brooklynease: What a Week It's Been!

Dear Sharra,

I announced my campaign for the presidency a little over a week ago, and what a week it's been! I made a quick trip to South Carolina (I'll be going back for a longer swing in a couple of weeks), then spent the last five days campaigning in New Hampshire.

This last week was energizing. People told me repeatedly after each event that they felt more hope than they had felt in years. We're bringing the same level of truth-telling to our collective dialog that most of us bring only to our private conversations, looking with brutal honesty at the problems in our country so we can get about the work of truly solving them.

But the dirty tricks have started as well.

Those who wish me to sit this out — to "stay in my lane," to let the political elite handle this, to get out of their way — had their own plans as well, of course. They've used powerful platforms ranging from the White House press briefing to the set of The View to malign and disinform. And major TV news outlets seem to think it's their duty not to cover my race. They have a candidate to protect, after all, and it ain't me!

That's part of why I'm writing you today.

Is it possible to override all that, to give primary voters an option so they themselves can decide who the most powerful candidate would be to run against the Republican candidate in 2024? Can we get past the disinformation machine and practice basic democracy, submitting to voters an agenda of fundamental economic reform that aligns with the expressed desires of the majority of Americans?

Yes!! But it will cost a lot of money.

We need to create our own media machine, and a campaign so powerful it can handle the turbulent seas of establishment politics. I wouldn't have run if I didn't think it was possible, and after this week on the campaign trail I'm totally convinced that it is.

If you believe what this campaign is about is important — that we are opening a meaningful and essential conversation and offering an agenda of much-needed positivity and power — then I hope you will participate and give generously to the effort.

This isn't child's play; it's a presidential campaign. And it isn't just one election that's at stake; it's the future of our country.

I'm ready, if you are. Please look into your heart and do whatever you are led to do. If it's to give generously and fund a campaign that's powerful enough to disrupt the system, then I promise you: we will.

With gratitude and love,

P.S. Below is a video from C-SPAN, taken at one of our events last week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It gives you an idea what I've been speaking about on the campaign trail; if you like it, I hope you'll spread it far and wide.

WATCH NOW