John,
We didn’t build this movement by waiting for permission.
We built it by organizing. By standing up for working people. By refusing to accept that the status quo is the best we can do. And every victory we’ve won together — from advancing a bold progressive agenda to holding the line against attacks on our communities — has happened because people like you have been willing to stand shoulder to shoulder and fight.
That is what makes this movement so powerful. They can try to divide us. They can try to buy our silence. They can throw everything they have at us. But they cannot stop people who are organized, determined, and willing to fight for one another.
Every measure we’ve passed. Every Resistance Lab we’ve held. Every Medicare For All townhall. We’ve turned outrage into action and action into progress.
That is the power of this movement — and you are a part of it.
Over the past several months, I’ve been traveling across the country, rallying alongside candidates, fighting for Medicare For All, organizing volunteers, and helping build the kind of people-powered campaigns that can actually beat billionaires, corporations, and their dark money. I have to tell you — what I’ve seen has been nothing short of extraordinary. It has filled me with the kind of hope and determination that will keep my tank full and running all the way to November.
In Michigan, I rallied with Abdul El-Sayed — one of the most principled leaders I’ve had the privilege of knowing, a man that made Medicare For All central to his campaign — who stood up for working people while more than $60 million in outside money was spent trying to defeat him.
$15 million from Big Pharma and health insurance interests who know exactly what Medicare for All would mean for their profit margins. Over $40 million from AIPAC, targeting his clear eyed and courageous position on ending U.S. taxpayer funding for the genocide in Gaza.
He was outspent 10:1. But it didn’t matter, John. He won anyway.
Because when you give the people something real to fight for — something they can believe in, that will truly tap into the fire in their bellies and the hope in their hearts — no amount of dark money can stop them.
In Minnesota, I joined Peggy Flannagan who faced a very similar onslaught of dark money. $20 million. She was outspent 7:1. The ads were awful and relentless. But guess what? She still won by 20 points.
That’s because Peggy did what too few leaders are willing to do: she told the truth about what’s broken and offered a real vision for fixing it. That is the kind of integrity and grit that makes the fighters of our progressive movement a force to be reckoned with. It’s what makes me proud to stand alongside them doing this work.
In Michigan’s 7th district, I stood up with William Lawrence who faced over $4.5 million in outside spending aimed at defeating him. The other side threw everything they had at him. Groups with ties to corporate interests flooded the airwaves with attack ads in the final days. He was outspent, outgunned, and still won — on a platform of Medicare for All, housing affordability, and standing up to billionaires who think they can buy our elections.
In Minnesota’s 2nd district, I supported Matt Little who was targeted by the same dark money machine for the very same reasons. Several AIPAC-affiliated groups poured over $3.5 million into the race to boost his opponent who had openly refused to call the genocide in Gaza by it’s name. In the final weeks, another $2.5 million poured into the race to flood the airwaves and overwhelm a grassroots campaign that had been built one door, one conversation, one Medicare For All town hall at a time. They outspent him, and Matt won anyway.
In California, I door knocked alongside Aisha Wahab who won her June primary by 25 points. Since then, outside groups have poured more than $6.3 million into efforts to defeat her. They’ve run misleading attack ads and disparaging mailers to tear down a candidate who has spent her entire career fighting for her community.
Race after race, we are seeing the same truth play out: you can spend millions trying to buy an election, but you cannot buy people’s convictions. You cannot buy their courage. And you sure as hell cannot buy a movement.
Here’s what every one of these candidates had in common: the more fiercely they fought for working people, the harder dark money came after them. There is a real, undeniable hunger for leaders who will fight unapologetically for working families — and refuse to back down when it matters most.
Not for the corporations and billionaires who have spent decades rigging this system in their favor.
Not for the insurance companies and pharmaceutical giants who line their pockets while working people pay the price for our for-profit health care system.
Not for the dark money special interests who pump tens of millions of dollars into Democratic primaries just to protect their own investments.
For working families. For the simple, but powerful truth that healthcare is a human right. That immigrants deserve dignity and humanity. That we can’t send billions overseas while people here at home can’t afford gas in their tanks and food on their tables. That the people of this country deserve leaders who answer to them, and only them.
That is what our progressive movement stands for. And the dark money forces we’re up against know it. The insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies, the special interests that profit from our healthcare system — they know exactly what's at stake, and they’re spending accordingly.
That’s why my Medicare for All PAC has invested millions to help these candidates fight back. We may not be able to match them dollar for dollar, but our small dollar raised funding and people power are keeping us in the fight. And our record speaks for itself. We are winning! We’ve seen incredible momentum up and down the ballot, but there is so much more to come, John. This is bigger than any one PAC, any single race, or any election cycle.
This is a movement.
Our movement.
And it’s up to us to continue fighting for it.
Dark money lost in Michigan. It lost in Minnesota. It’s losing across the country in race after race. I genuinely believe what we’re witnessing right now is the beginning of something absolutely historic.
A progressive movement that is organized, battle-tested, and refuses to be bought. A generation of leaders who are showing what it looks like when you run grassroots campaigns rooted in community, conviction, honesty, and our collective power.
But we are not done, John. Not by a long shot.
We must continue pushing forward until working families truly have a seat at the table and the opportunity to thrive, not just survive.
Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for being a part of this movement with me. Thank you for believing that a better future is possible.
I am more grateful than I can say to be in this fight alongside all of you — and more certain than ever that we are going to win.
In solidarity,
Pramila Jayapal
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Before you go: I’m going to keep traveling the country, standing alongside the candidates who refuse to be bought, organizing the people who refuse to give up, and building the kind of grassroots movement that wins. That’s the work. And it never stops. |
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