ROOTED IN WORKING FAMILIES – NATE ADAMS’ STORY
Nate Adams is a community organizer whose roots start in Oakland. His grandmother migrated from Japan to Oakland in search of opportunity and built a life here with four kids. His grandfather was a Japanese American whose family farm was taken from them when they were forced into internment camps during World War II. He knew what it looked like to have everything taken away by his own government and start again.
That history shaped Nate and his mom. She raised him as a single mom in a low-income neighborhood in Sacramento, without connections, safety nets, or family wealth, where they jumped from one rental to another. He saw firsthand the injustice of a system where homes sit empty while our neighbors struggle to afford housing.
Nate transferred from community college to UC Berkeley, returning to his roots in Oakland. After graduating, he organized with his neighbors to stop their landlord from illegally entering their property and to bargain for strong buyout protections.
Now, as the price of groceries and rents rise while wages stagnate, Nate recognizes how this is not a broken system. It’s working exactly as intended—benefiting the political elite and corporate interests.
As co-chair of the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America, Nate brings together neighborhoods, faith communities, and movements to build a world for working people, not billionaires. As an organizer for Richmond Progressive Alliance, he supported bringing people power and accountability to City Hall. He served on the national coordinating team for the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, which has supported thousands of workplaces to take action with their coworkers. He also played a critical role in winning a historic Alameda County divestment from genocide, the first county-level divestment of its kind in the United States.
He’s running because it's time our City Council is accountable to the people of Oakland. So when neighbors demand that the Flock Cameras used by ICE to surveil our neighbors stay out of Oakland, they stay out of Oakland. So when neighbors demand affordable housing and proactive tenant protections, City Hall follows through. So that Oakland spending is transparent and we are choosing how it's spent, not real estate lobbyists and corporate interests.
Nate doesn’t come from billionaire power. He comes from the working families that built our city. And he’s ready to fight for our future.