Dear John,

Yesterday, the future took several steps backwards in Texas. We write to observe some patterns that you won't hear about from most news sources.

The latest mass shooting left 21 young people dead at an elementary school in a mostly Latino neighborhood outside San Antonio, just a week after a white supremacist murdered 10 Black shoppers in a grocery store in Buffalo, NY.

On the very same day that schoolchildren were executed en masse in Texas, local voters went to the polls for a runoff election in the 28th congressional district. Rather than embrace progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros, voters chose incumbent Henry Cuellar—a corporate Democrat backed by the National Rife Association who has also openly opposed abortion rights.

Can you join us today to continue the battle to hold corporate Democrats accountable? The movement may have lost a battle in Texas last night, but the class war pitting Wall Street against the rest of us continues, whether we like it or not.

Several patterns demand observation.

First, Cuellar's margin of victory was absurdly fragile. Based on last night's preliminary results, he exceeded Cisneros by less than 200 votes, in an election in which over 50,000 people voted.

In that context, Nancy Pelosi's outrageous support for Cuellar played a crucial role in keeping Cisneros out of the House, undermining widespread calls for both gun control and reproductive freedom.

While the press is reporting on last night's election as a Cuellar victory, or as a Cisneros loss, it's ultimately a victory for Pelosi, Wall Street, and the corruption of the past as it continues to undermine any hope for the future.

That's why it's important to hold leadership—who many other voices appear unwilling to name—accountable. And there's only one way to do that.

Are you outraged by the hypocrisy of leading Democrats who support Republican policies? You should be—but outrage is not enough. Can you join us today to reach more voters and inform them about ongoing patterns that the press refuses to observe?

Many voices across the country, from Bernie Sanders and Our Revolution to Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement, rallied around Cisneros. They remained unwilling, however, to challenge Pelosi or hold her accountable for backing Cuellar.

Their deference to the leadership, as much as anything else, cost Cisneros the election.

That deference is ultimately rooted in timidity. As a voice willing to embrace challenges from which others continue to shrink, it's sad to witness—though also predictable.

The strategy articulated by Justice Democrats, for example, focuses on identifying low turnout districts that theoretically present low-hanging electoral fruit. As we witnessed last night, however, party leaders can still lean on the scale in powerful ways, suggesting that focusing exclusively on low turnout races is a fool's errand.

Cisneros won over 22,000 votes last night. In AOC's 2018 primary victory, she won over 16,000.

In 2020, we won over 33,000 votes in the jungle primary and then 81,000 votes in November to end the Pelosi dynasty. We did that despite headwinds unrivaled by another campaign in the country, including a public character assassination relying on racial tropes in which the entire San Francisco Democratic Party—and every white writer in our city who covers politics—remains actively complicit.

Every single organization that supported Cisneros continues to bow to Pelosi, yet we won nearly four times as many votes in 2020 without their support.

Can you join us today to get guns off the street; defend the rights of women, girls, and trans folks; and end the era of corporate corruption in Washington? Outrage may be righteous—but without action, it does nothing to shift the future.

When corporate politicians feign concern over problems that they helped create, it's important to observe their hypocrisy and hold them accountable. We've watched organizations from labor unions to press outlets, however, foolishly resign accountability to throw their support behind unapologetic hypocrites.

When United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recently endorsed Pelosi, they didn't just sell out their rank & file. They sold out kids around the country who have grown rightfully terrified of school because their lives are at risk due to the choices of self-serving politicians.

Every journalist who ever quotes Pelosi—without observing her history of ducking debates and smearing her opponents—plays into the pattern. Every "progressive" organization that continues to defer to Pelosi, from Progressive Democrats of America and Our Revolution to the Sunrise Movement and Dramatic Socialites of America, continues to undermine their own stated principles because they lack the courage of their convictions.

Some of us are willing to walk our talk, and my history proves how different I am from the prevaricators whose words fall on the shoals of their fears. We're confronting a powerful oligarch who already co-opted many others who mouth support for our principles. Can you take action today to help us shift the landscape?

Days like yesterday are tough for all of us. Mourning tragic events, while watching ignorance eclipse opportunities to do anything to stem the tide, might feel like a reason to feel dejected.

We encourage you to lean into your outrage instead—and then to go further, by taking action to challenge corruption.

Thanks for standing with us as we continue to walk where others talk!

Your voice,
Shahid

PS -- If you want to help but aren't in a position to consider a financial contribution, please sign up to volunteer with us! Your time can make a big difference from wherever you live.