Email Archive

Here's what convinced me. Eric Hadar here. We have to flip the House, and we have just 49 days left. We can't leave it in MAGA's hands. So for every dollar donated from today to October 15, I'll match it, up to...

Hank Thomas' daughter and John Lewis' nephew are getting on the bus. Friends,   Vote Common Good is taking a Freedom Ride.   Let's back up for a moment.   It's been sixty-five years since thirteen people — the youngest at just eighteen years old...

Hundreds of activists just left North Carolina ready to work. Friends,   You'll love this.   We were just at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, where we met and trained hundreds of citizen activists from all over. We trained them to take Faith, Hope,...

We're calling it Good Force One. Friends,   Today marks 60 days out from Election Day, and I know that a lot of what lands in your inbox from us is heavy — detention facilities, ICE shootings, and candidates getting smeared by MAGA for the crime of caring...

Minneapolis deserves accountability. Friends,   Today, a federal grand jury charged ICE agent Christian Castro with lying to investigators about the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. Castro is accused of shooting...

Our documentary is live on PBS right now. Go watch it. Friends,   Today's the day. Our documentary, Who's the We?, is airing on PBS stations nationwide, and it's live on the PBS app right now as you read this.   You were a big part of making this happen....

Springfield was an important stop. Friends,   We spent a second day in Springfield, Ohio, today, and it was the last one before we take our Faith, Hope, & Love bus back on the road for North Carolina.   We were here these two days answering the call to...

"Unshackle Springfield." We brought the sound system so nobody could ignore it. Friends,   Today, we chanted the words "Unshackle Springfield" so loud we hope we rattled the windows across the street a...

One is in the Butler County Jail. The other's already been moved out of state. Friends,   Last Thursday morning, ICE agents pulled up on Pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien at a Sunoco station on South Limestone Street in Springfield, Ohio, while he was getting gas...

The bus has two sides, and this week you'll see both. Friends,   Thanks to you, our Faith, Hope, & Love bus is wrapped and ready! Take a look...

Six months later and no accountability. Friends,   On February 28, the first day of Trump’s illegal war on Iran, a U.S. airstrike killed 168 people at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab.   The people killed were students, teachers, and parents. They...

We're not stopping at half the stations. Friends,   It's official — this fall, our documentary, Who's the We?, will reach living rooms across the country on public television. So far, the list includes about half of those we intend for the film to...

These could not have been more different. Friends,   I recently got a couple of messages from folks about the problem of having lost faith voters to MAGA, and they could not have been more different.   One came from a woman in Ohio. In her state, a MAGA...

We need to get to work. There isn't much time. Friends,   In 1976, Jimmy Carter won about half of white evangelical voters, running as a born-again Baptist who talked openly about his faith. Democrats haven't come close to that since.   For a long time, we...

What happened in Biddeford today. Friends,   This morning in Biddeford, Maine, Karolina Rojas stood in front of a room of neighbors and members of Congress and talked about what it's like to raise their daughter without her husband, Johan Sebastian Durán...

They wrote down license plates and built a file on every name. Friends,   Four days after Alex Pretti was killed while filming federal agents in Minneapolis, a few miles from my home, the Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation.   Not into...

The wrap is done. We just need to finish paying for it. Friends,   Yesterday I signed off on the final proof of our bus wrap, and we couldn't have come this far without you. This means that our Faith, Hope, & Love bus will be officially ready to go to print...

We stand with Lindsay James. Friends,   Lindsay James is an ordained Presbyterian minister who spent years as a chaplain on college campuses. She was the one students would call at 2 a.m. when it felt like everything was falling apart.   Lindsay is a common...

Who's the "we" in "We the People"? Friends,   This fall, our immigration documentary film, Who's the We?, is set to air on public television stations across the country, but we need your help to make sure it airs. unless we raise the last of our goal (check our...

Families are being forced to choose between ankle monitors and detention. Friends,   Viles Dorsainvil left Haiti in 2020 after his family was targeted for their political views and came to the United States. He applied for asylum and became a pastor.   Now,...

Will you sign this one? Our July deadline is midnight tonight. Friends,   Our July deadline is midnight tonight, and before it hits, I'd love to have your name.   Let me explain the tradition, because it's a lot of fun. Everyone who donates to launch our...

She's still in the parking lot. Let's fix that. Friends,   Tomorrow night marks the end of July. This one has me a little anxious. We're so appreciative of your support of our work, and to be straightforwardly honest, there literally is no more important time for...

The Supreme Court moves fast. Our bus needs to move faster. Friends,   It's just 97 days until the midterm elections, and Donald Trump is not treating this like just another election.   On Monday, his lawyers went to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis....

This news out of Springfield is why our bus can't wait. Friends,   Today in Springfield, Ohio, a group of pastors described what ICE officials told them is coming for the Haitian families in their pews.   Yesterday, Temporary Protected Status officially...

Look who signed their name last time. Friends,   When our Faith, Hope, & Love bus rolls out to cross the country before this November's midterm elections, it will be carrying more than just our traveling team. It will be covered in the names of all the people...

Here's what's standing between us and November 3rd. Friends,   One hundred days. That's all the time we have left before the midterm elections on November 3rd, and we know whether the House stays MAGA's or returns to the people.   Now's the time to put in...

Here's what it looks like before and after. Friends,   I want to show you something.   The first picture here shows our Vote Common Good bus the way it looks right now. Silver and blue, decent size, nothing special about it yet. One side says Faith, Hope...

A woman chased our bus down to hand us $20. Friends,   I want to share one of my favorite memories from our bus tours with you:   A few years ago, a woman who follows us spotted our Faith, Hope, & Love Bus at a rest stop somewhere in the Midwest. She was...

We flipped seats before. Here's how we do it again. Friends,   Big news — the Vote Common Good Faith, Hope, & Love bus is heading back out on the road!   Flipping the House blue this November starts with people of faith showing up in the districts...

We can't wait to reach more people with Who's the We? Friends,   This fall, our documentary film Who's the We? is coming to public television stations across the country.   Working with PBS is a great opportunity to reach the living rooms of people who might...

It's not what you think. Friends,   There have been many opinions, thoughts, and reflections following the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham this weekend. I recorded a short video to share some of my feelings on where we go from here.   Graham died...

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is the third name in six months. Here's what his family is asking for. Friends,   Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52 years old, was driving his crew to a construction job in Houston's Magnolia Park on Tuesday morning around 7 am when ICE shot him...

One photo from this weekend says more than any speech. Friends,   A striking photo has been circulating from this July 4th weekend. A Black woman is sitting on a DC Metro train, calm, looking straight ahead. Around her, filling the car, are dozens of members of a...

Two days after ICE detained a nun on her way to Mass. Friends,   Two days before JD Vance went on Fox News this week to lecture the pope about immigration, ICE agents detained a nun on her way to Mass in McAllen, Texas. That is the inspiration I hope we all take,...

Sister Letty was walking to Mass in her habit. Friends,   On Sunday morning in McAllen, Texas, Sister Letty Ugboaja put on her religious habit and walked toward Our Lady of Sorrows Church to celebrate Mass.   She never made it inside because ICE saw her on...

The Supreme Court banned this in 1963. Friends,   Late last week, the Texas State Board of Education voted to make Bible passages required reading for all 5 million public school children in the state.   That means a kid in El Paso, whose parents may pray...

We couldn't have done this without you. Friends,   I'm excited to share that, thanks to your support, The Common Good podcast has just landed at #1 on the Best 50 Progressive Christianity Podcasts in the United States list. We couldn't have made it on this list...

"I like you, and we need you." Friends,   Yesterday evening matters to me more than I can easily explain.   People came out for the common good — on a weeknight in June — and filled the Laguna Beach Cultural Center for a screening of Who's the...

Leo said it plainly: I cannot be in favor of war. Friends,   Last November — just months into his papacy — Pope Leo XIV chose Lebanon as his first trip.   His motto for the visit was "Blessed Are the Peacemakers."   While he was there, he...

Democrats have a likability problem with faith voters. We're fixing it. Friends,   Most people picture a revolution differently from...

What Juneteenth keeps teaching me about this moment. Friends,   It took two years.   On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and the war ended in April 1865.   It took until June 19, 1865, for Union soldiers to finally...

I stood with this community in January. We're not walking away now. Friends,   The Trump administration's Department of Justice is now arresting people for standing up for our neighbors against ICE. We warned this was coming,   Tuesday, the DOJ announced...

I stood with this community in January. We're not walking away now. Friends,   The Trump administration's Department of Justice is now arresting people for standing up for our neighbors against ICE. We warned this was coming,   Tuesday, the DOJ announced...

DC. Memphis. Michigan. Laguna Beach. We haven't stopped. Friends,   MAGA is counting on us not showing up. They're counting on Common Good candidates being isolated, underfunded, and alone in their districts — with nobody coming to help them fight.  ...

We're planning for a very different outcome this fall. Friends,   What an incredible day! On Friday in Memphis, we stood with candidates and clergy in a city that has carried the fight for voting rights and democracy in its bones for generations.   We...

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act — we're not waiting. Friends,   Great news — tomorrow, we're headed to Memphis with over 20 Common Good candidates.   Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis for fighting for the rights and...

I was in a room with 20 candidates this weekend. Here's what I saw. Friends,   I spent part of Monday in a room in Washington, D.C., with about 20 congressional candidates who are running to flip control of Congress, and I'm extremely encouraged by what I saw....

Our traditions say see the stranger. This book helps us figure out what to do next. Friends,   One of the things I love most about this movement is that we don't have to do everything alone.   At Vote Common Good, we've always believed the work of building a...

We rode 3,265 miles to find out. Friends,   A few years ago, we got on bikes in California and started riding east.   We rode from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida — 3,265 miles along the entire US/Mexico border and across the entire country. We...

What's happening at Delaney Hall in Newark is worse than what they're telling you. Friends,   Three hundred people inside Delaney Hall in Newark are in their second week of a hunger strike because their food contains worms. They also put down the mops and the...

The people he's protecting don't include you. Friends,   Late last month, the Trump administration's Justice Department released a 200-page report on anti-Christian bias in America, and I've been sitting with it. What it boils down to is a set of justifications...

For 45 minutes, I listened. Here's what they never once mentioned. Friends,   Yesterday, I listened in on the White House Office of Faith Monthly recap call.   For the first 45 minutes, I listened to premeditated praise of Donald Trump as the savior of...

The Pope has a word for what Musk is doing in Memphis. Friends,   Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical yesterday, May 25th — Magnifica Humanitas. And at the center of that letter, he repeated a phrase over and over: the common...

The implications of this are horrible, but we're fighting back. Friends,   You may have seen the headlines this week that Alligator Alcatraz is very likely closing. Lawyers have confirmed that transfers are ramping up and the facility will be empty within days....

Your tax dollars paid for a Christian Nationalist event Trump didn't bother to attend. Friends,   Last Sunday, Trump's MAGA court pastors had the National Mall for the Christian Nationalist "Rededicate 250."   We had Redirect 250 — nine hours of...

What the White House is staging this weekend. Friends,   On Sunday, May 17, the Trump administration is staging a nine-hour "prayer festival" on the National Mall called Rededicate 250, and they are using taxpayer dollars set aside for the country's 250th...

The number that decides November. Friends,   I want to start this email by thanking you for taking the time to read it and for caring about Vote Common Good and democracy.   I want to ask you to consider playing a very important role in our work over the...

It's intentional. Here's what we're doing about it. Friends,   Yesterday, I stood in the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol and made it clear that our democracy is a sacred covenant between our government and its people. And right now, that covenant is being...

They are counting on us to be too busy. Prove them wrong. Friends,   It's been a while since we've talked about DOGE and the wrecking ball of the unelected Elon Musk. But a federal judge just handed down a ruling that brought it all back.   More than 1,400...

What the horrifying Washington Post ICE report actually says. Friends,   The Washington Post published an investigation this week that should scare every one of us.   Since Trump took office again, guards inside ICE detention have used physical violence or...