What comes next
Yesterday, we came up short in our campaign to represent New Hampshireʼs First Congressional District in Washington, D.C.
I want to first congratulate Stefany Shaheen on winning the Democratic nomination. She has my full support in her bid to represent us in Washington as our next Congresswoman. Over the next eight weeks, I will do everything in my power to help us win our US House and Senate races, our Governor’s race, our Executive Council seats, and a majority in our State House and Senate.
Next, I want thank the 1200+ absolutely incredible volunteers who knocked over 11,000 doors, made 10,000 phone calls, waved signs at visibilities and their polling places, and wrote 35,000 postcards to friends and neighbors. We built a grassroots movement that brought so many different people together and gave us all a sense of hope, possibility, and power. This is crucial at a time when our politics too often feels depressing, dysfunctional, and disempowering. Our knowledge that we can listen, organize, and build power so that we can bring about the changes we need here in New Hampshire and in the United States will keep us motivated and focused in the months and years ahead.
To the New Hampshire Young Democrats, the New Hampshire Youth Movement, Southern New Hampshire Indivisible, Peace Action, the Progressive Democrats of America, the UAW and GEU UNH UAW, Firefighters, SEA/SEIU and the hundreds of local and state elected leaders and candidates, activists, students, teachers, parents, grandparents, and organizers who stepped up to support our movement: thank you. You are and will continue to be the heart and soul of the Democratic Party this country deserves.
I ran for Congress because I believed that more of the same won’t fix this. And, we must fix healthcare, immigration, campaign finance, housing, and public education and never fail to recognize that there is so much that we can agree on here in NH, whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent voter. It has been a privilege and a joy to spend fifteen months in your living rooms, backyards, union halls, small businesses, libraries, and coffee shops asking what you wish Washington understood better about our lives and talking about the things that keep us all up at night and what we can do about it.
After driving over 29,600 miles around our spectacular district, it is clear to me that the biggest divide right now is not between Democrats and Republicans, and it’s not between progressives and moderates: it’s between regular people trying to live our lives and a political and economic system that treats us like we don’t matter. But we do matter. And this campaign is proof that we can compete. Despite spending less than $600,000, we won 18,000 votes, and we planted the seeds for a political movement that we can and will continue to nurture.
As I wrote in the more than 3,600 thank you notes I sent out over the course of this campaign. Here’s to building a better world together.
-Carleigh
