Thirteen months ago, I launched this campaign from my basement. Politico thought I was crazy - a guy with no donor base or name recognition was in for the uphill climb of his life.
Today, 2,100+ donors, 400+ volunteers, and a poll showing we have a path to victory proves that our hunch was right: the only crazy thing is settling for a nation where we are human ATMs for the 1%.
Polls are open until 7 p.m. If you are in line at 7 p.m., stay in line. They have to let you vote.
Find your polling place: You have to vote at your assigned location today.
Bring an ID (click here for valid forms of ID). A Virginia driver’s license works even if it’s expired. So do a lot of other things: a utility bill, a bank statement, a paycheck, a student ID from a Virginia school, an employer photo ID. Forgot it entirely? You can sign an ID Confirmation Statement at the polls. Do not let this be the reason you go home.
Not registered? You can still vote. Virginia allows same-day registration at your Election Day polling place. You’ll cast a provisional ballot, and it gets counted once your eligibility is confirmed.
Voting curbside is available if you’re 65 or older or have a disability. Ask the officer at the door.
This is an open primary. You don’t need to be a registered Democrat. You just have to pick one party’s ballot. I’m on the Democratic ballot.
I’ve spent my career on the unglamorous end of poverty law — the part where you sit across from a mother who works two jobs and still can’t get a straight answer about why her benefits were cut. At the Virginia Poverty Law Center and then at the Food Research and Action Center, I learned that most of what breaks in people’s lives isn’t an accident. It’s a policy choice somebody made in a room they weren’t invited into.
So we built SNAPScreener. Two and a half million families have used it. More than $100 million in food benefits unlocked for people who were entitled to them all along and just couldn’t find the door.
That’s the job. Not speeches about working families, actual money in actual grocery carts.
Rob Wittman has held this seat for seventeen years. In November, this district deserves a nominee who can say plainly what he’s for: taxing billionaires, Medicare for All, a safety net that turns benefit cliffs into slopes, clean water in the Chesapeake, and a Congress that answers to voters instead of Dominion and data centers.
I haven’t taken a dime from a corporate PAC or the pro-Israel lobby. That’s not a talking point, it’s the reason I can tell you exactly what I’ll do and why you can believe me.
1. Vote. The weather forecast shows rain right now and historically, people don’t vote when it rains. Unless you’re the Wicked Witch, you should be fine getting a little wet to fight for democracy. Just don’t leave it to 6:45 PM. If George Washington and the Continental Army can make it across the Delaware River in the winter to found this nation, we can brave a little rain to preserve it.
2. Text three people. Three individual messages to three specific people, with your polling place link. This is the single highest-value thing you can do today, and it takes four minutes.
3. Drive someone. If you know a neighbor without a car, this is the day to be useful.
Primaries in August are won by whoever’s supporters actually show up. Turnout will be low, even lower with this rain. Which means your ballot is worth several of the ones people usually cast in November and so is every ballot you talk someone else into casting.
To the supporters who were onboard from day one or just learned about us to the volunteers who knocked doors in July heat, the Precinct Partners who recruited their own neighbors, and every person who chipped in $10 they’d rather have spent on gas: thank you. Whatever the number says tonight, you built something real out here.
Let’s get out the vote. I’ll see you at the polls.
Sincerely,
Salaam
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