Dear Friends,

Three years after the first violent transfer of power in our nation’s history, I fear our country hasn’t learned the lessons from the insurrection.  

Many Republican members of Congress and pundits believe we should “move on” from January 6th. But how can we move on from a festering wound in our nation’s soul? The root causes of the extremism that attacked our democracy are not only still present, but active and growing.  

This anti-democratic infection is being incubated by the next generation of members of Congress, including my own representative, Kevin Kiley. Years after the 2020 election, Kiley still refuses to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the presidential election. This may feel like a moot point to some, but remember, it was the relentless accusations that the election was stolen which mobilized an outraged base to violent action.   

And while Kiley sometimes attempts to portray himself as a “moderate Republican” who reveres our Constitution, his record since January 6th proves otherwise.

Day after day, Kiley empowers the leaders, enablers, and instigators of the January 6th insurrection, from Donald Trump, to Mike Johnson, to the hate groups that filled the rioting crowds that day in our nation’s capital. And he uses his role in our community to normalize this authoritarian agenda.

After January 6th, rather than helping to disinfect our nation with the cleansing sunlight of truth by declaring that the election wasn’t stolen, that Biden did win, and that democracy was intact, Kiley instead turned away and claimed that he doesn’t get “involved” in federal politics.  

Months later, Kevin Kiley, fully involved in his own federal political campaign, doggedly sought and received an endorsement from Donald Trump, who named Kiley a “MAGA champion in Congress.” 

Last year, when Donald Trump called for the Constitution to be terminated, Congressman-elect Kiley felt no obligation to defend our founding document. Instead, he stood silently by and watched the core of our democracy get trampled by Trump, wearing his MAGA endorsement as a badge of honor.

Kiley knew that in 2020, Mike Johnson was the architect of the “Stop the Steal” strategy designed to cast doubt on the free and fair elections, which led to the insurrection. Still, Kevin Kiley proudly voted for Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House, choosing political ideology over his constitutional duty.  

Kevin Kiley knew that Congressman Jim Jordan had suggested to Trump that he rally his supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6th.  Was this what Kiley was referencing when, in his endorsement of Jim Jordan as House Speaker, he said of Jordan, “he has a unique ability to focus on a mission, pursue it strategically and relentlessly, and rally people to the cause.”  

This was the same Jim Jordan who, recognizing his own complicity in an insurrection against our nation, asked the Trump White House about potential pardons for members of Congress who participated in planning for January 6th.  Yet, ‘tough-on-crime’ former prosecutor Kevin Kiley, was either too blind or too cynical to defend the Constitution – choosing fealty to his mentor over duty to our country.

He hasn’t just enabled the national leaders behind this movement — Kiley has also normalized extremist voices in our own neighborhoods. The footsoldiers of the January 6th insurrection were hate groups like the Proud Boys and Moms for Liberty. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists over a dozen of these hate groups active in our Northern California region.  

As a member of Congress and steward of this community, Kevin Kiley should be working to root out their messages of hate from our community. 

Instead, Kevin Kiley funded a slate of Moms for Liberty candidates to run for the local school boards in 2022. They won.  Now, Congressman Kiley serves on the education committee, where he is lauding the group as they ban books, bully transgender children and their parents, and actively push their authoritarian agenda deeper into our community. 

As a nation, we should be united in our grief around January 6th, united in resolve to restore our democracy, and united in our commitment to root out the evil that brought our nation under siege on that day.

I wish that Kevin Kiley, as the person in our community with arguably the largest local platform to reach radicalized groups, would stand up and defend the constitution with the same clarity we see from Republicans like Liz Cheney. But Kiley has chosen complicity over the Constitution.  

Since Kiley won't defend our Constitution, we must. And we will. Because we cannot allow him to win a second term. We will never heal as a nation if we allow people like Kiley to use their power to advance the authoritarian propaganda and propagandists that led to this violence. 

Together, we will win this seat, and together we can heal our community and our nation.  

Join me,

Jessica