I wanted to do something different today. I wanted to tell you a story I’ve never forgotten from when I was a kid.

I hope you’ll read it all the way through and, if you can, chip in a few of your hard-earned dollars to help me raise $500,000 by Monday night so we can win the Iowa Caucuses and go on to beat the kind of bully that will never know the value of hard working Americans »

I used to be a very bad stutterer.

So every night, I would stand in front of the mirror in my bedroom, holding a flashlight to my face, practicing and practicing, reading aloud from books, until I could recite them fluently and without stuttering.

I still know the lines by heart: “Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.”

Stuttering was hard, but what was even harder was dealing with the bullies in school. “ H-H-H-H-Hey, J-J-J-J-J-Joe B-B-B-B-Biden.” That’s how the kids used to address me.

But back then, I wasn’t afraid to stand up to those bullies like Donald Trump, and I’m not afraid to now.

I say: Enough with these bullies.

I’ve been standing up to bullies my whole life, and I’ll stand up to this one. Together we’ll lift this nation up and bring us together. We’ll understand that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

I know how to fix our economy, because I helped pull us out of one of the worst economic downturns of our time. I know the value of a dollar, because I was raised in a working-class family that didn’t take that kind of money for granted.

Today, that’s what I’m asking you for: to pledge your hard-earned dollar to help me build the campaign it’s going to take to knock this bully out of office.

Your donation will help me hit the $500,000 goal my team tells me I need by Monday night to be in a strong position to win this thing, whether it’s $5 or $25, I would be honored to use it in this fight:

If every person who receives this email gives a dollar or two, we’ll be able to show bullies like Donald Trump what working Americans can do when we band together, stand up, and fight.

Thank you, folks.

- Joe