Twice this week, congressional leaders thumbed their noses at the American people. Speaker Pelosi‘s comments about student debt relief reflected how little she understands the issue, before Congress went on recess before even considering an urgently needed extension of the federal election moratorium.

Can you stand with me as we work to win a different voice for San Francisco in Washington? There’s no political party or corporate lobby behind me, so we rely entirely on grassroots—your—support.

Earlier this week, Nancy Pelosi said, “Suppose…your child just decided they, at this time, [do] not want to go to college but you’re paying taxes to forgive somebody else’s obligations. You may not be happy about that."

Why is the Democratic Speaker of the House repeating well-worn Republican talking points? Moreover, her comments suggest that she inaccurately considers student debt relief as a benefit to individual recipients—as opposed to an economic stimulus that would unleash the purchasing power of multiple generations currently saddled by extreme debt that constrains their consumer spending and hamstrings the broader economy.

I had to leave college at 17 after my family lost our home to foreclosure, and remain indebted to this day from law school. Do you want a voice in Congress who understands what it’s like to struggle in today’s economy, or a powerful wealthy landlord presiding over an intergenerational family dynasty?

After demonstrating their disregard for workers & families burdened by unprecedented student debt, Pelosi and other congressional leaders then turned to renters.

Pelosi chose to adjourn Congress for a 6-week recess before extending the federal election moratorium, placing millions of Americans at preventable risk of losing their homes in the midst of an escalating pandemic.

So many events in Washington seem offensive that, by inundating us by one outrage after another, they threaten to overwhelm us, to lead us to adapt to a new baseline and accept it. That is a profound constitutional threat, a critical pattern that enables authoritarianism.

But even by the crass & craven standards of our corrupt corporate Congress of millionaires, abandoning millions of renters is especially callous. It’s hard to outdo a refusal to even vote on universal healthcare in the midst of a pandemic that has killed well over half a million Americans, including a quarter million who died due to inadequate insurance.

Somehow, Congress managed to make even that failure pale by comparison.

Mass evictions are predictable, and portend an economic and humanitarian disaster.

Are Democrats ignoring the issue because they’re led by a wealthy landlord?

We’ve come closer than anyone in the generation that Pelosi has held her seat to removing her from Congress. We need your support to finish what we started—and we face a critical budget deadline today, at the end of the month. Can we count on your support?

In Washington, some Members of Congress led by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) camped out to pressure their colleagues to reconvene. That spirit of extralegal activism is precisely what has been missing in Washington for a generation, and the animating force behind not only our campaign, but also my career over the past 20 years.

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

And I’ve articulated demands from the courts to the streets, helped establish new rights, and pioneered groundbreaking policy reforms at the local level replicated across the country.

We can’t expect solutions from the architects of today’s crises. And they’re not going to simply retire and pass the baton.

I’ve been honored to represent your voice as an advocate, even while seeking the chance to formally represent San Francisco in Congress. As Washington continues to fail from one issue to the next, I grow only more committed to doing anything I can to help and deeply appreciate any support you can offer.

Are you ready to throw off the yoke of the past and demand a more humane future?

Thank you for being part of the solution!

Shahid