Friend, I spent a lot of time preparing my closing statement for last night’s debate.
But I decided to scrap it.
That’s because I looked out in the audience and saw John Lewis, a man without whom I wouldn’t be who or where I am today. Fifty years ago, a lawyer sat on his couch watching a TV movie that was interrupted by breaking news from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
That lawyer saw John Lewis and other marchers beaten viciously by Alabama State Troopers because they dared to stand up for their rights -- and that lawyer was inspired to do what he could to help. He chose to represent families, one of them mine, who were being discriminated against while they searched for a home. The house I grew up in was ours thanks to that lawyer’s efforts.
And when I spoke to John Lewis after the debate, I was reminded that we all owe debts that we cannot repay. We all drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty that we did not dig.
This is a moral moment in America, and we need a president who can inspire us to get up and fight again. If I’m given the chance to be the next president of the United States, I will challenge you to rise to this moment, and I will ask more of you than any president ever has. And I will cause a whole lot of something John Lewis calls “good trouble.”
Because this isn’t just about defeating the current occupant of the White House -- that’s the floor. We need to reach for the ceiling. This entire campaign, I’ve been calling for us to fight -- and to fight the right way, by bringing people together to make transformative change for our country.
I know that what I chose to say in that moment might end up being my last statement in one of these debates. The truth is I have not yet qualified for the December debate, and our underdog campaign needs a powerful push to get us there.
I’m asking you to keep me on that stage. Chip in right now if you can, because I’m just getting started.
It means so much -- thank you,
Cory
P.S. My team tells me that more people donated to our campaign for the first time last night than did on the day we launched. That’s exactly the momentum we need to propel us into the December debate. Keep it going.
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