With mail-in primary voting underway, I’m urging you to help me make the Top 2 in my Congressional race. That’s because I’m the only candidate with a chance to not just beat our incumbent, Ami Bera, but to spark permanent reform of our corrupted campaign finance system.

I know, that’s a big claim. Let me explain first with a tidbit from Mitt Romney’s speech last week after he voted for Trump’s removal. Immediately after, one awestruck Democratic senator applauded Romney by also expressing a scary truth about our political system: “It’s the hardest thing to do in the world, you know, to stand up to your party and to your friends and to your donors and to just decide to do what’s right.”

Let me repeat that last part: TO STAND UP TO YOUR DONORS AND DO WHAT’S RIGHT.

And it’s the gospel truth. It’s one of the reasons I declared my candidacy 8 months ago, and why I took the most principled campaign fundraising pledge in the nation. I’m not only accepting no PAC or corporate money; I’m also accepting donations only from voters in this district. It’s a principle I so believe in it’s a core tenet of my non-partisan Election Reform Constitutional Amendment that would remove 80% of the corrupting money from all federal races.

In contrast, most of Bera’s nearly $20 million in career donations have come from corporations and rich outside donors. Last year, he raised nearly a million dollars with 86% came from outside our district and 53% from corporations. This includes $150,000 from just 69 corporations that have paid a combined $99 billion in fines and penalties since 2000. (Full details here.)

These are corporations he should be protecting us from, not begging to finance his political ambitions. Corporations like Citicorp ($25 billion in fines) and Goldman Sachs ($13 billion). Fatally negligent companies like PG&E and Boeing. Dr. Bera has even taken nearly $50,000 since 2014 from the largest opioid makers and distributors in the U.S. – all of which Sacramento County is currently suing.

This is why it’s critical to vote Burdick for Congress and ensure I come in Top 2. Then I can take the fight for our democratic principles one-on-one against Bera in the general election. And if I win, this will be the most effective beacon and springboard for launching my Constitutional Amendment effort nationwide.

If you would like additional ways to support our campaign, please visit https://www.burdickforcongress.com/get-involved.

Together we can do this!

Sincerely,