John,

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all of your support in our campaign. I'm truly humbled to have you on our team, and I'm so honored to have been elected as our district's next Member of Congress. I could not have done it without this grassroots team.

I am so proud of my deep roots in Upstate New York. I learned our region’s history as a kid sitting on my great-grandpa’s porch on Birdsall Street.

The fire station siren goes off at noon every day so the workers know when to take their lunch break.

The door on the side of everyone’s house was put there as a separate entrance going straight to the basement washroom so workers coming home from the tannery wouldn’t track a mess through the house.

The carousels are free–and they always will be–because around here we believe that every kid should have a chance to take a ride, even if (especially if) they don’t have a nickel to pay admission.

We welcomed hard-working, law-abiding immigrants–a generation of people from around the world who arrived at America’s shores, asked “which way EJ?” and set out to punch a clock, work with their hands, and find the American Dream.

And we’ve been known as a Valley of Opportunity because we build things. We made the boots our soldiers wore when they trampled fascism in the World Wars. We built the punch cards that ushered in the New Deal. We built the circuit boards that brought the world a technology revolution. And when we built those things, we also built the Middle Class.

I’m proud of that history–and it’s what makes me so hopeful for our future. In my heart and my soul, I believe in Upstate New York, I believe in you, and I believe in our promise and our potential.

That is as true today as it was growing up on Birdsall Street–where just about everyone worked in the factories and just about nobody cared about your political party–what mattered was your work ethic and how you treated others. Around here, we give each other the benefit of the doubt; when we face adversity, we pull together and we push through it; when we see injustice in the world, we stand up to it. And we always fight for–and stand with–the underdog, the overlooked, the counted-out, and the left-behind.

Those are Upstate New York’s values, and I am going to take them with me to Congress.

For too long in our economy and our politics, the deck has been stacked against everyday people–and it’s been stacked in favor of big, powerful special interests who pay politicians to do what’s best for their bottom line, not yours.

But: because of what we did in this election in this district, we have an opportunity to change that.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. But I also know that we’ve already accomplished something really important together.

In this district, in this moment, in this election–we came together to reject the politics of fear and division and lies–the old, tired political playbook of dividing people up and pitting them against each other, the politics of tearing people down just so the political establishment and the special interests can enrich themselves at the expense of the working class. We rejected that.

And we sent a message: that’s not how we do things here. We’re better than that. In Upstate New York–and on this campaign–we lift each other up, we have each other’s backs, and we work together toward a common purpose.

That work begins in earnest soon. But for now, please know how grateful I am for your help.

With gratitude & high hopes,

Josh