Friends -

As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout our Commonwealth and country, I wanted to provide you with an update of where our campaign stands at this moment.

We face a new reality, but our campaign will continue to operate because an engaged democracy has never been more important. The response from the Trump administration has made that tremendously clear.

But our operation will continue to be extensively modified. Our campaign is proactively taking steps to make sure we are good partners in this moment. I will stay in touch to offer further details as we move forward.

Our campaign is committed to building, supporting, and strengthening connections to help people continue to feel a sense of community during this crisis. We are providing maximum accommodation for staff, volunteers, and supporters to take care of themselves, their families, and their loved ones as we have since the coronavirus became apparent.

Despite the upcoming FEC deadline, we are not holding any in-person fundraisers. We will not be contributing to unnecessary gatherings of people. This may hurt us financially, but it is the right thing to do.

My hope is that we can help make up some of that difference with online support. So if you can afford to, please consider making a donation to our campaign ahead of our official FEC end-of-quarter deadline to help us continue fighting for our shared values.

Our campaign is about you, and your health and safety are Ed’s top priorities.

We know many of you are making big sacrifices, isolating yourselves, postponing or canceling major events, dealing with closed schools and daycare. We are grateful to you. Right now, our primary goal needs to be to slow the spread of this virus, and we all share that responsibility.

That shared responsibility is what our democracy is all about — a responsibility to each other and to the health of this nation. And it is only with a robust and engaged democracy that we can mobilize to address the greatest challenges we face. Person-to-person, friend-to-friend, neighbor-to-neighbor — but for now, not face-to-face. Communicating, respecting, and supporting each other. That is how our people-powered democracy will respond to the threat of coronavirus, and that is how we have built our campaign.

Earlier this week, Ed returned to Washington, D.C. to work on legislation to combat this public health emergency. He successfully called on Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to ensure that our health care workers have the resources they need to do their jobs safely. He was the first in the Senate to call for a coronavirus “czar,” and is working to ensure that all of our students have access to the internet to continue their education. He is fighting for more money for Medicaid, paid sick leave for all Americans, and to immediately pump more resources into Massachusetts and other states to respond to the crisis. Ed will continue to push for legislation to invest $1 billion in research into a universal coronavirus vaccine so that we can prepare for the next biothreat.

We need to make sure that testing and treatment are free and widespread. That workers will have the sick time they need. That families will have the resources to stay in their homes. That children will have hot meals. That a sense of urgency and human decency will prevail in our response to this emergency.

This is a crisis, and it demands Ed’s full attention. That is what you sent him to the Senate to do.

But we need your support to make sure he doesn’t have to worry about our fundraising goals while he works to address this crisis.

If you can afford it, please make a donation to our campaign today. We have a major FEC deadline at the end of the month, and whatever you can give will go a long way for our movement.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters and staff who are working to strengthen our democracy to meet this great challenge.

- John Walsh
Campaign Manager

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