John,

On Saturday, a man opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 22 people and wounding dozens more. This was an act of domestic terrorism, carried out by a white supremacist with clearly articulated political aims. It was also one of the deadliest hate crimes ever carried out against Latinx people in the United States.

In his mission, the shooter took inspiration from the hateful words of Donald Trump. In his own words, he said he drove ten hours from half a state away to take innocent lives because he wanted to “stop the Hispanic invasion.”

This is the same type of poisonous message that Trump and Republicans have shouted at rallies, on Fox News, and spent millions spreading on social media.

It’s the same message that has inspired other kinds of violence, from the rise in hate crimes we see in communities immediately after Trump holds rallies, to the attempted pipe bomb attacks against multiple figures in media and politics last year.

And it’s the same message that has incited mass murders against the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, Black churchgoers in Charleston, Sikhs in Wisconsin, and Muslims in Quebec and New Zealand.

This white male Christian identity movement is our greatest existential threat. Donald Trump didn’t create it. But he and the Republican Party have ridden this hateful ideology to the seats of power they now occupy, and their words and actions have poured gasoline on its flames as they seek to maintain those positions. Combined with the ongoing scourge of gun violence in our country enabled by the proliferation of weapons of war — which we witnessed again just hours later in Dayton, Ohio — it finds its most extreme expression in violence like this.

Nine months ago, in the wake of the white supremacist attack on a Jewish congregation in Pittsburgh, I co-authored this piece for Newsweek with Dania Rajendra, a board member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. In it, we wrote of the aims of this ideology, and how we fight back against it:

“Terrorism seeks to distort our reality, break social bonds, and disrupt the commonwealth with fear. Amid the terror we see the potential of solidarity. We will not be deterred by bombs or bad ideas. We are unwavering in our commitment to one another and our shared work of making good on the so-far unrealized promise of our democracy.”

At the Working Families Party, we are committed to building a multiracial democracy rooted in solidarity. Solidarity means that we don't have to be the same to want the best for one another, to protect each other, to fight for one another, and to be in community with one another. Building a multiracial democracy means taking on white supremacy and overcoming corporate control of our politics through working people organizing across our differences to elect leaders unafraid to stand with us.

This is our collective mission. I can think of no more important cause in this moment. And I feel privileged to be in this struggle with you every day.

In solidarity,

Maurice Mitchell
Working Families Party

P.S. Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 7th, dozens of communities across the country will be organizing vigils in partnership with El Paso-based and national allies to remember and celebrate the lives that were lost and recommit to confronting white supremacy. Find an #ElPasoFirme #ElPasoStrong vigil near you here.

Paid for by Working Families Party National PAC (1 Metrotech Center North 11th Floor, Brooklyn, NY).