The Goal Remains: Wittman Must Go!

We came up short in the primary. Congratulations to Shannon Taylor. The goal remains: Wittman must go.

To the volunteers who knocked doors through a Virginia July, and to the donors who funded this from the first quarter, back when I was a guy working out of his basement: thank you. You built something that didn’t exist a year ago.

To all my new neighbors: I’m so glad to have met you. You are good people doing great things. We had such an impressive cross-section of Virginia in our base of supporters – high schoolers and retirees, citizens by birth and naturalization, all races and faiths, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Thank you trusting me with your time, talent, treasure, and votes.

I’ll do my best to stay in touch and hope you stay in touch, too!

One of my high school teachers had a poster on the wall: “What’s right is not always popular, and what’s popular is not always right.” We spoke truth to power, especially when it wasn’t popular. Our taxes belong in Medicare for All, not in funding a genocide in Gaza. In a crowded, seven-person primary, we earned 20% of the vote saying exactly that out loud, in every room we walked into. We also had record turnout for a CD-1 primary – my hats off to all the first-time primary voters! We need you to stay engaged, now more than ever.

Two questions I keep getting

What’s next? Besides catching up with my wife and kids, trying to get a dentist’s appointment, and getting a funny sound checked out in my Civic, I don’t know yet. But I can tell you this: I’ve been advocating for years, and that doesn’t stop because a ballot didn’t go our way.

Will you run as a third party candidate? No. I don’t support such a maneuver, there’s too much on the line. I ran against Rob Wittman because I believed I could beat him as the party nominee. I may not be on the ballot in November, but he still is. His support of cost increases in our lives is why he shouldn’t be.

A Word of Warning

Most of us and most of the people in our social circles don’t follow politics closely. We may only notice the dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to.

The Big Ugly Law, which passed in July 2025, hasn’t been fully implemented yet. Its second installation begins after the midterms, when the law shifts costs onto states, and states that can’t absorb them start cutting people off of SNAP and Medicaid. That’s when families will lose safety net benefits at scale.

Here’s why that should worry everyone, not just the families losing benefits. SNAP money moves fast. USDA’s data shows households spend most of their SNAP benefits within three weeks. That’s an immediate injection into local and regional economies. Grocery stores keep the lights on. Truck drivers get paid to move the food. Farmers get paid to grow it.

Pull billions of dollars out of that pipeline and we don’t just watch our neighbors go hungry. We take a hard economic hit in communities that are already stretched thin like in rural counties where the grocery store is the anchor tenant and there is no second option. Food pantries are receiving fewer financial contributions and are seeing leaner times as well. This is a recipe for disaster and Rob Wittman is one of the line cooks.

I spent years helping Virginia families navigate this system and expanding benefits. I know what it looks like when it works and what it looks like when it’s taken away. This one is going to hurt, and it’s going to hurt places that didn’t vote for it.

Let’s lock in for November

We can’t afford another term of Rob Wittman. He remains the worst person on the ballot.

Senator Mark Warner is on the ballot and in support of Medicare for All – continuous advocacy from Virginians moved him to support this. Keep banging on the drums that you care about and be consistent with candidates and elected officials to help them see your perspective.

There are three constitutional amendments on the ballot that decide what rights Virginians actually have on paper:

• Reproductive freedom: putting the right to make your own decisions about pregnancy into the state constitution.
• Marriage equality: repealing the 2006 ban on same-sex marriage, which is unenforceable today but still sitting in our constitution waiting for a court to revive it.
• Voting rights restoration: automatic restoration for Virginians who’ve completed their sentences, instead of asking the governor for permission one person at a time.

The next three months are going to go incredibly fast. Early voting opens September 18th.

We cannot rely on Republicans converting in the midterm, Pew Research reports that this simply does not happen. The way to win a midterm is with voter turnout. So here’s the ask: whether you donated, canvassed, phone called, wrote postcards, got ten friends to vote, or helped in some other way for me, you’re primed and ready to point it at November.

It will take all of us to win in November. After all, early voting begins in just a few weeks.

with gratitude,

Salaam

• Read The Midterm Elections Are Coming – Here’s How to Help
• Read More about the Referendums on the ballot in November: Healthcare and Womens Lives at Stake in VA, Voting Rights – Good News if You’ve Paid Your Dues, Protecting Marriage Equality in VA