A Different Kind of Campaign

I asked a woman in Sterling the other day what her biggest concern was. She said, “The rhetoric just gets more toxic and people are struggling.”
I believe Donald Trump is wrong, his rhetoric is hateful, and his actions are reliably reckless.
And I am also clear that if our campaign only talks about his failings, then we too, are failing to address real struggles.
So here’s what else I’ve been thinking about:
My friend Frank, a marine who served in multiple combat tours and then spent eight years fighting with the VA to get the benefits he’d earned under the GI Bill transferred to his daughter so she could go to college.
That’s something we can fix. I hope you’ll join me as we continue these incredibly important conversations.


Over 20% of the residents in Loudoun, Prince William, and Clarke counties do not have enough savings to live above the poverty line for longer than 3 months. People are scared, and too many politicians are using this fear to advance their own agenda.
I believe in the productive capacity of the men, women and children of the 10th to start businesses, create jobs, buy homes, afford rents, go to college and become skilled workers. We can open these opportunities without spending an additional dollar, by reforming the $670 billion in federal tax incentives that currently reward the rich, miss the middle and penalize the poor. Every person deserves their fair share of savings and investment in their economic future and ours.
Let’s talk about that.
There’s a long campaign ahead of us, and I am well aware that the best performing ads and emails are the ones that dial up the rhetoric, but I am asking you to join me in something deeper.
I’ve dedicated my life to fighting against injustice. Time and again, common sense, common ground, and a little creativity have yielded far more than the all too commonly trod “us and them” positioning ever will. It’s an approach that’s helped me to reform the world’s largest supply chain and bring business and non-profits together to advance human rights.
People are struggling. There is real work to be done, and real progress — even in these dark times — to be made. Thank you for joining that conversation.
Alison


