John,

I know you’ve received a lot of messages from my campaign team recently about our FEC deadline and how vital our early campaign work is to winning another election. I wanted to reach out personally to put that sentiment in context.

We must defend against intense outside pressure and investment for competitive races like ours, even in a year without a Congressional election. National Republican groups want to flip VA-07 red badly, and are willing to pour millions into our district to do it.

Their investment leads to countless attack ads online, on TV, and on billboards. They’ll mobilize their field forces to campaign against me and the work I’ve done in Congress. And they’ll recruit prominent national figures – just like Ted Cruz last cycle – to visit Virginia to support my eventual opponent.

All this means we have a challenging road ahead, but one that I know will again lead to victory because of the community we have behind this campaign. So, why does early investment matter?

It allows us to scale up our campaign team early and build a strong foundation for success. We can purchase campaign materials like yard signs and literature to get the word out about my candidacy, and we can defend my track record and stand up to Republican attack ads.

Additionally, substantial FEC quarterly fundraising numbers can stave off Republican attacks in the first place. The stronger our campaign is, the less likely they are to pour money into a seat they can’t win.

This network is essential to our campaign, and I’m counting on your support in the 2024 cycle and beyond. Will you please make a difference in our campaign by contributing before our FEC fundraising deadline tomorrow?