Email Archive

Republicans are worried. Friends,   At Vote Common Good, we're crossing the nation talking to individual voters to make the case — and we're going to the most critical states this week.   It just so happens to coincide with this news:   On Friday,...

And pretty good news too. Friends,   Our Faith, Hope, & Love bus is in Holland, Michigan today after leaving TEDX Chicago.   Our film, Who's the We?, had a tremendous impact — thanks to the incredible, brave voices in it. And thanks to you for...

ICE is hurting children every day in this country. Friends,   I've stood with the families praying for loved ones trapped in Alligator Alcatraz more than once, and I've seen the devastation brought to my own community in Minneapolis during ICE's Operation Metro...

But we're never giving up. Friends,   You never know what will happen when you're on the road fighting for democracy. Many enemies lurk — including low-hanging tree limbs. One knocked the horn right off our bus roof.   And that was just one of the...

People thought I was nuts. Friends,   On our first bus tour in 2018, when I told people we were mobilizing faith voters to vote for Democrats, more than one person looked at me like I was a little nuts. By then, it was long assumed those voters weren't for us....

We really are turning our anger into something special. Friends,   Yesterday was phenomenal. The Faith, Hope, & Love bus made it to my hometown of Minneapolis, and we sat together at the Riverview Theater to watch our film, Who's the...

An exciting opportunity for Who's the We? Friends,   TED Talks are a huge brand — maybe you've seen one, spoken in one, or watched them on YouTube. Well, TEDxChicago wants Who's The We? — our documentary on immigration, which recently debuted on PBS...

This is what people are asking for, and you can help. Friends,   "We need to encourage each other to KEEP MOVING FORWARD because you are making a difference." That's what Rev. Carolyn Blair wrote me the morning after I left her church in Burlington, Iowa, last...

Friends,   From October 17 to 28, Vote Common Good, Faith Out Loud, and Greater Things Foundation are taking the Freedom Ride: twelve days on a bus, from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, broadly retracing the route the original 1961 Freedom Riders set out on....

ICE is becoming more brazen in harming children. Friends,   I've stood with the families praying for loved ones trapped in Alligator Alcatraz more than once, and I've seen the devastation brought to my own community in Minneapolis during ICE's Operation Metro...

42 days left to make this stop. Friends,   ICE has shot another person.   28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was minding his own business, delivering a DoorDash order in Austin, Texas, on Sunday when an ICE agent shot him in the torso after a traffic...

This is exactly what we need to do before midterms. Friends,   "We are trying to include religious people in the pro-democracy movement."   That's a quote I gave to The New York Times Magazine, which ran a story today about pastors and seminarians running...

He's running against MAGA for the common good. Friends,   A candidate we care a lot about needs your support.   Good Force One — the Faith, Hope, & Love bus — has been out with Robb Ryerse in Northwest Arkansas this month. He's a Candidate...

This is what we need in Congress. We have to flip the House, and we have just 47 days left. We can't leave it in MAGA's hands. So for every dollar donated from today to October 15, our generous donor will match it, up to...

Good Force One has had some adventures already. We have to flip the House, and we have just 48 days left. We can't leave it in MAGA's hands. So for every dollar donated from today to October 15, our generous donor will match it, up to...

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...