John —

This morning the New York Times deputy editor in Washington publicly suggested to JD’s Communications Director that Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are not Midwestern anymore than civil rights hero John Lewis is from the Deep South.

WHAT?!

How could that possibly make sense? Rashida Tlaib represents Detroit. Ilhan Omar represents Minneapolis. And yes, John Lewis is from the Deep South and bled for freedom and justice there. The answer is more insidious: for decades, Republicans and racists have perpetuated the connotation that American and Midwestern means white, and that black and brown people in the Midwest are still somehow the other.

While the editor later deleted his tweet, it’s clear that the people who shape our national conversation should be telling the story of how we are all Americans, not repeating Trump’s racism. They do us all a disservice when they echo Trump’s dog whistles that tell us some people are more ‘American’ or ‘Midwestern’ than others -- that our lives and our votes matter less than others.

We must change the idea that people of color can’t exemplify the region — or the nation — in which we live.

Right now, Justice Democrats is hard at work recruiting powerful new leaders like Ilhan and Rashida to run as energizing champions for communities that our political system has left behind. Will you donate $27 to help bolster those efforts before our critical end-of-month deadline?

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Republicans didn’t simply win the Rust Belt last year. Democrats lost in large part because of low turnout from people of color and working-class people of all backgrounds in cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. Many members of the media and Democratic Party establishment did not take these voters seriously in 2016 and continue to overly focus on Trump voters.

Electability isn’t simply about moderation, it’s about motivation.

Together, we’re building that movement. Will you donate $27 to help us elect new, diverse leaders who won’t repeat the mistakes of 2016?

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This conversation shows why we need more diverse newsrooms, and why it’s important to allow more young people, people of color, working-class people and progressives to help shape our national conversation.

By building powerful grassroots movements that fight for our values, and lift up champions who will fight for their communities instead of wealthy elites, we can motivate working-class people of every background to turn out in 2020.

In solidarity,

Justice Democrats