Dear John,

America’s economic struggles are revealing themselves today in many ways: supply chain challenges, inflation in the prices of everything from gasoline to education, and shortages of critical goods including commodities and food products.

These are the signs of policy failures, and Washington’s inability to respond to changing circumstances.

Can you send me to Congress to serve as a messenger for the future, and an advocate for new policies that serve working families, instead of billionaires and the corporations in which they invest?

The failures in Washington are driving more than just crises impacting our aggregate economy. Each of the challenges that we confront together as Americans also impact each of us as individuals, and members of families and communities.

And across America’s many communities, the economic crisis is driving ever wider the profound disparities in wealth and income that have already grown to world-historic proportions.

No campaign embodies that disparity more than ours. I’m an immigrant who owns no property, challenging an intergenerational oligarch worth over $200 million.

Can you help us level the playing field? I’m challenging the most powerful member of a Congress of millionaires—not because I have the resources to remove her, but because I have the record to prove that I’ll make better decisions if my neighbors have the independence to demand an alternative.

During this challenging time, we’re all tightening our belts. Our campaign is no stranger to that dynamic: due largely to establishment character assassination, in addition to challenges confronting the broader economy and working class on whose support we've relied, we’re operating with a fraction of the budget that fueled our 2020 campaign, when we won 81,000 votes.

Yet we’re reaching a wider community of voters and volunteers than ever before. And—having roughly doubled our vote count between each of the elections in which I’ve participated since entering politics in 2018—we’re ready to expand on that base to liberate San Francisco’s voice in Washington.

We’re working hard to hire a team with the skills necessary to coordinate our growing community of volunteers, identify the voters necessary to win the race, and bring our message to voters who haven’t heard about their choices. Can you join us today?

A critical reporting deadline looms this Thursday night, after which contributions can no longer be counted in the Q1 totals that we report to the Federal Election Commission and the press.

Given Pelosi’s profound influence in Washington, I know how much is at stake in our election. Opportunities for universal healthcare or climate justice to find reflections in policy over the next two years will turn largely on whether we’re able to end the Pelosi dynasty this November.

Thank you for bringing us closer as we continue our quest to defend the future from the failures of the past. A Congress of millionaires is never likely to recognize the challenges confronting working Americans. But—as a renter burdened by student loan debt who has lost a home to foreclosure, and experienced hunger as a young adult—I recognize the class war that has gone on for too long, and mounting an active counter-attack whose strength depends on your support.

Thank you for seeing through the establishment’s smoke & mirrors, and choosing to stand with us as we force a long-overdue debate in both San Francisco and Congress!

Your voice,

Shahid

PS — Have you contributed and want to do more to support our campaign? You can sign up to volunteer from wherever you live. And if you’d like to host a virtual gathering to introduce me & our work via videoconference to others in your community who share our concerns, reply to this email and let us know when you have in mind. I’m looking forward to meeting you, as well as your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, and classmates!