JAMIE RASKIN: From impossible to inevitable

 

The most important political epiphany I ever had was on the day I announced my first run for public office—the Maryland State Senate, nearly two decades ago.

I made a speech setting forth everything I wanted to accomplish: abolish the death penalty in our state, increase the minimum wage, decriminalize marijuana, ban the sale of military-style assault weapons, launch the National Popular Vote interstate compact, and pass marriage equality for our besieged LGBTQ community.

A woman came up to me and said: “Great speech, Jamie, but one thing—take out everything you have in there about gay marriage. It's not going to happen and even gay candidates don’t talk about it. It makes you sound really extreme, like you’re not in the political center.”

I paused because I didn’t want to offend her, but my kids were with me watching, and so I said this:

“I really appreciate your telling me that because it makes me realize that it is not my ambition to be in the political center, which blows around with the wind. It is my ambition to be in the moral center. That’s why I’m a Democrat and that's why I’m a progressive.”

“It is our job to move public opinion so we can bring the political center to the moral center.”

I was running against a 32-year incumbent who was president pro tem of the Maryland Senate and chair of the Montgomery County Senate delegation. A pundit told a local newspaper that my chances of victory were considered “impossible.”

But nine months later, after building a grassroots campaign that educated and mobilized thousands of people, we won 67 percent of the vote. On Election night, the Washington Post quoted a pundit who declared that my victory was “inevitable.”

We went from impossible to inevitable in nine months.

I teach the young people in our Democracy Summer project that, in politics, nothing is impossible and nothing is inevitable. Change is only possible through the democratic arts of educating people and organizing towards real change.

I’m proud of what we accomplished in the State Senate, and now I’m in Congress working every day to defend strong democracy and freedom all across America. From leading the 2021 impeachment trial of Donald Trump for inciting insurrection, which resulted in a 57-43 Senate vote in favor of conviction, to referring Donald Trump for prosecution for four crimes through my service on the January 6 Select Committee, I am working in the center of the fight in the people’s House to defeat right-wing authoritarianism, racism and extremism, and to defend our democracy and freedom.

Will you support my work by making a generous donation of $10 or more today?

CONTRIBUTE

Together we’re organizing with thousands of young people across America in our Democracy Summer project for landslide Democratic victory in 2024 and beyond! I’m grateful for your friendship and solidarity, and I am sending love and strength for the battles ahead.

With gratitude and nothing but high hopes for America,

Jamie Raskin

 

Paid for by Jamie Raskin for Congress

P.O. Box 5418
Takoma Park, MD 20913