Happy Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth.

It’s a day I’ve thought about deeply every year of my life — but this year, standing where I’m standing, it hits different.

You probably know the history. On June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that enslaved people were free. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed two and a half years earlier. The people of Texas had been kept in bondage long after the law said they shouldn’t be — because the powerful wanted to hold onto power as long as they possibly could.

I think about that when people ask me why I’m running.

I’m not running because it’s easy. I’m running because on January 6th, I watched what happens when democracy gets treated like something optional. I’ve seen how quickly the progress we take for granted can be taken from us.

And I’m running because of everyone who came before me — who bled and marched and got arrested and got back up — so that someone like me could even have a shot at a seat at the table.

John Lewis was one of those people. He had his skull fractured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge fighting for something the law had already promised. He spent his whole life closing the gap between what America said it was and what it actually was.

I have a tattoo inspired by him. A black heart for the struggle of Black Americans. Blood tears for the lives lost on Bloody Sunday. Red lightning for the good trouble he told us we had to get into.

We’ve made incredible progress. Juneteenth is a federal holiday now. But a holiday isn’t enough. We need people in Congress willing to fight every single day to make it real.

I intend to be one of those people.

Thank you for being part of this with me. It means more than I can say.

— Harry