I want you to hear from me

͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ Dear {NAME}, As you may have heard, this week I announced that I won’t be running for my New Jersey 7th district House seat in 2024. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who volunteered and donated to our campaigns these last few years. And I’m proud of what we accomplished together — creating jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, restoring American manufacturing, saving the Affordable Care Act, lowering drug prices, and winning victory after victory against the extremists and insurrectionists who threaten our democracy. But we’re not out of the woods yet, and I’m not done fighting to defend our ideals. [That’s why I founded Districts for Democracy, and why I still need your help.]( As we approach the 2024 elections, it’s clear that the Trumps and wanna-be Trumps of the far right will not be offering plans to improve our economy or protect our national security. They’re banking everything on a culture war. And their number one targets are our public schools and libraries. You’ve read the stories about book bans across America — books about heroes of the civil rights movement, books about the Holocaust, books that acknowledge LGBT families or that touch on human sexuality, all taken out of classrooms and libraries. But did you know that seven states have passed laws that threaten librarians with years of imprisonment if they’re found to be providing any “harmful" or “explicit" content to children, without defining what is meant by “harmful” or “explicit?" Other states have passed laws letting anyone sue teachers and schools if they present difficult parts of American history in ways that make anyone feel “discomfort.” The intent and effect of these laws are to force teachers and librarians to censor themselves, to avoid any topics that could offend the far-right culture warriors, and to dumb down education for every child. Those of us living in “blue states” aren’t immune to this nonsense. In Bernards Township, New Jersey, MAGA activists took over the school board last year and recently banned a high school sociology textbook because of its accurate accounts of current events. In Roxbury, New Jersey, right-wing activists have publicly vilified a school librarian who refused to remove LGBT-themed books, calling her a “groomer” of young children. I get why people who spread election lies and anti-vaccine propaganda hate public schools that teach kids critical thinking, history, and science. But that’s precisely why those of us committed to defending our democracy have to protect the freedom to teach and to learn in our schools. After all, our schools are where we first learn the responsibilities of citizenship and the common foundation of facts on which our political debates should be based. Preserving democracy in America doesn’t just depend on electing the right president or members of Congress, as vital as that is. We also have to work from the bottom up. That includes supporting school board candidates who care about the integrity of public education in America and who’ll work to keep the partisan culture wars out of our kids’ lives. [Please support our work by making a donation to Districts for Democracy today.]( Gratefully yours, Tom --------------------------------------------------------------- Districts for Democracy will work one school board, legislative, and congressional district at a time to recruit and support candidates committed to freedom of inquiry, thought, and speech for everyone. We want to keep the culture wars out of our schools, return school board elections to their nonpartisan roots, and keep our schools and universities focused on their central mission: helping our kids become educated and engaged citizens of these United States. ONCE]( MONTHLY]( Paid for by Districts for Democracy Districts for Democracy P.O. Box 01 Ringoes, NJ 08851-0001 United States If you need to you can unsubscribe here: [unsubscribe]( You can also [click here to donate](.