Hey John — thanks for opening this email. I know a lot is going on, so I appreciate it. It’s a little long, but it’s from the heart, and it’s important.

You don’t have to be obsessed with politics or watching the news 24/7 to know our country is in a bad place. Horrific violence in the Middle East. A Republican Party that has gone so far off the rails they could barely elect a Speaker. The leading Republican candidate for president is Donald Trump! And then we have unspeakable atrocities like the mass shooting in Maine because our “leaders” refuse to act. And many people talk about how Trump is a major threat to democracy and he is — but I believe there is an even greater and more long-term threat - hopelessness.

When I was knocking doors for Leaders We Deserve-endorsed candidate Nadarius Clark for the Virginia elections, the most concerning answer I got when I asked if people were voting was, “No, I don’t believe in voting” or “No all politics is corrupt and my vote doesn’t matter.” This scares me because things can never get better if we continue electing people who say “government doesn't work” who then get elected and make it not work.

I’m deeply worried about us. And it’s not because I’m anti-America. It’s because I love this country and I desperately want to see us do better.

We’re not going to fix this mess overnight. But we do have a plan. A group of us just launched Leaders We Deserve. We started it because we know that young progressive leaders can change the future of this country for the better by giving us what we need most to get through this moment of democratic backsliding, HOPE. We can elect more young leaders like Nadarius Clark, but we can ONLY do it if enough of us get behind them.

For us to give the school shooting generation the hope it needs to secure the future of our democracy and build a more perfect union, we must get to work electing the next generation of morally just leaders who put kids first and the NRA out of business.

The truth is that young progressive candidates who are running for office face huge barriers. The average age of our elected officials is astronomical. That’s because our election system favors those who are older, wealthy, and white. In 2020, Millennial and Gen-Z individuals only held 21% of State Legislative seats despite representing 45% of the electorate.

We launched Leaders We Deserve specifically to coalesce support from millions of Americans who believe in the promise of this younger generation.

Here’s our plan:

• Find young progressives who are willing to run for Congress and state legislatures.
• Equip their campaigns with messaging, scheduling, and budget tools they need to win.
• And most importantly, raise funds from our massive national network (hey, that’s you!) to allow them to go toe-to-toe with their opponents and WIN.

John, if we succeed, ten years from now we’ll have shifted the politics of this nation dramatically. Young, progressive leaders will make up their fair share of the legislative and congressional seats, allowing us to right the ship and build the future we deserve.

But what we do right now will determine whether or not that vision comes to pass. We can’t just muddle along raising a couple hundred thousand dollars here and there. We’ll actually have to raise tens of millions of dollars from grassroots donors like you to get the breadth and scale we need to win in all corners of the country.

Here’s what I need from you for our plan to work.

– If you are blessed with the financial ability to make a really big donation (like $500 or more), please do so right now to help us make this vision a reality. Click here if you are fortunate enough to give $500 or more.

– If you can give a small donation each month, that makes a big impact too. Click here if you think you can commit to a $25 monthly donation (or something like that).

– If you can’t give big and you can’t give monthly, that’s totally OK (most people can’t). Click here to just give a one time donation of whatever you can afford.

– Last but not least, if you can’t chip in at all, I completely understand. All I ask is that you forward this email to three friends who might be aligned with our cause.

I hope this fundraiser is as successful as I know it can be. I hope that we look back at this moment in ten years and say THIS is when everything started to change.

If you have any questions at all about Leaders We Deserve, please check out our website or get in touch with us on social media.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading today.

- David Hogg