I’d like to introduce myself

͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ Hey {NAME}, I’m Darcy Draeger and I’m the Executive Director of Districts for Democracy. A few months ago, when Tom Malinowski founded D4D to fight rising extremism and protect New Jersey’s public schools, he asked if I would help. I immediately said yes because I can’t imagine a more important fight and one that we absolutely must win. I’ve never been one for half-measures. At UBS, I took on my first independent analysis project and over the next decade grew it into an award-winning database managing regulatory implementation for the firm’s Global Equities research division. I loved my career, and between that and my family, had little bandwidth for anything else. The 2016 election changed my priorities. Before, I assumed “someone” was working “somewhere” to make the world better. After, I realized that person needed to be me. So I got involved. I restarted our local Democratic municipal committee; I ran for office (and lost, then did it again two more times); and in 2018 I met Tom, who was thinking about running for Congress. And as they say, the rest is history. Working as the Morris County chair for Tom’s congressional campaigns gave me the chance to spend hundreds of hours in the field, knocking on doors in communities all over New Jersey. I know the best way to represent folks and address their concerns is to start by asking questions and then listening to what they say. In 2022, one issue that kept cropping up was a growing concern about extremist school boards, whose members were working in opposition to teachers, and using national culture wars to divide our communities. Even Tom’s opponent climbed on board this disinformation train and went on Fox News to claim that second grade teachers in New Jersey were exposing their students to pornography. It’s inexcusable. But the reality is that people really care about kids and schools, and are thus extraordinarily vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation. I saw it happen in my own town, where candidates endorsed by the national right-wing group “Moms for Liberty” went door to door mischaracterizing NJ health curriculum standards and ginning up all sorts of fear and anger. They won, and now our school board meetings include discussions of installing “kill boxes” and bulletproof glass at the middle school, while some members of the regional high school board support removing books from the advanced English program that center on LGBTQ+ protagonists. I’ve seen first-hand that living in a “blue state” will not shield us from national groups bent on weakening our truly excellent public schools, destabilizing our communities, and turning us against one another. School board elections have been and must remain non-partisan exercises. We need candidates who support our teachers, who defend freedom of expression, and who will ensure our schools are not for one, or some, but for all kids, all families, everywhere. Over the coming weeks and months, Districts for Democracy will be sharing information with you all about local schools that need your support, candidates we’re working to help, and ways you can get involved. I look forward to working together on this mission. The stakes couldn’t be higher, but I know that together this is a fight we can — and will —win. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Darcy Draeger Executive Director [P.S. Missions like this one are funded by the generosity of grassroots donors like you who care about the work that we’re doing to protect our schools and children from extremist agenda. If you can, would you consider chipping in a few dollars to help out today?]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 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](.