Hey John, It's Summer!
I don’t write to you directly often, but today I need to.
I’ll cut to the chase: we’re nearly halfway through September, and we’re falling short of our monthly grassroots fundraising goal. That means we are vulnerable to the exact same super PACs and corporate interests that tried to silence our movement before and we cannot afford to let that happen again.
Here’s why this matters so much:
For too long, billionaires, corporations, and super PACs have poisoned our politics. They drown out working people, buy access, and flood our elections with limitless money and lies. I know because I lived it in my own race as millions of dollars poured into my district to stop a working-class Black woman from having a seat at the table.
That’s not democracy. It’s corruption – full stop.
I’ve been clear: if I say money in politics is bad, I won’t take it in my own campaign either. That means no corporate PAC checks, no billionaire favors. But it also means I have to turn to people like you—the folks this movement belongs to.
I am proud to double down on this effort and introduce bills in Congress to rein in super PACs and fight back against this race to the bottom. But the hard truth is that while I fight for change inside Congress, I still have to survive the campaigns being fueled by millions of corporate dollars on the outside. And you can BET this makes me even more of a target.
I know times are tough. I know groceries and rent are going up. But I also know this: if we don’t build a democracy that actually belongs to us—the people—then it will always belong to them. And they will always use it to keep our communities struggling while they get richer.
We can prove that a grassroots campaign, powered by thousands of small donations instead of a few billionaire checks, can still win. But only if we all chip in what we can, when we can.
Thank you for standing with me, always. I truly cannot do this without you.
In solidarity,
Summer Lee
