Friend,
I want to tell you a story that is not manufactured, not scripted, and not written by political insiders.
It is the story of where I come from – and why I am in this fight.
I was born in January of 1989 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of working-class America. My dad was a carpenter. My mom was a nurse. We did not have much, but we had everything we needed. It was simple. It was honest. It was the American Dream – the dream so many families today feel slipping away.
My earliest memories are warm ones. My dad was my best friend from the moment I opened my eyes. He was an avid skier, a community guy, someone who believed in something bigger than himself. He talked to me, even as a kid, about fairness, social issues, and how this country should treat people.
And then everything changed.
When I was five, my dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Our family went from living the American Dream to living the American nightmare. He lost the ability to work. We lost our financial stability. And the only reason we survived was because of the very things politicians in Washington love to attack: SNAP, Medicaid, our church, and a community that refused to let us fall through the cracks.
That moment shaped my entire life.
It taught me what happens when the bottom falls out.
It taught me what real people go through when life hits hard.
And it taught me that sometimes community, not politicians, is what saves you.
My grandfather was a farmer. I grew up around fields, tractors, early mornings, and hard work. From a young age I saw the people who feed this country, build its homes, and care for its communities. Working-class America was not a talking point to me.
It was my entire world.
I carried those lessons into my own life. I worked as a machinist, a manufacturing supervisor, and now an engineer. I have spent nearly two decades supporting the industries that actually keep our nation running – the military, the medical field, aerospace, and the backbone of American manufacturing.
I know what it means to work with your hands.
I know what it means to earn every dollar.
And I know what it feels like when leaders forget who they are supposed to serve.
And this is the part of my story that matters most.
My family is everything to me.
They are the reason I work hard, the reason I stay grounded, and the reason I refuse to look away while our country and their future crumble under the weight of broken politics and failed leadership.
I am running because they deserve a future full of possibility, not fear.
Because every child in Eastern Colorado and every family in America deserves the same chance at a good life that my parents and grandparents fought to give me. Because hard work shaped me, and a nation as strong as ours should reward that work, not punish it.
When people talk about agriculture, rural America, or working-class values, it is not an abstract concept to me. I lived it every single day. I grew up in it. I worked in it. I carried it into factories, machine shops, and engineering labs. And now I am carrying it into this campaign.
I am running because I cannot look my kids in the eye and accept a future shaped by politicians like Lauren Boebert, corrupt presidents like Donald Trump, and a political system designed to divide us instead of serve us.
I am running because we deserve better.
And I will fight for Eastern Colorado and for every family in this country with the same determination that got me through farms, factory floors, and the hardest moments of my own life. I want to leave this country better than we found it, with more hope and more opportunity for the next generation.
This campaign is not noise.
This is a working dad, a former machinist, an engineer, and someone who lived through the collapse of his own American Dream saying enough is enough. Our families deserve better. Our communities deserve better. Our country deserves better.
If you believe in a politics that remembers the people who make America work – not the people who profit from dividing us – I am asking you to stand with us.
Because real change does not start in Washington.
It starts in families like mine – and communities like ours.
Chip in now to help us keep traveling this district, hosting unscripted town halls, and building a people-powered movement strong enough to defeat extremism in CO-04 and deliver the future our families deserve.
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Let us prove that a campaign built by families, neighbors and working people can defeat the politicians who hide from their own communities.
John Padora
Working dad, engineer, fighter - Candidate for US congress CO-04
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