John, that's me you're looking at.

I was born in El Paso, Texas, during the height of segregation. My father served as a lieutenant colonel in WWII and the Korean War. My mother worked at the USO and was the first Black clerical worker in Fort Bliss.

And yet, despite all the service that my parents provided for our nation, despite all of the racial barriers that they shattered, we were still forbidden to drink out of the same water fountains as white folks. We were still seen as lesser.

And maybe I would've believed that sentiment if I didn't have a mother as dedicated to equality as mine was. From a young age, my mother taught me that if people refuse to make a place for me at the table, I'll just have to make one for myself.

And that is a lesson I have carried with me my entire life.

So when there were no Black cheerleaders at my high school, I worked with the NAACP and earned my spot as the school’s first Black cheerleader.

When I went on to become the president of Mills College's Black Student Union and had the honor of meeting Shirley Chisholm, our nation's FIRST African American congresswoman, I was driven by Congresswoman Chisholm's mentorship to seek out a life of public service in D.C. It's there that I began a decades long career on Capitol Hill – working from an intern all the way up to one day following in Congresswoman Chisholm's footsteps and becoming a congresswoman.

John, it's that lesson that led me to the decision to run for Senate now, where there are currently no Black women serving.

But this fight is proving to be anything but easy. Between Fox News smearing my record to attempt to weaken my legacy and the GOP raising millions to keep deeply progressive candidates like me out of the Senate, I can only do this with your help.

So please, John: Can I count on you to chip in $5 or more now to help me make up my steep fundraising deficit and send me to the Senate? With many California voters still undecided, this is anyone's race, and I need your help to tip the odds in my favor.

Thank you for taking this trip down memory lane with me.

Barbara Lee