John,
After a devastating result in Tuesday’s presidential election, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for all your hard work and reflect on what just happened. This email will be on the longer side, but I hope you’ll take the time to read it, because it’s important to where we go from here.
First of all, thank you for leaving nothing on the table. Because of you, we raised millions of dollars for Democrats in tough races and our organizing on the ground. We made more than 83,000 calls, and knocked thousands of doors. And despite a devastating loss at the top of the ticket, that work will continue to make a difference for years to come.
Here in Washington state, we became even more blue. I’m honored to have been re-elected with 85% of the votes to continue serving the Seventh Congressional District in the House, and I’m so proud that Democrats in general won just about everything that was on our ballot.
But despite our wins in Washington, this is a tough, tough, time in our country. Particularly for our friends and family who now fear for their safety, whether they are immigrants, trans, or a member of so many other marginalized communities who are relentlessly targeted by Donald Trump.
What we know right now is this: the Democratic Party was not able to articulate to enough voters what we would do to make their lives materially better.
It’s also clear that beating Trump won’t be as easy as saying we’ll build a diverse coalition of Black, Brown, Indigenous, young people to overcome him — because we are losing too many of that coalition too.
So part of what the Democratic Party has to decide is what do we stand for? What are our principles and how do we fight for them? How do we respond to the urgency of people’s economic concerns? What contrast do we offer to the Republican Party?
For decades, Americans have felt that the system is not working for them — both because Republicans have defunded and attacked government and because Democrats haven’t always used our power when we had it to lift them up. Many saw Donald Trump as someone who is willing to buck the system that doesn’t serve them instead of keeping it in place.
And in several Trump states, voters simultaneously went around their state governments to vote for ballot initiatives that raised the minimum wage, implemented paid sick leave, and protected abortion access.
So while I imagine we share a lot of theories about what led us here, I believe strongly that we should resist playing the blame game for now. We need to test our theories with clear data in front of us after some deep introspection and analysis. That’s the only way we can start to rebuild what has been for years an incredibly fragile coalition into something more sustainable and lasting.
For now, as we start to look ahead, we still don’t know what will happen in the House. We have a slim path to the majority, but if we lose it, we’ll be in full throated defensive mode. In either case, we still need to do the work to rebuild and call people back in to our coalition — and for that, we will need the movement desperately.
You will be absolutely essential to the work we need to do in the streets, in the courts, in people’s homes, and in Congress as we completely rebuild from the bottom up.
So whatever you feel today, don’t let anyone tell you that we are powerless. And don’t forget that we know how to do this work. We have experienced victory against Trump before and we will again.
Remember that it was our inside-outside movement that won against Trump in his first term — together, we forced him to stop the horrific family separations, prevented him from abolishing healthcare, and yes, pushed him out in 2020. We can do it again.
I’ll have more to say soon, but for now, take the time you need. And then come back and take your rightful place in this incredible movement filled with generous, loving, strategic, brilliant, caring people building sustained power for the poor and working class.
You belong here, John. While the months and years ahead may look dark, we have the power to bring back the light together.
In solidarity always,
Pramila Jayapal
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