I’m writing asking for a conventional donation to my Congressional campaign. However, the importance of your donation is far from conventional. That’s because I am not raising money from all across the country or from every corporation and political action committee.

Instead, I’ve taken the most principled pledge in the nation to accept donations only from voters like you in our 7th Congressional District (CA-7). That’s right. No PACs, no corporations, no outside donors. This means I am running solely to represent the CA-7, funded only by the CA-7.

This also means your local donation won’t get lost in a sea of national donors and will mean more than any other political donation you could make. Yes, I am a Democrat and a progressive. But first and foremost, I’m committed to the principle that elected officials should not sell off parts of their representation to big outside donors.

In contrast, my opponent Ami Bera has raised about 80% of his nearly $20 million in career donations from outside the CA-7. This has led Bera to snuggle up with some very unhealthy bedfellows – ranging from the sugar industry that’s driven up obesity rates to PG&E whose negligence killed dozens in Paradise to many of the biggest opioid makers and distributors currently being sued by Sacramento County.

For a former doctor like Bera to embrace such donations shows how corrupting our pay-to-play political system is. That’s why my fundraising pledge is central to my Election Reform Constitutional Amendment. It will be hard work getting a 28th Amendment ratified, but it’s also our only option left. Because if we can’t change our corrupted system, then the system’s corruptions will soon overtake us completely.

So please click here and give what you can. Last election cycle, Ami Bera raised $2.9 million. While I don’t need crazy money like that to win, I do need a “David-sized” amount to buy enough stones to take down his Goliath war chest.

And we can do it. It starts by making a very “conventional” political donation but in service to a most unconventional modern notion: standing up for democracy.

Thank you for your consideration and support,