A Great Week For Promise To America
There’s only one member of the Massachusetts legislature who has flipped both a State House and State Senate district from red to blue. He’s the first Democrat to represent his hometown in the state legislature since the 1970s, and the first Democrat to represent his state Senate district in a quarter-century. It's hard to believe there are still red places to turn Democratic in a state like Massachusetts, but Sen. John Velis is living and breathing proof.
Senator Velis is a major in the Massachusetts Army National Guard and chairs the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery and the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs. After being deployed to the southern border during his service, he made a video sharing his experience and critiquing the DSA’s open-border policy. And like clockwork, the local DSA chapter attacked him for “doing Trump’s bidding” at the border and “ignoring his constituents.”
Sen. Velis reached out to us looking for a community of like-minded Democrats. And he found one. We couldn’t be prouder to have him as a signer of the Promise to America. Listen in to my conversation with him for some fantastic moments like:
Not politicizing military service
Making “compromise cool again”
Recognizing that good ideas can come from across the political spectrum.
Who else should we host for our next Substack live?
In other news…
Congressmen Adam Gray and Tom Suozzi, our first two signers, joined the NewDeal Leaders podcast to discuss the Promise.
Promise to America signer Rep. Maggie Goodlander overwhelmingly won her primary on Tuesday by a 64-point margin. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out her post that could make anyone love New Hampshire.
For the first time in the district’s history, Republicans are spending big in Colorado’s fifth district against Promise to America signer Jessica Killin. She’s the real deal!
ICYMI, we announced seven new Congressional candidate signers last week:
Leela Gray, candidate for FL-13, DCCC Red to Blue
Dwayne Romero, candidate for CO-03, DCCC district in play
Blake Gendebien, candidate for NY-21, DCCC district in play
Katy Tyndell, candidate for KS-04
Shaun Finnie, candidate for TX-02
Caitlin Rourk, candidate for TX-10
Dan Barrios, candidate for TX-32
Check out this fantastic local news piece on Blake Gendebien here. He’s great!
Have a friend who wants more content like this? Have them sign the Promise here to receive more updates.
