Dear Friends,

This week, we remember the lives lost and families forever changed by the terror attacks on 9/11. We honor the emergency first responders, service members and veterans who valiantly answered the call of service then and continue to do so now.  

Democrats delivered vital benefits for our nation’s heroic 9/11 first responders and 9/11 era veterans and know that we have more work to do to ensure that all of America’s veterans and first responders are cared for not only when they answer the call of service, but when they need our help in the years that follow. That is our sacred responsibility and promise.

Our hearts were broken in recent days as our nation reeled, once again, from the devastation of senseless gun violence — we do not have to live like this! We must come together against hatred and violence in all of its forms and work to address the gun violence crisis that plagues our communities. Our prayers for healing must be coupled with action and the political will to make lasting change that is rooted in our collective wellbeing and commitment to making our communities safer For The Children. 

Dear Friends,

You, our VIPs — our grassroots Volunteers in Politics, have been making hundreds of thousands of calls into vulnerable Republican districts since our kickoff to Save Our Health Care in January! You have been organizing locally and inspiring action nationally.  You have been relentlessly focused on what we can influence and change with your outside mobilization.  So when Texas Republicans made their move to disenfranchise millions of voters in Texas and attempt to rig Congressional elections, we knew we could count on California voters to fight back with a YES vote on Proposition 50 on your November ballot. 

California has always stood up to Trump — and we are not backing down now.  Trump and his minions think they can steal Democracy district by district and silence voters’ voices — but we will fight back and we will win.

As we prepared to celebrate Labor Day weekend with our families and our communities last week, Texas Republicans signed their illegal redistricting plan into law — yet another action from Republicans that put politics over the needs of the people, not only in Texas but across the country.  We have long called this for what it is — an attempt by Republicans to escape accountability for what they have done.  Republicans know that their policies are not popular and are causing tremendous harm to millions of Americans and unnecessary destruction to our economy and social safety net – health care, jobs, food assistance and more.  They know they cannot and will not keep power without changing the rules in the middle of the game and outright cheating — and they are brazen enough to do so because they think they can get away with anything.

Dear Friends,

Wishing you and yours a Happy Labor Day Weekend!  Every day — and especially on Labor Day — we honor America’s workers and the unions that built America’s middle class. The middle class has a union label on it and is the backbone of our Democracy.  Labor unions built our country’s ladders of opportunity for countless people for generations — with values of community and dignity that bind us as Americans.  We are all in this together, and we are stronger when we stand together for justice, fairness and opportunity for all.

Since the current occupant of the White House and his minions barged back into office in January, his Administration has waged an all-out, illegal assault on the rights of workers. This anti-union, anti-worker attack has stripped away collective bargaining from hundreds of thousands of our public servants, including those who care for our veterans — many of whom are veterans themselves.  Washington Republicans have shown us exactly who they are — they voted to strip health care and food aid from more than 20 million Americans and pushed policies that are making it harder to afford groceries, gas and other everyday essentials.  All while giving billionaires massive tax breaks that will add trillions to the national debt.

This past week, we celebrated the 105th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.  With gratitude for all the women who struggled, fought, marched, starved and were starved before winning the right to vote — we must never take change for granted.  Republicans have openly discussed ways to make voting harder for women, and we will not stand for that — ever.  As we face monstrous threats to our health care, freedoms and Democracy from Republican extremists — let me be clear: we are not going back!

Dear Friends,

Americans already pressured by skyrocketing costs from Trump’s tariffs are bracing for the impact of the Republicans’ Big Ugly Budget which will make low-income people poorer and sicker while making the ultra-rich even richer – it’s sinful.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for being on the frontlines of our Democracy and fighting to defend our voices and our values and to Save Our Health Care. Together, we are continuing to help California voters connect with their Republican Representatives in Congress who voted to defund Medicaid — including David Valadao in the Central Valley who broke his vital promise to his constituents with eyes wide open after authoring or signing onto numerous letters detailing the harm that would be caused by the Big Ugly Bill.

Dear Friends,

Americans already pressured by skyrocketing costs from Trump’s tariffs are bracing for the impact of the Republicans’ Big Ugly Budget which will make low-income people poorer and sicker while making the ultra-rich even richer – it’s sinful.

Americans know Republicans ripped away health care to fund billionaire tax breaks. Republicans know they will lose the Midterm elections, so they decided to cheat — to change Texas' voting rules in the middle of the game. Rather than take care of flood victims and other constituents in need and address how to provide lifesaving health care and food for millions of Texans who will lose both, Texas Republicans have chosen to do the direct bidding of Donald Trump by redrawing their Congressional maps with a redlining mid-decade gerrymander that violates the Voting Rights Act by erasing representation for minority communities.

Dear Friends,

This week, House Democrats celebrated Honor Our Veterans Day of Action on Purple Heart Day — a time to honor those who have been wounded in the line of duty. It was also an opportunity to recognize all of our veterans for their service and to reaffirm our commitment to caring for those who have sacrificed for us. I began the week with my California colleague, Congressman Mike Thompson, CA-04, a decorated Purple Heart veteran of the Vietnam war who has been leading the way in the Congress for restoration of Trump‘s cruel budget that jeopardizes cuts to veterans’ cancer care in our PACT Act, to veterans suicide prevention in the COMPACT Act and to Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. 

On Thursday, I visited the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Unfortunately, recent changes made by Republicans to Medicaid and the SNAP program have made it more difficult for veterans to receive the assistance they also need and deserve.

Democrats are dedicated to providing our veterans with the highest quality care. We value the employees of the Veterans Administration and acknowledge their right to organize. Our mission will always be to leave no veteran behind. We will continue to push back against the harm that has been inflicted on veterans by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans.

Dear Friends,

This week, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of Medicaid. As you may know, Democrats delivered Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act despite Republican opposition — and Republicans have never stopped undermining these life-saving initiatives for our families, including Trump's Big Ugly Budget. So going into this past week, we were part of a sacred vigil to kick off Save Medicaid Summer with the Caring Across Generations coalition. Moms, dads, children with disabilities, patient advocates, health care workers, my daughter and I took turns sharing stories from across the country.

Friends, we must “Own August” by keeping the pressure on Republicans in Congress who chose to strip Medicaid funding, food and other vital services from millions of Americans on Trump’s orders — in order to give massive tax breaks to his ultra rich MAGA donors. They need to know that the American people will never get over this act of cruelty and depravity and will not be distracted by the Republicans’ attempts to evade and deflect responsibility for the harm they willingly caused.

Dear Friends,

This past weekend we celebrated the power of our VIPs at our quarterly Politics & Eggs Breakfast in San Francisco – and what a beautiful celebration it was! Over the past six months of the Republicans’ cruelty, corruption and chaos, our amazing Volunteers in Politics made over 300,000 calls to Republican districts to Save Our Health Care. It was my honor to thank many of our VIPs in person and sing their praises to our special guests, Congressman Jaime Raskin of Maryland, Congresswoman Madeline Dean from Pennsylvania and California’s own Congressman David Min. 

As the highest ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and soon to be Chair of that powerful committee when Democrats take back the House in 2026, Congressman Raskin passionately articulated the power that each and every one of us has in this moment to fight for our values and shape a brighter future for our country that honors the vision of our founders, the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and the dreams and aspirations of our children.

Dear Friends,

Thank you Volunteers in Politics, our VIPs who have been with us week in and week out over several months, making hundreds of thousands of calls from our San Francisco hub and across America to stop the Republican raid on Medicaid. San Francisco and San Franciscans have stepped up and led during health crises before and we will do it again as the impacts of the Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill unfold. Our work to save lives continues so I am grateful to you and am proud to fight alongside you to Save Our Health Care.

Today is the John Lewis Day of Action. We celebrate our hero who left us five years ago today and recall his indomitable spirit and example of centering love as we fight for what is right, even in the face of cruelty and danger, by answering his call for Good Trouble. John Lewis never stopped fighting for America’s promise — liberty and justice for all, including in health care.

It was my honor as Speaker to walk arm in arm with John Lewis to the Capitol on the way to passing the Affordable Care Act because we believed that health care is a right for all — not a privilege for the few. It was a true blessing to serve in the People’s House alongside this saintly man. John also taught us that Democracy is not a state of being — but an act. Your calls to constituents of Republicans who voted for that cruel budget that strips health care and food from millions  of Americans while padding the pockets of the ultra-rich are acts of Democracy.

In line with the lessons we learned from John Lewis and our San Francisco values of environmental stewardship and fostering community, know that I am also committed to saving our beautiful park system, including the Presidio and Alcatraz, from yet another thoughtless incursion by Trump. Make no mistake, Trump’s insane talk about using Alcatraz as a prison, once again, is a diversionary tactic to distract the American people from the Big Ugly Bill he signed into law, which rips health care and food away from 20 million Americans – to give tax breaks to billionaires. If reason does not prevail among Republicans in Congress and bring Trump’s fevered dream before the Congress, Democrats will use every parliamentary arrow in our quiver to stop this lunacy in its tracks. 

Dear Friends,

MAGA Republicans passed their Big Ugly Bill and signed it into law on the 4^th of July in a display of shameful pride and hubris that is completely out of step with the American people’s needs. Although they acted proud to rip away health care and food assistance from up to 20 million Americans in their command performance for Trump in front of the cameras, they know what they did was wrong – and sinful. Our work to defend lifesaving health care and vital assistance for the most vulnerable Americans continues.

Thank you, Volunteers in Politics, for your dedication and hard work over the past 6 months of effective mobilization and phone banking. Because of you, Republicans are on record – claiming they would not act to cut Medicaid and other aspects of our health care only to do the exact opposite on Trump’s orders. By their cruel and monstrous betrayal of the American people, Republicans have set the stage for their electoral reckoning and for Democrats to take back the House in 2026 in a Big Beautiful Blowback for their actions.

Sadly, every single House Republican from California voted to strip health care and food assistance from millions of Americans including their own constituents — putting families in crisis to finance billionaire tax breaks. Every. Single. One. So we are continuing to make sure that their constituents know.

Dear Friends,

Celebrating the Fourth of July together, we honor our Declaration of Independence as a cornerstone document of our nation’s founding of our government of the people, by the people and For The People. Our Founders separated from a king 249 years ago today, yet we find ourselves with a President who fancies himself a king, enabled by an extremist judiciary and cowardly Republican legislators eager to surrender their own constitutional duty and authority to a bully with an extremist agenda and authoritarian schemes.

Sadly, Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill that every House Democrat rejected and that House Republicans passed yesterday will rip away health care and food from 20 million Americans and result in hospital and nursing home closures in every state. That Republicans insist on referring to their monstrous legislation as “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is proof that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and that today’s Republican Party has a warped and blurred vision of what America is about. Is it beautiful to take food out of the mouths of hungry children and seniors? Is it beautiful to cut off 17 million Americans from their health care? Is it beautiful to exact this cruelty and pain on America’s working families to give massive tax handouts to billionaires and corporations already making record profits? No. This legislation is obscene. It’s sinful. It’s deadly.

Dear Friends,

House Republicans passed a deadly, ugly and cruel bill and Senate Republicans have only made that monstrous bill worse – doubling down on gutting our Safety Net, kicking millions more off their health insurance, giving bigger tax breaks to the ultra-rich and adding trillions to the national debt. As Senate Republicans are trying to cram through their version of the Big Ugly Bill, Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate Leader from Kentucky, said this to his Republican colleagues: “ I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid – but they’ll get over it.” McConnell was only saying the quiet part out loud. Congressional Republicans are hoping they can gut Medicaid and the American people will simply “get over it.” 

If Republicans keep trying to rip away health care from their own constituents, they will continue to face the wrath of voters and 2026 will be a repeat of 2018 when Republicans lost 40 seats and the House Majority. According to recent polling, 72% of Independents, 51% of Republicans say they’ll reject members of the House and Senate who vote for Medicaid cuts. The message from voters is crystal clear – hands off Medicaid in 2025 or lose at the ballot box in 2026.

The stakes could not be higher right now. Our health, our national security, our freedoms and our very Democracy are on the line. President Abraham Lincoln said, Public sentiment is everything. With it, you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing. But for public sentiment to prevail – people have to know. It’s up to all of us to make sure people know that their Republican Representatives and Senators plan to sell them out.

Dear Friends,

This week, we celebrate Juneteenth – a commemoration of June 19^th, 1865 – the day Union soldiers entered Galveston, TX, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and Major General George Granger then declared the over 250,000 enslaved Black Americans in Texas free. General Granger delivered this news of liberation nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln’s proclamation and two months after the official end of the Civil War. It was an honor to be in community on a national call with Black leaders and Volunteers in Politics yesterday, mindful that each and every one of us are among today’s new messengers of hope and champions of freedom and justice for all.

Juneteenth stands as a beautiful celebration of freedom for African Americans – a testament to the values of faith, resilience, strength. Over the last 160 years, it has been a day for reflection on how far we’ve come on our path to equality, freedom and justice for all. We remember the generations of heroic civil rights leaders in every state, city and town who have advanced the ongoing struggle to realize America’s highest ideals of justice, equality and opportunity for all.

Dear Friends,

Sadly, we are repeatedly seeing law abiding, multi-status families being detained and traumatized in our communities, despite the Administration’s insistence that federal authorities would prioritize the deportation of violent criminals. In San Francisco, throughout California and across our nation, communities and congregations are rising in peace, nonviolence and unity to demand justice, due process and dignity for all — including our immigrant families.

When Trump incited thousands of violent insurrectionists to storm the Capitol and assault the brave officers who defend it on January 6th, 2021, he refused to send the National Guard after he was asked multiple times — and he even pardoned those violent insurrectionists as one of his very first acts in his second term.

Dear Friends,

Thank you to our Volunteers in Politics – our amazing grassroots VIPs who have been phone banking with us for months now to Save Our Health Care! I am so grateful for you.

Every day of every month I am proud to represent San Francisco. It is a special privilege to do so during Pride Month as I bring our San Francisco values of love, respect, unity, and community with me everywhere I go.

We celebrate and cherish the beauty, bravery and brilliance of our LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month is a powerful reminder that love triumphs over hate – and that our march for justice, dignity and equality continues on. And this Pride month is a celebration of our values, as they are under attack and attempted erasure by the Trump Administration.

Dear Friends,

Last week, House Republicans narrowly passed their Big Ugly Bill filled with cruelty, greed, and lies — by just one vote. Now that their plan is out in the open, they can no longer hide from it and must be held accountable.

You, our grassroots VIPs — Volunteers in Politics — are making that happen with your steadfast commitment to Save Our Health Care. Our phone banks have generated over 140,000 calls (and counting), taking the fight directly to swing seat House Republicans in California who are more interested in tax scams to benefit their wealthy donors than the health and wellbeing of their constituents. Your personal stories are being heard, and we must keep sharing them because they are having a great impact.

To Republicans in Congress, the cruel cuts they advanced in this bill are simply numbers that they describe as “waste, fraud and abuse.” But people are not “waste, fraud and abuse.” As I made clear at an AAPI round table with community leaders, no human being is waste, fraud, and abuse, they are children in need of health care and food assistance, seniors who depend on long-term care, persons with disabilities, veterans relying on their earned benefits, and cancer patients in need of life-saving treatment.

Dear Friends,

Here they go again. Republicans are fighting to make billionaires even richer by making hardworking Americans sicker and poorer as Democrats are fighting for working families,. During the President’s disastrous first term, the only major Republican bill that the Republicans passed and he signed into law was a GOP Tax Scam that gave 83% of the benefits to the top 1% and added more than $2 trillion to the national debt.

The Republicans’ Reverse Robin Hood Scam making its way through the Congress now would take from those with the least and give it to those who already have the most. Just yesterday, House Republicans voted to cut $700 billion from Medicaid, $500 billion from Medicare, along with $300 billion from SNAP – literally taking food out of the mouths of babies. The impacts of Trump and Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill will hurt America’s children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, working families and rural communities that will see many of their hospitals close. And the harm from the Republicans’ monstrous budget will land squarely on the backs of our nation’s most vulnerable – or what Republicans are calling “waste, fraud and abuse.”

Dear Friends,

Republicans just unveiled their deadly plan to cut at least $715 BILLION to destroy Medicaid and rip away lifesaving health care from millions of Americans and nearly $300 BILLION from SNAP, the supplemental nutritional assistance program for millions of Americans.

How horrible that Republicans are laser focused on cutting more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS from our Safety Net, literally taking food out of the mouths of babies and health care from families, seniors needing long term care, veterans and those with disabilities — all of this cruelty so they can give a massive tax cut to billionaires like Elon Musk and Trump’s MAGA donors.

Hours ago, the House Budget Committee voted DOWN this monstrosity — but only because Republicans on the Committee felt it did not CUT Medicaid benefits ENOUGH.

Dear Friends,

Thursday night, I had the honor of discussing Pope Leo XIV while saluting the work ethic, dedication and courage of San Francisco union workers who day in and day out are the heartbeat of our City. I was pleased to receive my jacket, becoming an honorary delegate of the San Francisco Labor Council.  Along with so many in America and across the globe, I am overjoyed at the election of the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church. I am more excited that His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has already started leading the Church by signaling his commitment to peace, justice and service, in the tradition of his namesake, Pope Leo XIII who was a champion for workers and unions, and of our beloved Pope Francis.

As we continue our fight to Save Our Health Care, mindful of the millions of Americans who depend on Medicaid to live, may we find inspiration from and shared purpose with the election of our new Pope.

Dear Friends,

This week marked 100 days of Trump chaos, corruption and cruelty brought upon our communities at the hands of Donald Trump, his unelected Co-President Musk and Congressional Republicans.

Trump and Republicans have put in place crushing tariffs that have brought higher costs to consumers. Through DOGE, Trump and Musk slashed jobs and snatched your personal data. Shamefully, Trump attacked due process and ignored basic human rights and has set his sights on passing tax breaks for the ultra-rich on the backs of our most vulnerable neighbors.

Strongly, the American people are rising up and speaking out – and it is having an impact. Your personal stories are being heard and some Republicans have told their leadership they cannot support anything that guts Medicaid – calling budget cuts “politically toxic.” Mind you, Republicans have voted for the budget outline – they’re just starting to feel the heat now that their constituents know that these budget cuts are not just numbers on a page – they are hospital closures in rural districts, seniors unable to access medication, and disruption of earned benefits in economically uncertain times.