Jim Jordan has to go

What angers me the most is the willful and intentional contempt he shows to those he works for and to the Constitution he has sworn over and over to uphold.

Look, I know the odds, the obstacles, and the expected outcome when I decided to run for Congress to take on Jim Jordan.

But here’s the thing: in America, the odds are increasingly stacked against working people and we all have a responsibility to do what we can to protect the American dream for our families and future generations.

Since I’ve always been more about action than talking, I decided to defer my acceptance to my dream Ph.D. program and cashed in a large part of my 401K to live on while I run against Jim Jordan.

While I can’t guarantee I will beat him, I can assure you that I will hold him responsible for his unacceptable behavior. Jim Jordan is not going to get a free pass.

Over the last few days my campaign has grown in amazing ways, and it’s been an honor to be supported by so many folks around the country who have stepped up and donated what they can to challenge Jim Jordan and his unlimited special interest money.

I find myself repeatedly thanking people for their financial, social media, and in-person support while knowing that it’s entirely inadequate to describe how I feel. I am grateful, but also awed and inspired by the passion people have to beat him too.

Sometimes, especially over the last few days, I take a few seconds of breath. In those moments, I ponder how fast my life changed yet how much it has not changed at all.

For better or worse, for weapon or liability, I am just me and I honestly do not know how to be anything else. I know my sense of myself keeps me grounded as the world around me spins fast and in directions that I never expected.

Waking up to celebrities promoting my candidacy or gaining almost 100,000 twitter followers in 48 hours, and thousands of people, the vast majority of whom I have never met, entrusting me with their hard-earned money. It is both humbling and honestly, a little scary. I know that I must do everything daily to earn that trust to beat and unseat him.

Driving pitch black, winding roads to talk to voters about my candidacy and asking for their votes was never my ambition. It is, however, the part of this that I love the most. I love learning what issues people see and experience, and also what solutions they see and how I can craft policies to meet those needs.

It is what I love: policy, legislation and helping craft solutions to make people’s lives better.

That is not some throwaway candidate line. It is so true that I amassed more than $230,000 in student loan debt to study policy-making in college and grad school. Barring winning the lottery or marrying a billionaire, I will die with debt.

When people tell me their fear of student loan debt, I get it. I know how it changes your life and your options because it changed mine.

This is one of the prime reasons I am in this fight.

Jordan could not care less about people’s lives and making their lives easier and better. It is outrageous and offensive that he has lived his entire life earning other people’s tax money and failing to do the job. From protecting students in his charge to protecting constituents in his district, he fails all of us all the time and still cashes his paychecks with no remorse.

What angers me the most is the willful and intentional contempt he shows to those he works for and to the Constitution he has sworn over and over to uphold. He tells us lies like we are stupid.

Paradoxically being considered cannon fodder allows me a freedom to openly call out his contemplable and reprehensible behavior without condition or concern, and as hard as warranted.

He is simply a despicable person.

So despicable that he attacked the patriotism of an active-duty combat wounded warrior who was in uniform. The attack was based on a solider doing the right thing: reporting corruption he saw. The only combat Jordan had ever faced is with a suitcoat and with the truth.

There is a sick irony in him hunting those that reported crimes as they saw them when if he had that level of integrity, ethics or morality, hundreds of boys could have been saved from sexual violence.

Those boys deserved to have a protector then, they deserve to have their trauma respected and every ounce of justice they can get now.

He lies about what he knew then and he continues to lie. Lying to your bosses is a pretty universal reason to fire an employee. It must be here too.