Can I let you in on a secret, folks?

I was not the obvious choice for the U.S. Senate. It’s true!

Republicans mocked me as the “accidental senator,” my name recognition was a mere 3%, and newspapers printed headlines like “WTF?!!” after my appointment in 2009.

Look, I get it. I was the “education guy” as the superintendent of Denver’s public schools. I had never even run for office. But during my time in education, I worked with incredible people from all over and saw America for what it was — its strengths, weaknesses, where we could do better, and what our neighbors needed help with.

I knew with the right team we could do some good in the Senate. And that’s exactly what we did. We rolled up our sleeves and got to work defending health care, expanding opportunity, and fighting off the GOP’s attacks.

Now that we have a Democratic majority in Washington, we can finally overcome Mitch McConnell’s obstruction and make so much more progress. The only problem? All Washington Republicans have to do is flip one single Senate seat and they’re back in charge.

We cannot let Republicans in Washington flood this race with dark money and flip this seat red. Will you add a donation before Saturday's end-of-month fundraising deadline to help our campaign fight back against the attacks and win this race so we can protect our Democratic majority?

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I might not have been the obvious choice to fill Colorado’s vacant Senate seat, but thanks to folks like you, we’ve been fighting the good fight ever since.

I don’t plan on stopping now.

— Michael