Hi John,

I wanted to make sure you saw this — just a few minutes ago, USA Today posted the op-ed I wrote about our campaign, the 2020 election, and why our efforts are so important in ensuring voters have a real choice. 

Here are some excerpts from the op-ed:

Trump has good reason to be fearful. The reelection landscape for Trump looks awfully different from when I announced my candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in August.

Presidential reelection campaigns used to be the time for leaders to shore up support among those in their party who may disagree with them.

Instead, Trump defames his rivals and quips that maybe his supporters will demand he have more than two terms. He has cowed formerly proud Republicans from challenging him, especially in public. He has drained the Republican Party of the vigor of debate and discourse; he has abandoned the principles that used to be our lodestars...He has doubled down in defending some of his most corrupt practices.

If this is how Trump behaves when he’s under the microscope and losing ground, what would a second-term Trump presidency look like post-reelection?

I’m challenging this president in the Republican primary because I think the crisis he poses is not insurmountable. I’m challenging him because I want to give the American people hope that they can have a viable choice in 2020 — this does not have to be a choice for Republican voters between the far-left’s penchant for socialism and Trump’s passion for despotism.

I know my message to “Be Brave” is resonating because I’m asking all Americans, especially Republican primary voters, to say publicly what we all know privately: Trump has shown himself to be a thin-skinned megalomaniac, he is threatening the very fabric of our democracy, and we cannot afford four more years of him.

Thank you so much for standing with us — it means so much to me and I want to make sure you know how much I appreciate it.

Stay brave,
—Joe