John,

Welcome to the latest edition of Emily’s Notes — updates from Washington’s 6th and Washington, D.C.!

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• WIC and SNAP — Right now, we urgently need to fund SNAP and WIC so families and children don’t go without food just because Republicans refuse to reopen the government. I met with the WIC staff at Grays Harbor County Public Health and the Bessler Center at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, and the folks at Bremerton Foodline food bank. They all say the same thing: The families they serve are anxious and scared about benefits running out.

Here in Washington, Gov. Ferguson is directing $2.2 million per week to our food banks, and AG Nick Brown joined a multistate lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture to restore SNAP funding.

Note: To help our neighbors struggling with food insecurity, consider supporting Bremerton Foodline at bremertonfoodline.org.

• Knocking on the Speaker’s door — I organized a group of 143 Democrats to formally demand Speaker Mike Johnson come to the negotiating table and find a bipartisan solution to the shutdown. The Speaker can call the House back to work, like he did in July, to pass tax cuts for billionaires. We ask that he have the same urgency for working families who need healthcare and nutritional assistance, and the thousands of furloughed federal workers who need their paychecks.

I got your text! — Thank you to everyone who joined our first texting town hall. We received over 600 questions and broadcast the town hall live on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Many of you have the same questions I do, such as: Why do we have money for a $300 million ballroom, but not for SNAP and healthcare? You can watch a full recording here →

Speaking of health care — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I spoke with the president of Leaders in Women’s Health, Alicia Klein, about their work to address health disparities across Pierce County. Don’t forget to self-check every month and get your yearly mammogram!

Swear her in — Adelita Grijalva won a special election to represent Arizona’s 7th District, but a month later, Speaker Johnson refuses to swear her in. We believe the delay is because Adelita would be the 218th vote on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files. But no matter what, the people have voted, and the Speaker doesn’t get to decide which elections count and which don’t.

Now is the part where I ask you for a donation.

I just turned 40, and I was thinking about where I was on my last birthday, in the final days of my campaign for Congress.

I had no idea that one year later, my Republican colleagues would refuse to come back from a paid vacation to reopen the government. I had no idea President Trump would be remodeling the White House and bailing out Argentina while Americans struggled to eat.

My birthday wish is that one year from now, we’ll be poised to retake the House – not just with a Democratic majority but a majority that does its job as a check and balance on the Executive Branch. Our work in Arizona’s 6th District will help make that a reality, and that work is powered by grassroots donors like you.

Can you chip in $25 or any amount before we close the book on October? We need to raise another $2,912 to hit our end-of-month goal. Your support allows our team to organize here in Washington and in our adopted swing district →

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Thank you, from the bottom of my heart 💙

— Emily