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David Keith Cobb, the local attorney, political organizer and longtime Green Party leader, died Monday at age 63.

Born in San Leon, Texas, and educated at the University of Houston, Cobb entered the national political scene via his work on Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign. Four years later, following the Green Party split with Nader, Cobb himself was the official Green nominee for the presidency. (Outpost Editor Hank Sims profiled Cobb in this 2004 cover story for the North Coast Journal.)

In 2016, Cobb worked as campaign manager for Jill Stein’s presidential campaign. He later served on the boards of the Green Institute and Sierra Club’s Corporate Accountability Committee, was a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation and became a principal with the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy.

Locally, Cobb served on the steering committee and as campaigns director for the local branch of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County. He went on to co-found Move to Amend, the national campaign to abolish corporate constitutional rights, and Cooperation Humboldt, a cooperative-economy initiative. Cobb was also the co-coordinator of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network. In 2021, he sat down for an interview with the Outpost during our pandemic-era podcast Humboldt Holding Up.

In recent years, Cobb hosted the podcast “Redneck Gone Green” on the YouTube channel Democracy at Work. 

The Green Party issued a statement on its Facebook page on Tuesday, saying it deeply mourns Cobb’s passing and adding, “David’s impact on the Green Party, the larger social and political movements and for many individual organizers and activists across the country and generations will be a lasting legacy.”

Cobb spent nearly two years working for the Wiyot Tribe, leaving in 2022. Tribal Administrator Michelle Vassel recalled him as a kind and generous man.

“He remained a friend of the Tribe and continued to volunteer, recruit volunteers and connect people nationally with the Tribes work locally,” Vassel said. She personally recalled that, during a meeting at the California Endowment’s Oakland regional office, Cobb gave a sandwich he’d just ordered to a hungry man on the street.

“Of all the days to lose David Cobb, Labor Day seems the most appropriate,” Vassel said. “He will be missed both locally and nationally.”