Thank you!
Hello, everyone.
I would first and foremost like to thank the wonderful donors, volunteers, and those who signed our petition for ballot access over the past year. It was truly a pleasure working with you on my own campaign, and in the coming months I hope we can work on more progressive causes together not only within District 1 but also around the state of Iowa. We set out to make an impact on our communities, win or lose, and in that we succeeded. We made our voices heard and I for one am glad that we all had the opportunity to participate so actively in the progressive movement that has made clear that we will not sit quietly after the events of 2016.
Despite our best efforts and the help from the awesome and motivated people on our campaign, we fell short of the petition signature requirements to get on the ballot come November. I understand that many people are disappointed by the results of our push for ballot access and I understand the frustration surrounding the ever-changing social media policies that hampered our ability to reach out to each and every one of our extraordinarily driven supporters and volunteers. But I hope everyone here can see the impact that we made and how our campaign was able to come together to tell the establishment politicians that we won't be forced to vote for "a lesser" of two evils.
Watching people- regular people- work together at the rallies we held and the protests and events that we attended together has been nothing short of truly inspiring, and this is the energy that will turn progressive politics into policy. I'm excited at the opportunity to work with everyone again in the near future to put progressive candidates into office so that we can finally build a government that works for all of us: one based on the principles of freedom and equality, one based on economic and social justice for all.
There is a lot standing in our way. In this election cycle alone we stood up against the establishment politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties vying for the District 1 seat, and the PACs and Super PACs behind them and their hidden, unreported internet companies and the underhanded contributions from the disastrous pipeline companies that destroy our state's beautiful environment and steal the land from our hardworking agricultural sector. What's more, we faced down the unjust policies of Facebook and other social media platforms that continue to seek to box out progressive candidates in favor of the corporate cronies backed by the billionaires.
Despite all of this, we managed to run a campaign for the people- accepting no money from corporations, billionaires, or shady unnamed overseas bank accounts; we had no backing from the Super PACs that threaten to destroy our democracy. Together, we stood up and we fought for and continue to fight for policy that works for all of us- a living wage, universal healthcare, affordable education, social justice, and a clean environment. Together, we stood up for working and middle-class Iowa and ending the vast income inequality that threatens the livelihood of everyone in the state and in the country. Together, we stood up for representative leadership- the wild notion that people should be represented in government by people, and not figureheads for the billionaire class who bought their elections.
And we should be proud of what we've accomplished in the face of the bought-out media slandering the Green Party and progressive independents by calling those who dare to want a living wage as "Russian bots" and other insensitive, irresponsible insults borne of Cold War-era paranoia. It's time to look forward, to the future, and everyone on our campaign believed in that in spite of the propaganda campaigns against us. Now more than ever we have those who would buy our elections on the run- they know that progressive politics are on the way to fight for real Iowans, real Americans.
And I'm proud to say that we were a part of that, and we will continue to be a part of the progressive revolution for as long as it takes to build a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
I hope you will look around at your community and find those progressive candidates running for city council, for local positions. I hope that you will research the big candidates and elections and races too, and make sure that you are always voting for someone who is out to represent you and not big-money corporate interests. We set out to change the country and we will, one election at a time.
It was a pleasure working with everyone here, and I look forward to working with all of you again in fighting for a progressive revolution!
I would first and foremost like to thank the wonderful donors, volunteers, and those who signed our petition for ballot access over the past year. It was truly a pleasure working with you on my own campaign, and in the coming months I hope we can work on more progressive causes together not only within District 1 but also around the state of Iowa. We set out to make an impact on our communities, win or lose, and in that we succeeded. We made our voices heard and I for one am glad that we all had the opportunity to participate so actively in the progressive movement that has made clear that we will not sit quietly after the events of 2016.
Despite our best efforts and the help from the awesome and motivated people on our campaign, we fell short of the petition signature requirements to get on the ballot come November. I understand that many people are disappointed by the results of our push for ballot access and I understand the frustration surrounding the ever-changing social media policies that hampered our ability to reach out to each and every one of our extraordinarily driven supporters and volunteers. But I hope everyone here can see the impact that we made and how our campaign was able to come together to tell the establishment politicians that we won't be forced to vote for "a lesser" of two evils.
Watching people- regular people- work together at the rallies we held and the protests and events that we attended together has been nothing short of truly inspiring, and this is the energy that will turn progressive politics into policy. I'm excited at the opportunity to work with everyone again in the near future to put progressive candidates into office so that we can finally build a government that works for all of us: one based on the principles of freedom and equality, one based on economic and social justice for all.
There is a lot standing in our way. In this election cycle alone we stood up against the establishment politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties vying for the District 1 seat, and the PACs and Super PACs behind them and their hidden, unreported internet companies and the underhanded contributions from the disastrous pipeline companies that destroy our state's beautiful environment and steal the land from our hardworking agricultural sector. What's more, we faced down the unjust policies of Facebook and other social media platforms that continue to seek to box out progressive candidates in favor of the corporate cronies backed by the billionaires.
Despite all of this, we managed to run a campaign for the people- accepting no money from corporations, billionaires, or shady unnamed overseas bank accounts; we had no backing from the Super PACs that threaten to destroy our democracy. Together, we stood up and we fought for and continue to fight for policy that works for all of us- a living wage, universal healthcare, affordable education, social justice, and a clean environment. Together, we stood up for working and middle-class Iowa and ending the vast income inequality that threatens the livelihood of everyone in the state and in the country. Together, we stood up for representative leadership- the wild notion that people should be represented in government by people, and not figureheads for the billionaire class who bought their elections.
And we should be proud of what we've accomplished in the face of the bought-out media slandering the Green Party and progressive independents by calling those who dare to want a living wage as "Russian bots" and other insensitive, irresponsible insults borne of Cold War-era paranoia. It's time to look forward, to the future, and everyone on our campaign believed in that in spite of the propaganda campaigns against us. Now more than ever we have those who would buy our elections on the run- they know that progressive politics are on the way to fight for real Iowans, real Americans.
And I'm proud to say that we were a part of that, and we will continue to be a part of the progressive revolution for as long as it takes to build a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
I hope you will look around at your community and find those progressive candidates running for city council, for local positions. I hope that you will research the big candidates and elections and races too, and make sure that you are always voting for someone who is out to represent you and not big-money corporate interests. We set out to change the country and we will, one election at a time.
It was a pleasure working with everyone here, and I look forward to working with all of you again in fighting for a progressive revolution!