Some anniversaries are painful.

Two years ago today, a violent mob of domestic terrorists — incited by the president of the United States — attacked the Capitol and tried to overturn the results of a presidential election. An election that that president had lost, fair and square.

I’m thinking of the families who lost loved ones defending the Capitol, and I’m thinking about all the work we must continue to do to secure our democracy.

The coup attempt failed that day, but the threat isn’t over. The insurrection didn’t begin, or end, on January 6, 2021. It was one piece of an ongoing scheme to defy the will of the American people.

Last year, the bipartisan House Select Committee on January 6 laid out powerfully compelling evidence of how far-reaching the plan-making went. It issued four criminal referrals of Donald Trump to the Justice Department. And now it’s time to follow the facts wherever they lead. No one is above the law. Not even a former president.

We also can’t ignore how the Republican Party is continuing to threaten free and fair elections by restricting voting rights across the country. So we must ensure the right to vote and the right to have that vote counted. And if it means getting rid of the filibuster, then getting rid of the filibuster is what we’ve got to do.

There’s more work to do, but we’ve also made progress in the past two years. Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, clarifying the fact that the vice president can’t single-handedly overturn presidential elections — and making it significantly harder for election deniers in Congress to undermine election results. The new law will go a long way towards preventing anything like January 6, 2021 from happening again.

Despite the insurrectionists’ violence that day, the will of the people prevailed. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as president and vice president two weeks later. And today, President Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal — one of our nation’s highest civilian honors — to Capitol Police officers, election workers, and public officials who defended our democracy from that shameful coup attempt.

Here’s something else that gives me hope: In last year’s midterms, election deniers lost every statewide race to oversee elections in every presidential battleground — shoring up the freedom of the American people to choose their own leaders in 2024. When we defend free and fair elections, we win.

I’ll keep working to protect and strengthen our democracy. And I’m grateful that you’re a part of this movement.

Elizabeth