Hey John — I know it’s early… It's a little before 6 here, but with Election Day just three days away, I couldn’t sleep.

So I got up, made myself a cup of tea, and spent the last hour or so reflecting on the past few years and why I ran for Congress. If you’re up early too, I’d love to share some of my thoughts with you.

When I was taking swimming lessons as a kid, I had an emergency that revealed an undiagnosed heart condition. From that day forward, I had “pre-existing condition” attached to my health care.

The care that I received growing up inspired me to become a nurse and make health care more accessible and affordable for working families like mine.

After I graduated from college, I began my career as a registered nurse and fought to expand access to affordable health care for folks across our country. A few years later, I joined the Department of Health and Human Services to help implement the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that millions of Americans, including folks like me with pre-existing conditions, could receive access to high-quality care — some for the first time ever.

But in 2017, things took a turn. The Republican House majority was gearing up to repeal the ACA and the protections we fought so hard for. I decided to go to our former Congressman’s only town hall of that year and hear him out.

So here I am, this nurse who worked to expand affordable health care, who has a pre-existing condition of her own, and when our former Congressman said he’d ensure protections were still in place for folks like me, I believed him. But just two weeks later, he voted for an ACA repeal bill in Washington that was anything but that — promising to make health care less accessible and more expensive for millions of Americans.

I knew right then and there that I had to do something. So, I made a decision to run for Congress and fight to make sure our working families get the health care they need. Folks like you supported me because you believed in that fight, too — and in 2018, this incredible team helped me make history by becoming the youngest Black woman ever elected to Congress.

Since then, I’ve been fighting my heart out for the people of Illinois, and we’ve made some incredible progress. I’ve had ten pieces of legislation enacted into law — including lifesaving legislation to lower the cost of insulin, the Health Care Affordability Act to lower health care costs and premiums, and the Protecting Moms Who Served Act to improve maternal health care for our veterans and help save moms' lives.

We have a lot to be proud of, but John, I’m only just getting started. We still have a lot of work to do to make life better for Illinois’ working families, but I know this team can accomplish anything when we work together.

So today, I’m humbly asking you to pitch in to my campaign for Congress to help us win our toss-up race in just three days so we can keep this work going.

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

CHIP IN $5 NOW CHIP IN $10 NOW

CHIP IN $25 NOW CHIP IN $50 NOW

CHIP IN $100 NOW ANOTHER AMOUNT

Thanks for taking the time to read this message and support our campaign — it means the world to me. Together, I know we can continue to make the progress our working families are counting on.

Warmly,

Lauren