Dear John,

The latest results announced from the Board of Elections place us only 587 votes behind the 2nd place finish that would place us in the general election. With 186,473 ballots having been counted already, whether we will close the gap depends on how many ballots have yet to be counted.

Please keep us in your thoughts over the coming days.

Can you support us today to continue championing our movement's principles until the last ballot is counted?

[Trigger warning: threats of violence]

As we await the final results in our race, I received some messages from a fellow candidate that unfortunately included a death threat.

Given the political violence sweeping our country, I’ve shared the message with authorities.

I received this threat on Sunday via SMS message from Bianca Von Krieg. It comes after she repeatedly visited my home uninvited, and once forced her way inside before my housemate threatened to call law enforcement if she did not leave.

Before threatening me and trying to break into my home, Ms. Krieg may have gained access to sensitive data, including the contact information of our supporters. Several have let us know that she has been sending them unsolicited messages.

How did von Krieg obtain the email addresses of our supporters who did not give them to her? Could she have gotten them from former campaign staff who also appeared to have misappropriated campaign data for their own purposes?

Given the vitriol of this current election season, we felt that reporting this to authorities was important to prevent any acts of violence.

Just the other day, the FBI went to State Senator Scott Wiener’s home in response to to threats. The hate and attacks facing the LGBTQ community are vile and reprehensible. It’s also not the only community under attack.

Von Krieg’s threats of physical violence were the latest in a long line of escalating attacks I have faced from a racist political network operating within San Francisco’s LGBTQ community.

In 2021, the SF Bayview documented what editors described as a “civic lynching” entailing false accusations from San Francisco elected officials, Democratic Party organizations, political operatives, and unethical journalists taking money under the table from a former tech executive.

My experience as a candidate for office challenging a powerful party leader unfortunately illustrates an ironic pattern of voices within LGBTQ communities opportunistically punching down at other vulnerable groups.

It brings me no joy to observe how political institutions in San Francisco’s LGBTQ community—including the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and the Bay Area Reporter—have demonstrated a recurring pattern of white supremacy, racism and xenophobia.

The Milk Club’s actions embody the Jim Crow South, from false accusations leveraging racial and religious tropes about Muslim men and men of color, to threats aiming to silence Afro-Latina community leader Gloria Berry to defend disinformation that club leaders continue to promote.

The Bay Area Reporter’s actions reflect the era of so-called yellow journalism, including the unapologetic publication of serious accusations that remain uncorrected despite the author—a former leader of the Milk Club—admitting in public that they were false.

Publications and political organizations that weaponize racist & Islamophobic accusations, and silence whistleblowers & women of color in order to do so, each serve as pillars of institutional white supremacy well beyond the lies of aspiring partisan opportunists.

As a Muslim immigrant to the U.S., having grown up in rural Missouri and worked from SF to Washington, DC, the most vicious bias I have ever experienced is in San Francisco, ironically at the hands of members of a community whose rights I worked to establish.

San Francisco deserves better. Our city’s Black & brown residents, as well as our LGBTQ community members, all share an interest in being judged based on the content of our character, rather than stereotypes & smears based on our identities.

Having already been forced to endure character assassination orchestrated by local LGBTQ “leaders,” I hope to prevent any further escalation into actual violence.

Recognizing that a written threat lies far beyond speech protected by the First Amendment, I feel disappointed to have been forced by circumstances to approach authorities.

Are you able to support me as we respond to these escalating threats? As a Muslim immigrant facing attacks in retaliation for speaking out to defend the future we all share, I need your support today.

Candidates should compete based on their ideas, not through intimidation. The public deserves reasoned debate, not crass and craven demagoguery and threats.

Thank you for supporting my voice.

Shahid