Laura Wells’ political activism kicked into high gear in 1992 in an unexpected way. A friend told her,

“I had a dream you were in politics. You should check out the brand new Green Party.”

Laura found a political home in the Green Party. She appreciated the recognition that the problems facing everyone were interrelated: peace and non-violence, the environment, wealth and poverty, and social justice.  She saw that real justice was up against all the “isms” of society. She liked the fact that Greens put principles into practice by never accepting corporate money, or developer money either, since developers bought government at the level of cities.

Having worked for years as a trouble-shooting systems analyst, the recognition that solutions are also interrelated appealed to Laura. It was like a principle of permaculture: no single problem or solution stands on its own. Laura wanted to be a part of bringing in solutions, to positively affect the future of all beings, definitely including her then 8-year-old daughter Natalia.

In 1992, Laura voted for Bill Clinton for president and within a year felt betrayed when Clinton and Gore got NAFTA passed, a terrible act for people and the planet. (Laura agreed with the Green idea that people should mail Gore their copies of his book Earth in the Balance and say, “Great book, you should read it!”) Clinton and Gore took billionaire money and gave the billionaires a great return on their investment with that trade agreement.

Also in 1992 the country’s glorification of Columbus’ “discovering” America fizzled because of the consciousness-raising “500 Years is Enough” movement. Within a few years she organized with “50 Years is Enough” to point out that the World Bank was not at all successful in its stated goal of “reduction of poverty.”

Since registering Green, Laura has served in a number of leadership positions at the county and state levels of the Green Party of California. She was a founding member of the Green Party County Council in Alameda County and a co-founder and managing editor of the state’s Green Party newspaper, Green Focus.

Laura has run for for California State Controller on a platform of Tax the Rich, including correcting Prop 13, which directed the majority of “tax relief” to giant corporations and not renters and homeowners. She believes in taxing the rich the way they were taxed decades ago, when the rich still got richer but not obscenely so, to the point where now billionaires can have their own space programs. After the global economic meltdown in 2008, Laura ran for Governor in 2010, on a platform of creating a State Bank of California — public banking that invests in the residents of our state not Wall Street.

She was arrested upon attempting to enter the building to watch the 2010 Gubernatorial debate, which excluded all third-party candidates; significantly, given the entrenched two-party system, the charge was “trespassing at a private party.”

In Laura’s first run for State Controller in 2002, she received over 400,000 votes. She served on the executive committee of the Instant Runoff Voting for Oakland’s 2006 campaign while also running for State Controller, helping secure support for ranked choice voting from local representatives of most political parties in Oakland, including Greens, Libertarians, Peace and Freedom, Republicans, and Democrats.

In a surprising move in 2018, Laura ran in the June “Top Two” primary ballot as a write-in candidate for Congress against her local Congressperson Barbara Lee, who was running unopposed. The Green team won the write-in campaign, and Laura became one of three Green candidates for Congress on the California November ballot, going head-to-head against incumbent Democrats. Laura says, “In that campaign I realized that the most progressive elected politicians serve to set the upper limit of what people can even expect from government. We need to raise our expectations and use our power to challenge a system that refuses to provide the very basics — like affordable and accessible healthcare, housing, and education — in this, the richest country on earth. There’s no excuse for it, but there is a reason: the billionaires and their corporations have bought out both parties and are running our country. We do have power, including our votes, voter registrations, wallet power, and street power. We need candidates with solid Green New Deal values, who never take corporate money.” The link to posts and media about the Congress 2018 campaign is HERE.

In 2022 the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party (which also represents the Party for Socialism and Liberation) ran candidates together for state and federal office as a Left Unity Slate. Laura ran for state Controller as a member of the slate. Many Californians interested in opening up the restrictive two-party system, including independent endorsing organizations, were excited to see this example of corporate-free political parties working together.

In anticipation of the 2024 election, Cornel West entered the Green Party presidential nomination process, and plans to build unity will continue, toward a world with peace and justice, and a better environment and democracy.