John,

I wanted to take a break from our typical fundraising emails today and share with you a bit about myself — my background, my motivations, and why this work is so important to me.

My story starts with my parents. In their youth, they had taken part in civil rights demonstrations, later got married, and were looking for a neighborhood with great public schools to raise their two boys — my brother Cary and me.

The problem was that no one would sell them a home because of their skin color. And then, something incredible happened.

A group of volunteer lawyers in New Jersey had been inspired by the courage and bravery of voting rights activists on Bloody Sunday. People like John Lewis, who suffered acts of violence to secure our rights. These volunteer lawyers helped my parents, who ultimately were able to buy that home.

Thanks to my parents, those lawyers, and some amazing teachers at my public schools, I won a football scholarship to Stanford University. In college, I worked as a peer crisis counselor and a mentor for middle school students in East Palo Alto, and eventually earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.

When I came back to the U.S., I got my law degree from Yale Law School and moved back to New Jersey — specifically, to Newark’s Central Ward, where I worked as a tenant rights lawyer and eventually moved into a public housing project for eight years.

We took on the slumlord running our building — and won. And I knew that I had found my fight.

I ran for the Newark Municipal Council and won in 1998, and after my 2002 campaign for mayor — the subject of a documentary film called Street Fight — we built the grassroots movement to sweep out the political establishment in 2006 with 72 percent of the vote.

My time as mayor has been central to who I am as a senator. I’ve written and championed dozens of bills aimed at fixing our broken criminal justice system, expanding economic opportunity, and fighting for equal justice for everyone.

And I believe that we need to be willing to work together, often in a bipartisan way, to get things done — like the First Step Act that I helped write and pass in 2018.

Yes, legislation signed into law by Donald Trump has already begun to reverse decades of the injustices of mass incarceration — because Democrats and Republicans were able to recognize the need to act.

As a tenant lawyer, city council member, mayor, and U.S. senator, I’ve always worked to bring people together to solve problems.

And I’ve learned that if we lead with love, the support of a loving community can overcome even the most insurmountable challenges.

That’s what I fight for every day in the U.S. Senate.

If these experiences and priorities resonate with you, I’m humbly asking that you make an important contribution of $3 or more to my campaign today.

Thanks for reading. I hope that sharing my story helps give you a better understanding of why this work is important to me — and strengthens your commitment to being a part of it too.

With love and gratitude,

Cory