I’m running for the United States Senate, I need your help, and I deserve your help. Let me tell you why. 

This is going to be an enormous undertaking. I will not be getting any assistance from the Koch Brothers, the Chamber of Commerce or corporate lobbyists, but I would be honored and forever grateful to have your help. Would you please give me a hand? 

I wake up each day knowing that there are 700,000 Floridians who are counting on me to do something good for them in their lives. Next year, with the voters’ backing (and your generous support) that number will be over 19,000,000. I will do my best to help every one of us, whenever we need help. If you are just plain folks, I will work hard to be your representative, your champion, and your friend. 

Please help our campaign by giving us whatever you can, right now! Every dollar counts, because every person counts.

By now, you might already know me. 

You might also remember that in a truly do-nothing Congress, I actually passed more amendments and wrote more bills than ANY OTHER MEMBER of the House of Representatives, Democrat OR Republican. And these were good, solid progressive laws, not handouts to lobbyists and special interests. 

When I say I fight for progressive values, I don’t mean it lightly. 

I fight to win. I fight for results. I GET RESULTS: 

• I passed amendments to move tens of millions of dollars from the bloated military budget to fund biomedical research on Gulf War illness and a cure for cancer. 

• I passed amendments to increase the budget for bilingual housing counseling by 50%, increase free tax assistance to seniors by 33%, and reverse 43% of the cruel budget cut for senior housing. 

• I passed amendments instituting a “contractor death penalty” that shuts off federal contract dollars for contractors who commit crimes or fraud. 

I have fought for these results because I am committed to making this world a better place, for everyone, one change at a time. If we can do this in the Tea Party’s House, imagine what we will do in the Senate, alongside Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown! 

So please, give us a helping hand, so that way we can accomplish even more substantive, progressive results. 

I fight so hard for what’s right, because I’ve been doing it my whole life. 

Let me explain… 

I grew up in the Bronx. Life was not easy. In the neighborhood where I grew up, you had to work hard just to survive. I’ve met plumbers who could be engineers, truck drivers who could be lawyers, nurses who could be doctors. 

I realized that if they had a genuine opportunity, unchained by poverty, prejudice, poor health, poor education or discrimination, then we all would be better off. And when everyone is better off individually, then everyone is better off together. 

I was a sick child. I had to go to the hospital four times a week for treatment. Luckily for me, my parents both had good union jobs that provided health coverage to them and to me, even when they were on strike. If not for that, I might not be alive today…. 

Back in 2009, I told the American people that the opponents of affordable healthcare demanded you “don’t get sick…and if you do get sick, die quickly.” You can see now that that wasn’t a political stunt. I actually owe my life to affordable healthcare.That’s why I want everyone to be able to see a doctor when he or she is sick, and get the care needed to stay healthy and alive. It’s personal. 

At 16 years of age, I received an acceptance letter to Harvard College. But for me and others like me, that meant more hard work. I worked as a janitor, cleaning toilets, and then as a night watchman, on the midnight shift. I made less than four dollars an hour, but I survived. 

I learned the hard way that the people who do the most unpleasant jobs often get paid the very least. 

But education was my ladder. Education gave me my chance to be all that I could be, live a better life, and be of greater service to others. That’s why I want every student to be able to afford college, without suffering a lifetime of debt. 

After I finished school, I founded the Alliance for Aging Research. I was an officer of the Alliance for more than 20 years. We increased funding for research on cures for diseases of old age by more than 500%. 

While you work to help seniors as long as I have, you realize that Social Security and Medicare are covenants that we make with each other, from one generation to the next. People shouldn’t have to pay taxes when they pay into Social Security, and then again when Social Security pays out to them. Medicare should cover your eyes, ears and teeth, and every healthcare need. And seniors deserve a raise. 

I went on to become the first President of a company that broke the back of the monopoly on international long distance phone calls. As a lawyer, I filed lawsuits for the benefits of the taxpayers against war profiteers in Iraq. I won the first case against those profiteers that ever went to a jury. I saw the worst side of war, and I saw how war has so many bombastic promoters –and how much our country and our soldiers need a champion for peace. 

When I say that I want the opportunity to join Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, I don’t say it because I want a job. 

I want to DO A JOB. 

I don’t want to be something. I want to do something. Something called justice. 

I am un-bought and un-bossed. I carry the banners of justice, equality, compassion and peace. My compass is the greatest good for the greatest number. With your help, and the help of all kindred spirits, we will continue this fight, and we will WIN! 

Sincerely, 

Rep. Alan Grayson 
Candidate for the U.S. Senate 

P.S. In 2012, and again in 2014, I was the only Member of the House of Representatives who raised most of his campaign funds from small donors – not lobbyists, or special interests, or millionaires, or multinational corporations. I don’t work for them, I work for you. PLEASE, help me today. That way we can make sure that in the SENATE, we CONTINUE to demonstrate that you don’t have to sell the law to the highest bidder in order to succeed in American politics today.