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.

Dear Friends,

Today, I bring you greetings on my way to Rome to pay final respects to His Holiness Pope Francis, a beacon of hope and love for all people of faith. He rekindled the faith of Catholics worldwide, with a triumphant message of peace that has inspired a generation.

Pope Francis personified our sacred responsibility in the Gospel of Matthew to honor the spark of divinity in the least of our brethren — championing the poor, the worker, the refugee and the immigrant. His Holiness reminded us of our inescapable duty to those struggling to escape poverty and persecution and called on all of us to be good stewards of God’s Creation. I am honored to attend his service on behalf of my constituents from the City of St Francis — the Saint from whom His Holiness drew his papal name and inspiration.

As we celebrate Passover and Easter Week — sacred celebrations of renewal, community and freedom — we are reminded of the need to take care of one another and to live out our morals in our words and in our actions. Right now, there is no starker contrast to our shared Democratic values than what is happening at the hands of the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.

In partnership with San Francisco community leaders and advocates, we organized a public forum earlier this week to raise awareness about how the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE are putting Social Security benefits at risk. Republicans say, “We’re not touching benefits” but they are closing offices and shutting down the phones. These moves threaten whether new beneficiaries will be able to access their benefits and whether continuing beneficiaries will receive THEIR OWN MONEY.

Dear Friends,

Last weekend, we saw the power of the grassroots on full display as millions gathered peacefully from coast to coast — from Scranton to San Francisco – demanding that Republicans keep their HANDS OFF OUR SAFETY NET — Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, veterans care and other vital service for millions of Americans.  

Thank you for speaking out, sharing stories and showing up for our Democratic values.

This week, we pushed back forcefully against Trump’s reckless tariffs that were tanking our economy in a self-inflicted disaster that penalizes hardworking American families — driving prices sky high, draining retirement savings and unnecessarily pushing us to the brink of recession.

Friends,

Thank you to our Volunteers in Politics for the tremendous victory for Judge Susan Crawford, for Wisconsin and for our country on Tuesday. The hard work of volunteers making calls, sending texts, and communicating with voters made all the difference. You proved, once again, that the power of people organized around our values can overcome even the deep pockets of the richest man on Earth. The millions of dollars spent by Republicans and Trump Co-President Elon Musk proved no match for the voter turnout generated by volunteers to secure this resounding victory. 

When we vote, we win. When grassroots VIPs turn out the vote, we win. When we work to mobilize voters with Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler — the best organizer in the country — Judge Susan Crawford wins. When Judge Susan Crawford wins, Wisconsin and America win.

Friends,

It is crucial that Wisconsin voters elect Judge Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 1st – and we can help!

Judge Crawford respects our freedoms and Constitution and stands for a fair judiciary, unlike her opponent Brad Schimel, an election denier whose MAGA extremist views favor powerful interests over ordinary people. As Scott Walker’s Attorney General, Schimel even tried – and failed, thankfully – to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which would have harmed millions of Wisconsinites.

This election will impact Wisconsin and our country as a whole. Trump Co-President Elon Musk who is spending untold millions to back the MAGA Republican in the race even said that the outcome of this election “might determine the future of the entire country,” and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said “we have to thank Elon” if Schimel wins the race. Trump and Musk are backing Schimel to push their extremist agenda to undermine the ACA, crush Medicaid, cut Social Security, and attack vital initiatives for children, seniors, veterans and working families – to give massive tax breaks to their billionaire pals and further enrich themselves.

15 YEARS OF THE ACA AND WE’RE STILL FIGHTING TO SAVE OUR HEALH CARE!

Friends,

This week we are commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by recommitting ourselves to doing everything in our power to Save Our Health Care — and to strengthen it!  Today, we welcomed House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and our intrepid VIPs – Volunteers in Politics – to the Plumbers Hall for a very special Politics and Eggs mobilization.  Fueled by grassroots energy, personal storytellers and an ACA birthday cake, we vowed to keep up the fight for the dignity, health and well-being of all.

Friends,

House Democrats, with the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries, reject Trump and his unelected Co-President Elon Musk’s false choice of a government shutdown or blank check that harms veterans, obliterates our health care and attacks working families across America. Neither option is acceptable — a message that was echoed today by several hundred of my San Francisco constituents at a Reproductive Freedom for All event earlier. Democrats must fight for a better way!

This is a critical time for the American people and for our country. Trump, Musk and Republicans in Congress are working frantically to decimate Medicaid, gut Social Security and Medicare, defund Veterans Care and completely dismantle our safety net — a destructive and horrific agenda straight from the pages of Project 2025. As I have said before, Republicans want to make America sicker and poorer to make the ultra-rich even richer — and they have set their sights with alarming precision on obliterating Medicaid. Democrats know that Medicaid is a lifeline for 72 million Americans but Republicans are playing with people’s lives and trying to rip Medicaid  away from their own constituents. In my home state alone, the 9 Republicans who remain in California’s 52-member delegation are threatening the health care of more than 2.5 million of their constituents who rely on Medicaid.

It’s up to us to make sure that voters in Republican-held districts know who is fighting for them and who is selling them out so they can hold them accountable at the ballot box.