John,
As I wake up each day to run for Congress, it’s not just winning the election that gets me going. Because I know that one vote, one office, one two-year term will not be enough to address the real problems so many of us are facing. We need a movement to achieve real political change.
So my commitment has been: this campaign must do good things along the way. We must show the people of this district that Democrats will fight for them year-round, in election years and off years, not just when we need their votes, but when they need our support.
I quit my job on February 1, 2019, to run for Congress full-time. Here’s some of what our team has accomplished since then.
Removing a vote-suppressing Secretary of State. At the start of 2019, we learned that David Whitley, acting Texas Secretary of State, tried to purge 95,000 voters from the rolls. The people targeted were new Mexican-American citizens. So when Whitley’s confirmation was up for a vote, we took action. I organized supporters from across the district, including Austin County, a rural area where Hispanic voters received a threatening letter from their county clerk, suggesting they would go to jail if they voted. We turned out to the Texas capitol, testified to the confirmation committee, and helped convince the Texas Senate to reject Whitley!
Fighting to keep a rural hospital open. One of the biggest challenges in TX-10 is healthcare, and because Republicans refused Medicaid expansion, rural hospitals have been closing. The latest at-risk facility is St. Mark’s in La Grange. When local Democrats sought to keep the hospital open by having the county take over the hospital, we organized cars of volunteers to knock doors in La Grange to support the effort.
Electing a Democrat to Bastrop City Council. Dock Jackson is an African-American community leader in Bastrop, who in June took on a Republican incumbent for city council. When he put out the call for support, we answered, bringing staff and volunteers to get out the vote. We knocked on hundreds of doors for Dock, and he won by 33 votes on Election Day! Bastrop County is a swing county in TX-10, and this victory shows what is possible in 2020.
Fighting to close the Fayette Coal Plant. In the middle of TX-10 is a toxic power plant that is polluting the air and water for an entire region. My commitment has been to use our organizing network to unite local community members with Austin environmentalists. As a representative, I will help finish the job of closing Fayette Coal, organizing an environmental clean-up, and creating new jobs building sustainable industry.
Stopping the execution of Rodney Reed. Rodney Reed is a black man on Texas Death Row, who was arrested and convicted in a terribly flawed prosecution decades ago. His case is a relic of Jim Crow times: a white suspect who was never investigated; DNA evidence never tested; a biased prosecutor and jury. I wrote a clemency letter, spoke at major rallies, and joined an international movement for justice. Rodney’s execution was delayed, luckily, and we continue to fight for his life.
Organizing the first Texas Town Hall on the Green New Deal. The Texas 10th is a district that brings together environmentalists, a coal plant, and Houston oil and gas workers. This is where the conversation about climate change must happen. In Houston we’ve had five “500 year floods” in five years. The Fayette Coal Plant has polluted an aquifer that dozens of counties rely upon. We cannot wait to take action on climate change. In September, we brought together local and national leaders from youth, labor, and environmental movements, to talk about why we need a Green New Deal here in Texas.
Suing the State to stop voter suppression. Texas Republicans know the only way they keep power is by cheating, so in 2019 they passed a ban on some early voting locations. In response, I’ve joined with the Texas Young Democrats, Texas College Democrats, and 96 year-old Terrell Blodgett to sue the State to stop this vote suppression tactic.
You can see we’ve been busy. And now, with the March 3 Texas primary coming up, we are harnessing this movement to take the Texas 10th. Please continue to chip in, so we can not only win this seat, but so we can show what real Democratic representation looks like.
In solidarity,
Mike Siegel
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PAID FOR BY MIKE SIEGEL FOR CONGRESS
PO Box 2409
Austin, TX 78701
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