John,

I want to be real with you for a minute. Maxwell and I, our families, and our staff face personal risks every day doing this work.

And sometimes people say to me, “Well, that’s what you signed up for.”

Last month, the White House came after me for calling out their BS. Last week, MAGA Twitter personalities attacked me with degrading slurs. Next week, it’ll be someone else. There’s something about taking up space in the halls of power as an unapologetic, bald Black woman that really gets under their skin – but I digress.

Their tired playbook is the same as it’s always been. Racist dogwhistles and thinly veiled threats.

And every time this happens, my staff and I face an increase in physical threats.

To be clear, no person in any profession – and certainly no public servant – signed up for the vitriol, abuse, harassment, physical threats, and violence that come with this job. No one deserves that. Any rhetoric that creates a permission structure for people to resolve political differences with violence should be vigorously condemned.

If you’re able, you can show your support by making a donation right now. Your contribution will fuel our fight and ensure we can keep speaking truth to power.

Y’all know me – I’ll continue to speak up and fight back with every tool available. But I do want to say this:

My team, my colleagues, and I make innumerable personal sacrifices for this movement. We spend more time with each other than we do own families, all because we care about this work. All because we believe in the power and the possibility of a better world and the transformative impact that government can have in our lives.

Every empty attack on me is an attack on all of us. On our families. On our ability to show up and be accessible to constituents in the world every day.

I'm not afraid, I'm not deterred, I won't be silenced. I know that the vile acts of political violence – the attacks on Minnesota lawmakers, the dehumanizing bodyslam of Senator Padilla, the lawless arrest of Congresswoman McIver – were simply because they were doing the jobs they were elected to do.

None of this is happening in a vacuum. This is all coordinated. It is meant to silence us. It is meant to discourage, to dissuade, and to marginalize.

Well, we're not backing down. We will continue to do the work that people deserve for us to do on their behalf.

I’ve got my movement family behind me. They have nothing on us. Will you pitch in today to help fight back against Trump’s lies and blatant disregard for our humanity?

In Solidarity,

Ayanna