David,
Serve America is devoted to supporting a new generation of service-oriented leaders who will put people over politics. In general, we raise for our candidates, rather than against their opponents.
But today, I’m doing something a little different—I’m launching an effort to defeat the so-called “Sedition Caucus,” those Members who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election based on lies and conspiracy theories. I hope you’ll join me in this effort to hold these Members accountable at the ballot box. I also hope you’ll take a few minutes to read my thoughts on the importance of this accountability, below.
Why we must defeat the Sedition Caucus
There is little that matters more to our democracy than the core tenets of free and fair elections and the peaceful transition of power.
We witnessed the resiliency of our democracy last week. Despite the lies, conspiracy theories, and threats of another attack on the U.S. Capitol, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took their oaths of office. Now, in the first week of their administration, we must hold accountable the Republicans in Congress who sought to undermine our free and fair elections.
In their desperation to ride the coattails of Donald Trump—a political phenomenon that has turned our politics upside down in recent years—almost 150 Members of Congress voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential elections. Their vote was not based on any evidence of wrongdoing or fraud; it was simply a refusal to acknowledge that their preferred candidate lost, fair and square.
The United States has some of the safest and most secure elections in the world. Trump’s own administration said that the 2020 election was “the most secure in history.” We have an extraordinary design of checks and balances that, although not without flaws, has allowed for the longest run of a democracy in human history.
Our Constitution enables us to fight for change without the need for violence. It allows us to come together, as Americans, when we identify problems with our government and our society and to correct our nation’s course.
That’s why our free and fair elections and the peaceful transition of power are so important. That’s why the siege on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month was an attack on American democracy itself. And that’s why we’re launching a fund today to defeat those Members who perpetrated lies about election fraud and voted to ignore the will of the American voters—this “Sedition Caucus”—at the ballot box. We must hold them accountable in the way that democracies do.
“How could this happen?” so many people have asked me. The attack that left five dead and forced myself, my staff, and my colleagues to shelter in a secure room shocked the nation and the world.
But this didn’t happen overnight. For two months, many of my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate have been lying to the American people. They failed to find the courage to stand up to Trump’s outrageous claim that the election was stolen from him, and they fed this lie to their supporters day in and day out.
Drunk on lies and conspiracy theories, and whipped up by the President himself at a rally that day on the National Mall, they marched on the Capitol and wreaked havoc on a pillar of our government.
Our democracy is bent but not broken. Our democracy is fickle but not fragile. It will endure—and America will endure. But only if we fight for it.
We are going to show the Sedition Caucus that there is an electoral price to pay for refusing their sacred duty as leaders and legislators. We are going to hold them accountable for abusing the public’s trust. Please, commit today to joining us.
In service,
Seth
