Buster Bunker

Dwight "Buster" Bunker is an American politician and activist registered with the Democratic Party and serving as a U.S. Senator from California. He was elected in 2018.

Early life, education, and career
Dwight Bodhi Bunker was born in the small tourist town of Ojai, California, known for its close association with the hippie subculture. Bunker later cited the New Age values of his parents and the Ojai Valley in general as "formative" on his character.

Bunker attended Oak Grove School, a private boarding school affiliated with the Krishnamurti Foundation and teaching according to Jiddu Krishnamurti's anti-sectarian, environmentalist, and spiritualist principles. Despite the communal nature of the school, Bunker has stated that he was the victim of bullying for his social awkwardness and stammer, attributing lasting mental issues to the experience.

By his last years at the school, however, Bunker was Captain of the Speech and Debate Team and had been nicknamed "Buster." Along with several of his classmates, he took a month-long trip to Guatemala at the end of his senior year, where he delivered aid to civilians in the war-torn country. Bunker has spoken extensively of his time in Guatemala: "It was eye-opening. Seeing so many people hurt by something out of their control— it was when I decided I had to become a politician," he told one interviewer.

Bunker attended the University of California, San Francisco, where he studied Political Science. He was an active member of the campus' College Democrats and Speech and Debate Team, where he met his future husband, Gabriel Flores. With Flores support, Bunker came out as gay while in college, becoming a leader in many of the school's LGBT+ student organizations. Bunker graduated with a BA in 1994.

Bunker briefly worked as an intern on the senatorial campaign of (not-Dianne Feinstein) before he was appointed to San Francisco's Youth Commission by the city's mayor.

San Francisco city government
Bunker worked on the Youth Commission for one year, spear-heading anti-bullying campaigns in the city's public schools and advising the city government on youth issues. In 1995 he was transferred to the Human Rights Commission, where he advocated for LGBT+ awareness and outreach, serving on the LGBT Advisory Committee, of which he became Commissioner in 1999. Bunker also actively campaigned for state legislation such as the Domestic Partnership Act of 1999 and the legalization of same-sex adoption in 2003.

Also in 2003, Bunker was appointed Executive Director of the Human Right Commission, advocating for fair treatment and welfare for not only LGBT+ citizens, but also the homeless, impoverished, disadvantaged, and racial minorities. The best-known of his acts while Executive Director include: the establishment of 24/7 helplines for LGBT+ youth, victims of human trafficking, and undocumented migrants; new standards to combat workplace discrimination; and city ordinances promoting small businesses in underserved neighborhoods.

These successes propelled Bunker to be elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2006. Although still a vocal advocate for LGBT+ issues, Bunker also advanced other progressive causes, supporting legislation to provide aid for the homeless and impoverished. Narrowly re-elected in 2008, Bunker was elected President of the Board in an upset victory in 2010.

Mayor of San Francisco
In 2011, Bunker was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to fill the vacant mayorship. In November he was pitted against Asian-American Democrat Freddie Lee in an extremely close election, narrowly winning with 48.9% of the final vote to Lee's 48.5%.

Bunker's first full term as mayor was marked by a very progressive and social justice-centered agenda. In 2011 he received national attention for instructing city-county officials to continue issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in spite of California's Proposition 8. Bunker was criticized for doing little to combat homelessness, poverty, and other socio-economic issues.

Nevertheless, he was re-elected in 2015, winning 52.4% of the final vote against a much lesser-known opponent, John Greene. Bunker promised to address poverty and homelessness during his second term. He proposed and sponsored numerous bills which would set aside millions in the city's budget to fund the construction of housing for low-income families, undocumented immigrants, and teachers. Many of these programs were blocked, however, by the city's NIMBY coalition. Bunker's most widely acknowledged achievement while mayor is raising the city's minimum wage to $15.

U.S. Senate
Having reached his term limit as mayor, Bunker, encouraged by many of his friends, family, and colleagues, sought the Democratic nomination for the vacant California senatorship in 2018. He offered a much more moderate platform than he had as mayor, promising healthcare and tax code reform, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and robust gun control laws. Both the jungle primary and the general election were very close, with almost a dozen declared candidates in the race. Operating a principally grassroots campaign, Bunker won 47.7% of the final vote, becoming the first openly gay male Senator.

Personal life
Bunker publicly uses the nickname "Buster," claiming that while it was initially used to mock him in grade school, he has since reclaimed the name.

In 2008, Bunker married his partner of seventeen years, Gabriel Flores, an artist. The couple live together in a home in Washington, D.C., although they also own a property in San Francisco, California.

Bunker has stated that he is agnostic and is "not opposed" to the idea of a higher being.

Charity work and activism
In 1990, shortly after returning from his trip to Guatemala, Bunker founded the Guardian Angel Foundation, known in Spanish as Ángeles de la Guarda, alongside several of his classmates from Oak Grove School. Initially intended to teach English to refugees immigrating to America, the organization established its first community-sponsored shelter in San Francisco in 1993, offering a safe living space, food, and English tutors for undocumented migrants.

In 2001 Bunker founded a sister non-profit organization, California Railroad, whose goal is to provide mental health services for LGBT+ youth, specifically those who come from impoverished, homeless, or undocumented families.

Bunker continued to manage the day-to-day affairs of both groups until 2011, when he became Mayor of San Francisco, at which point his husband took over management of them (although Bunker retains the Director title).

To date, the organizations combined operate fifty locations across California delivering food, shelter, legal services, English tutoring, and mental health outreach to undocumented migrants and LGBT+ youth.

In 2019, Bunker donated $50,000 to Oak Grove School, the institute he attended as a child, in order to fund the construction of a new dormitory building, which was named in his honor. At the ceremony, Bunker commended both the school, several of its staff, and the Krishnamurti Foundation.

Domestic abuse scandal
In 2007 Bunker and his then-partner Flores were taken into police custody. Flores reported to the police that Bunker had threatened violence against him with a kitchen knife. Flores dropped all charges after Bunker agreed to take anxiety medication and attend therapy.

The incident was highly publicized in San Francisco, and was used by Bunker's opponents in the 2008 Board of Supervisors election, 2011 mayoral election, and 2018 senatorial election to defame him. Bunker stated in 2011 that he was "in a dark place" at the time and has since fully recovered with the help of Flores and mental health professionals.