I know my team and I have been reaching out a lot about my reelection race, but today, I hope you’ll let me share a story about my very first campaign.

When I first ran for Congress in Wisconsin, no one thought I could win — especially when an extremely popular challenger entered the race.

I remember huddling with one of my staffers at the time. She said, “Well, Tammy, maybe you want to rethink what you’re doing because it’s going to be tough.”

I looked her right in the eye and asked, “Do you think I should wait my turn?”

Then I said this: I believe that women have to run and not wait our turn — especially when it’s hard. We can’t wait until we get a tap on our shoulder or we’ll never get anywhere.

Defying the odds, I ended up winning that race, and became the very first woman elected to the House of Representatives from Wisconsin. And that was just the first time our team would make history.

When I ran for U.S. Senate in 2012, an incredible team of grassroots supporters like you fought alongside me — even as some people wrote us off. You helped me become the first woman elected to the Senate from our state and the first openly gay Senator in our nation’s history.

And then in 2018, despite being a top target for national Republicans and enduring over a year of attacks, you stood with me again, and together, we won.

I’m used to being written off. But time and again, grassroots supporters like you have helped us defy the odds. And we’ll need to do it once more, because the fight to protect my seat is tougher than ever before.

Eric Hovde and his Republican allies have already spent more than $79 million to buy this seat, and they’re currently outspending us statewide.

Recent polls show Eric Hovde in the lead, multiple elections experts have downgraded our race rating in Hovde’s favor, and now, Mitch McConnell’s super PAC launched $24 million on attack ads against me — which he wouldn’t do unless he knew Hovde could win and flip Wisconsin red.

Protecting this seat while Republicans are outspending us on the airwaves won’t be easy, but together, I know we can defy the odds once again.

So I’m humbly asking: Will you chip in whatever you can right now to help us protect this battleground seat and the Democratic Senate majority? Every dollar counts in a race as competitive and expensive as this one.

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I’m so glad to have you on this historic team.

— Tammy