There's an issue that's been getting a lot of attention in recent days in this race. And I want to tell you exactly why it matters. Because it's an important one to me.

Senator Markey doesn't live in Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe just published a close look at his time in office. Here's what they found:

"Markey spends less time at home than any other member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation."

"The senator even spent 22 fewer nights in Massachusetts than his colleague Elizabeth Warren last year — when she was running for president."

"His nights at home picked up the closer his re-election campaign drew."

His own campaign recently put out a map of his travels that showed he'd only been in the western half of the state a handful of times in the six years before this election cycle.

And I'm sorry, but that's not good enough.

This issue is so much bigger than where you choose to rest your head at night. It's about how connected you are to the communities you serve. How aware you are of their struggles, their lived experience, their hopes and their fears. How available you are to respond.

When I was deciding whether to get into this race, I called around to community leaders across the state. And person after person said: I've never met him. He's never here. I don't know him. He doesn't show up.

A long time ago, it was par for the course for Senators and Members of Congress to spend a whole lot more time in Washington.

This isn't how it works anymore. Voters are done with the old model of a remote politician who thinks they can just legislate from the halls of the Capitol, and not show up at home. They're done with politicians who tell a community what it needs from afar — rather than pulling up a chair to ask.

If that model of representation worked, we wouldn't be where we are today: with a government that has wholly failed to respond to the pain its people are feeling, from racial injustice to economic inequity to a broken health care system and a planet on fire.

I understand this job requires you to be in DC an awful lot. I understand that balancing the demands of this schedule with a family is really, really hard.

But I also know that it's what you sign up for. That when you take that oath of office, you give your word to the people you represent — that you will be there for them in every sense of the word.

And you just can't do that if you're not here.

Massachusetts is where I live. It's where Lauren and I are raising our two kids.

As your next U.S. Senator, I promise I won't lose sight of home.

Best,

Joe