Friend,

In the next few days, my team and I are going to be asking a lot of you.

That's because our biggest fundraising deadline of this campaign is just around the corner, and our campaign is funded entirely by individuals like you. We can't call on special interests if we fall short, and pundits here and around the country will be assessing the totals to determine who has the momentum – and who is in trouble.

In 2018, we flipped a seat that had been held by Republicans for the previous 60 years. While you helped us expand our vote share two years later, it's no secret that midterm elections do not favor the party in power. Districts like this one will help determine who will be in the majority for the next two years – and who will set the agenda as Speaker of the House.

Kevin McCarthy, the current House Minority Leader, has shamelessly cozied up to Donald Trump and consistently undermined the critical January 6th investigation. I do not have to warn you what two years of a Kevin McCarthy speakership would bring.

I went to Congress willing to work with anyone if it helps make meaningful progress on the biggest challenges facing our country, and I will continue to do so no matter who is in the majority in the 118th Congress. Still, there is no question that a return to a Trump-dominated agenda will make our work on addressing gun violence, climate change, and the rising costs of health care and child care much more difficult – not to mention protecting voting rights, reproductive rights, and democracy itself.

After the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday, we must fight hard to demonstrate our campaign has the support to win and defend reproductive freedom.

Over the next week, as you grow tired of the constant appeals from people like me, I hope you will keep in mind just what is at stake this November – and make a donation of any amount to show the cynics in Washington that a politics of decency, civility, and optimism is not just the best way forward; it's the only way forward.

-Dean