Dear John,

Yesterday’s tragic news of another shooting at a high school in Knoxville, Tennessee should give us all pause. It follows quickly on the heels of the deadly shooting at the King Soopers in Boulder, and too many others to name.

In 2019, a school shooting occurred at STEM School Highlands Ranch, the school my son attends. I looked around for answers and for leadership to respond with understanding, empathy, and with action. I found none. 

This experience motivated me to run for Congress in 2020. I didn’t plan on it. I didn’t want to be a politician. But the moment required someone to step up and lead—as I was trained to do as a U.S. Marine for more than 18 years. You don’t run away from a crisis: you run towards it. 

We’ve had absent leadership in Congress for too long. It isn’t just gun violence—it’s healthcare, jobs, clean energy and the environment. Popular policy dies in the partisan gridlock of Washington. 

The problem is deeper, though. We’ve become more polarized as a people. Elected officials like Ken Buck and Lauren Boebert, and the extreme right wing media machine, have demagogued and scapegoated instead of finding agreement for common sense solutions we can all get behind, like universal background checks and red flag laws. 



I’m fed up with this. We don’t have to agree on everything, even about the issue of gun violence, but we do need leaders who will work together to find common ground.

I’m running because we can’t get anything done when people like Ken Buck bring their cynical politics to a good-faith conversation. I need your help to restore responsible leadership in Congress—I would be honored if you would support my campaign today.