| To my community,
As I look out my backyard to Windy Hill, listening to my girls play in the next room, I am profoundly appreciative to you and the hundreds of dedicated supporters and volunteers who came together to support generational change and a bold vision for the future. At this moment I feel an overwhelming sense of both pride and gratitude to this team of teams that united on such short notice. Thank you.
I was galvanized to run by the recognition that we all share - that our country is at a crossroads. We face unprecedented challenges with our coasts crumbling, our air choked with wildfire smoke, crippling national debt, a democracy threatened from within and without, fundamental personal rights being overturned, and our resources being squandered just when we need them the most. It is now time for our generation to step forward and show that America is at her best when our backs are against the wall.
From the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, to the bureaucracy of the Pentagon and State Department, to the broken politics of Congress, and the difficulty of building a startup, I have seen adversity and setbacks. But at each juncture, I also proved that by leveraging technology, creativity, teamwork, and most importantly perseverance we can and will win the day. I am more optimistic today than ever before that our generation is up to the challenge and that we can still hold faith with our children and leave them with a better tomorrow.
Our campaign came together in record time, as fast as any Silicon Valley startup, to credibly compete in a primary of just three months against a field of career politicians. With a historically low California turnout of just 18% of registered voters, the dynamics of the race ultimately did favor known politicians with existing bases of locked-in support. This low turnout speaks directly to the need for generational change to re-energize our body politic. We advanced much in a short period: - We articulated a vision for dramatically expanding opportunities for uniformed public service as a way to reinvigorate the fabric of our nation. This includes tripling the size of the Army Corps of Engineers by using existing Pentagon funding trapped in failing weapons programs. This expansion would allow our coastal communities to address coastal sea level rise without being bankrupted. We have been road-testing that idea with political leaders and existing Members of Congress in DC, and serendipitously saw the expansion of the Army Corps of Engineers referenced as a major idea in President Biden's State of the Union speech last week.
- Recognizing that housing is essential to the prosperity, opportunity, and future of our region, we focused on creative approaches from the Federal level that could be transformative. We keyed in on accelerating the environmental cleanup and turnover of the dozen-plus military bases in the Bay Area, abandoned in the 1990s, and the freeing up of tens of thousands of acres of derelict land. We assembled a team of urban planners and students to outline what a housing pilot initiative across the bases could look like. A base I used to live on, Moffett Field, located in our district, was selected as the proof of concept for this plan.
- We recognized and took a bold stand against the cancer of denialism. From October 7th, to Jan 6th, to 9/11, and back to the Holocaust we see extremists and conspiracy theorists trying to rewrite our history. A strain of anti-semitism runs through those efforts as I saw firsthand in the Palo Alto debate, where the terrorist group Hamas was openly celebrated and the life of a Jewish candidate was threatened. While we may disagree on what is happening beyond our shores, as an American family we cannot and must not turn on each other nor allow misinformation from adversary nation-states to target our young people.
In the coming months, I will work to carry each of these initiatives forward and continue to honor the trust that each of you placed in me and our campaign.
That is because, for me, this is not merely a campaign; it's a promise—a promise to keep pushing forward, to keep serving our community with fervor and dedication. This moment marks not an end, but a bright beginning. Somehow I thought this campaign would be a lonely affair, but today because of you, I feel anything but. The road ahead is filled with possibility. This is the start, not the end; the journey lies ahead.
Thank you for joining me. The mission continues.
With gratitude,
Peter Dixon |
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