Hola, my friend. It’s Ruben.

You might be wondering how this kid…

…ended up here, running for U.S. Senate, in one of the most competitive races in the entire country.

Well, it started back in the apartment I shared with my mom and my sisters after our dad left. It was tough. I was sleeping on the floor because that’s all we could afford.

I knew I had to do whatever it took to build a better life for us. I worked a bunch of jobs all through school to help make ends meet.

Thanks to my family, my community, and a lot of hard work, I got into college. But before I graduated, I enlisted in the Marines to serve the country that gave me so much.

I deployed to Al Anbar, Iraq with my brothers in arms. They called us “Lucky Lima”, but our luck turned eventually. We ended up the hardest Marine hit unit of the entire Iraq war, and I lost some of my best friends over there.

You’re never the same person after something like that. And I knew I had to do something to improve things for the guys I served with, for people who grew up like me. So, I ended up running for Congress — and I won.

Then, on January 6th, everything changed. It became clear to me that public service wasn’t just about improving the lives of the people in my community anymore — it was about defending our democracy, too.

So now, I’m running for U.S. Senate. My opponent Kari Lake continues to spread the same lies and conspiracies that caused January 6th in the first place, and she’s one of the greatest threats to our democracy — after Trump himself.

Back when I was that kid sleeping on the floor of our apartment, I never would’ve guessed this is how things would turn out.

When I was a Marine in Iraq, I never would’ve thought I’d have to fight to defend our democracy at home.

When I launched my first campaign, I never would’ve imagined that hundreds of thousands of people would back me up and donate to support me, either.

And I never, ever would’ve thought I’d need to ask supporters like you, people who have already done so much, to do a bit more. But to defeat Kari Lake and win in Arizona, that’s what I have to do.

I need you to do a bit more.

Please — if you can afford to make a split donation of $25 or anything you can to my campaign and Angela Alsobrooks, it would mean the world. An official FEC fundraising deadline is right around the corner, and we’ve got a ton of progress to make on our goals between now and then.

If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately.

Thank you. I couldn’t do this without you and the team we’ve built together.

Semper Fi,

Ruben