Donald Trump following his remarks after racially charged events in Charlottesville.

Tony Thurmond received a score of 100% on both the Equality California and California League of Conservation Voters legislative score cards for 2016.

Thurmond was a member of the California Legislative Latino Caucus, California Legislative Black Caucus, and California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2014, he was a member of the Richmond City Council, a Board Member of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, and social services administrator.

Before being elected to the California State Assembly in 2014, Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa School Board from 2008 to 2012 and the Richmond City Council from 2005 to 2008. Thurmond was the council liaison to the West Contra Costa County Unified School District and the West Contra Costa County Education Fund. He also served as council liaison to Richmond's Youth Commission and Workforce Investment Board. He was a member of the Family and Children's Trust Committee of Contra Costa County.

Thurmond ran first for the District 15 Assembly seat in 2008, coming in second out of four candidates. He ran again in 2014, this time winning 54.3% of the vote. He was re-elected in 2016 with 89.4% of the vote. Thurmond is a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

Thurmond has served as an advisor to the Richmond Youth Commission. He was chair of Richmond's 2005 Summer Youth Program which employed 200 local teens. Thurmond has been a Fellow in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Children and Family Fellowship program.

Over the last fourteen years, Thurmond has pursued 7 different elected offices: he ran unsuccessfully for Richmond City Council in 2004, was elected to the Richmond City Council in 2006, lost an election for State Assembly in 2008, won an election to the West Contra Costa School Board in 2008, created an exploratory committee for a potential State Senate campaign in 2009, was elected to the State Assembly in 2014, was re-elected to the State Assembly in 2016, and announced his campaign for State Superintendent in 2017.

Thurmond has held positions with several nonprofit social service organizations. In the mid-2000s, Thurmond was the Executive Director of Beyond Emancipation, a social service agency providing aftercare services to youths leaving the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in Alameda County. At the Golden Gate Regional Center, he was a program manager leading service provision to individuals with developmental disabilities. In 2012 he began to serve as the Senior Director of Community and Government Relations at Lincoln Child Center. Much of his social service work has focused on improving service provision to current and former foster youth and directing educational programs that provided job training to at-risk youth in the East Bay area.

Thurmond was born in Monterey, California. He lived in San Jose, California, where he was raised by a single mother, a teacher from Panama. Tony's mother died of cancer in 1974, when Tony was 6. He then moved to Philadelphia, where he was adopted and raised by his cousin and stepfather, both campus police officers active in union life.

Tony K. Thurmond (born August 21, 1968) is an American politician who is the 28th and current California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Thurmond was narrowly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2018 over his opponent, Marshall Tuck. He was the endorsed candidate of the California Democratic Party and all five 2018 California Teachers of the Year. A Democrat, he represented the 15th Assembly District from 2014 to 2018. The district encompasses the northern East Bay. The district includes the East Bay communities that stretch along the I-80 corridor from Hercules to Oakland, including Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, El Cerrito, Pinole, Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante and Kensington.