Hi there, John, it's Mark Takano.

I'm reaching out to ask you to split a $10 donation between the Voter Protection Project and Will Rollins’ campaign before his next deadline hits. Before I do, I want to be vulnerable for a moment, and share a personal story about my coming out experience.

In 1994, my Republican opponent outed me as gay by sending out bigoted, homophobic campaign mailers in our race.

This was before I'd even come out publicly.

Coming out is an extremely personal moment, so you can imagine my horror finding out I had been outed so publicly -- and in such a hateful way.

And you might be familiar with the person who did it -- Ken Calvert, the same Republican that Will Rollins is now running to unseat.

Calvert blamed “the times” and claims he has since changed, but his attacks on the LGBTQ community haven’t. He voted against the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill. He voted against gay adoption and voted to keep us out of the military.

After all these years, I can’t think of a stronger rebuke of Calvert's long-standing, anti-LGBTQ agenda than by replacing him with an openly gay prosecutor like Will who will uphold the law and fight for equal rights.

Will’s race happens to be one of the most consequential elections in the country in the Democrats’ effort to retake the House. He can win, but he’ll need your support to do it. If you can, please split a contribution of $10 or more between the Voter Protection Project and Will’s campaign before their next fundraising deadline.

Thank you,

Mark