Two years ago, I was feeling pretty helpless, perhaps like a lot of you—worried sick for family and friends and community in the onslaught of the pandemic. As a society, we did what was necessary to protect public health. At Make Westing, that meant closing for what would turn out to be 14 months. It wasn’t easy to do, but it was an easy decision. The health and safety of our 30+ employees and of our large and diverse community of customers always comes first.

While no one could’ve predicted the pandemic, the failed response from government at all levels was shocking. As a small-business owner on the verge of losing everything I had poured the last 12 years of my life into, I was sick of feeling helpless. I decided to run for Congress as an independent because I felt that both parties were failing to focus on and address the needs of the people.

I soon learned that I was not alone. Whenever I talked to people I found that although their cynicism about politics runs deep, they retain real hope for change—especially when we'd talk about solving our problems outside of the two main political parties.

Though we finished third out of five in the June 7 primary, I am enormously proud of the fact that we earned more than 5,000 votes—all with a skeleton staff, a minuscule budget built on individual donations, and no party backing. We can hold our heads high, especially seeing how our campaign has compelled the 24-year incumbent to refocus her platform on what we’ve been advocating, including increased support for small businesses.

Thank you, truly, to everyone who supported this campaign—in particular, Jonathan Mindes, my de facto campaign manager, without whom I would never have achieved as much as I did, and my family (my mother, Nancy, father, Jerry, and brothers, Jim and Scott), without whom I never would have even had the courage to run. I also want to thank Boomie Aglietti, Nate Bryans and Ragnar Bloom for their unwavering support and editorial assistance; Mike Miller, Joyce Ni and Gabriel Avila for their help with the website and translation; Sharif Nakhleh and Elie Khadra for their work, with Jonathan, on our campaign video; Ahmed Darwish and his Living Organism Project (Thelivingorganismproject.org) for his encouragement and counsel; and Roma Frey for her support and guidance. And, of course, a big thank you to all of our donors and supporters.

Change is hard and requires persistence, but the fight is itself rewarding. I love my community and will continue working to make it better in every way I can.

Yours,

Glenn