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Michael Tubbs Becomes Stockton's Youngest Mayor After Topping Anthony Silva

STOCKTON (CBS13) - After a long election night, Stockton has a new mayor- elect.

Michael Tubbs defeated current Mayor Anthony Silva with 70 percent of the vote. At 26 years old, he's the youngest mayor the city has ever seen.

"I'm overwhelmed but also feel just gratitude for the community for believing in me to work with them to make the changes we all want to see in Stockton," Tubbs said.

The Stanford graduate also makes history as the first black mayor of Stockton. Born and raised in the city, he spent time working for Google and the White House before being elected a city council member. After his landslide victory on Election Night, Tubbs is already making plans for his first 100 days in office.

"Focus on the violent crime, working with the county on homelessness, and working with the economic development department to figure out how do we being good jobs to Stockton," he said. "Showing people that we have an educated workforce and folks who are ready to work will also go a long way in helping bring businesses to Stockton."

"It's going to be a good positive change for Stockton over our previous mayor," said
Anntoinnette Backus, who has lived in Stockton for most of her life.

Tubbs said regardless of his age, he's looking forward to bringing his prior experience to the mayor's office.

"In terms of city governance, I've been on city council for 4 years so I have that," he said.

He's also ready and willing to meet with Silva to assess the state of the city right now.

"I'm' looking forward to meeting with Mayor Silva and hearing some of the things he started and if they're good, how do we keep those things going," Tubbs said.

But Backus is glad the city can move away from Silva's influence.
"From day one, he just was not the right person for our city," she said.

Still beaming from his historic victory, Tubbs said he's ready to focus on solutions for the new year.

"We spend a lot of time talking about the problems we have in this community, but I'm much more interested in talking about solving them," he said.

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