Hey, John! My name’s Elijah—if you don’t know me, I’m Wesley’s Communications Director. That job usually keeps me behind the scenes, but today I wanted to reach out myself and chat for a moment about why working on this campaign is so important to me.
See, nine years ago today, the Supreme Court handed down the Obergefell v. Hodges decision and made same-sex marriage the law of the land. I remember exactly where I was when that happened, because by coincidence my grandparents happened to be visiting and that was the day I worked up the nerve to come out to them and introduce them to my partner.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember how different the world was just nine years ago. My partner and I cried when we got the news. June 26th, 2015 was the day our future opened up in front of us.
Earlier this month, that same partner and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. It was such a wonderful thing, celebrating the love we’ve built together over the years. But as much as it was a joyous occasion, it was an anxious one, too. Over the last few years, it’s been abundantly clear that the Republican Party is mounting a coordinated attack on our hard-won rights, and if we don’t get our act together, that’s a battle we’ll lose.
On Monday, Wesley emailed you about the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision and the consequences of that court case—and just last week, Justice Sotomayor sounded the alarm that the conservative majority on SCOTUS is coming for Obergefell next.
I’ll be honest: I don’t fully know what will happen if Obergefell is overturned. It seems unbelievable that legal recognition for a marriage I live every day of my life could vanish like smoke, but in a state where Amendment One is still very much enshrined in our state constitution… well, it’s entirely possible that my partner and I could suddenly find ourselves without the legal protections we’ve enjoyed for the last five years.
We’ve all seen what’s happened in places like Arizona following the Dobbs decision—until a law is actually repealed and taken off the books, these court decisions are the only thing stopping them from entering into effect.
John, I work for Democrats because they are the only major party in the United States that is interested in protecting my rights as a gay American. They are the only party working to make sure I can live my life with the same dignity as any straight person does. And I work for Wesley Harris because I know that he has a long-term vision for how Democrats can recapture power in North Carolina and actually protect my rights; because our party can shout until our faces are red about the need to protect the vulnerable, but it doesn’t mean a thing as long as we’re in the superminority.
We’ve seen how the Republicans have conducted themselves over the last decade. They don’t give a damn about me, my community, or the people I love. Wesley Harris and the Democratic Party do. It’s that simple—and if we don’t elect Democrats this year, the GOP won’t stop attacking our civil rights until we have none left.
See, when we started this campaign early last year, we knew that we had to create something that was so much bigger than just the Treasurer’s office. That shared vision of remaking what it means to run as a Democrat in North Carolina was why I jumped at the chance to work for Wesley—and I was so proud when our result in the primary showed that we were making inroads in places that a lot of people in our party thought were lost forever.
Wesley is how we win, and winning is how we protect the things we hold most precious in this world.
But I’ve seen how fickle the political winds can be. North Carolina is a 50/50 state at best, and we’ve seen more than one statewide race in recent years decided by such a slim margin that if even a handful of people had stepped up, they would have made all the difference in the world.
I’m not very good at asking for contributions—that’s why I decided that I wanted to work for campaigns instead of ever running for office myself. But John, I really hope that you’ll consider stepping up and making a contribution to Wesley today, on the anniversary of the Obergefell decision.
You may only have $5, $10, or $25 to give, but believe me when I say that your contribution could be the one that makes the difference for Democrats on election night—and what Democrats do on election night will make all the difference in the world.
