I planned to wait until tomorrow to publish, but something I saw last night changed that.

Last night I saw something that hit me in a way I did not expect. It felt insulting. It felt petty. It felt deliberate.

The DCCC posted a graphic using the exact slogan I ran on for two years.
Make Congress Work Again.

Not something similar.
Not something adjacent.
The same words. The same message. The same font style and layout I used through 2024.

They never asked.
They never emailed.
They never engaged with my campaign when it mattered.
But suddenly, out of nowhere, they blast it out on their national account.

Instead of supporting candidates everywhere, is this what the DCCC is doing to other Dems they ignore?

When It Mattered

Let’s be clear about what happened here.

The DCCC did not support in 2022.
The DCCC did not support in 2024.
They did not answer emails, calls, or outreach. They were silent.

Meanwhile, I was running in one of the few competitive districts left in Ohio.
Running against Max Miller, a hard-right Trump loyalist.
A man who went on television advocating for turning Gaza into a parking lot.
A guy who had public scandals and legal messes unfolding in real time.
A seat the party should have cared about.

And then Dennis Kucinich jumped in as an independent spoiler.
You would think at that point the national party would wake up and realize the race was on fire.

Nope.

No help.
No interest.
No acknowledgment.

But they somehow had no problem using the slogan I built, the slogan on my hats, my signs, my banners, my emails, my stump speeches, my website, my social media, everything my campaign stood for.

Now it shows up on their page like it was theirs the whole time.

It Feels Like a Message

I am not claiming I am a national political figure.
I am not claiming I have massive reach.
But the specificity of this is too sharp to ignore.

The feeling this creates is simple:

We saw your work.
We ignored you when you were the nominee.
We waited.
And then we used the slogan anyway.

It feels intentional.
It feels dismissive.
It feels like the party establishment saying,
“We were watching. We just didn’t care to help.”

Is this provable as an act of malice? No.
But the emotional truth is valid, and the facts support that it is extremely unlikely they arrived at the exact slogan with exact font and color by complete accident.

They Have Borrowed From My Messaging Before

This is not the first time I have watched the Democratic establishment ignore my campaign and then quietly recycle the very messaging they once dismissed.

Back in 2022, consultants told me not to talk about China, not to mention the national debt, not to bring up fiscal responsibility. They said those ideas were off-brand, that they “didn’t poll well,” that a Democrat shouldn’t touch those topics. Then Tim Ryan ran for Senate and built half his campaign around that exact message.

In 2024, I ran on working-class economics, kitchen-table issues, affordability, government accountability, and institutional reform. I talked about the cost of living, healthcare failures, national debt, and the squeeze on ordinary families. Those were the issues people in Northeast Ohio actually cared about, and I said so every day on the trail.

The national party ignored it.
They told candidates to stay in familiar lanes.
They acted like talking about real economic pain was somehow risky and anti-Biden.

And then, after losing ground with working-class voters across the Midwest and the Sun Belt, they suddenly pivoted to the exact same issues I had been pounding away at for two cycles.

This is a pattern.
They ignore you when it matters.
They adopt the message only after they realize they needed it.

And somehow, they still pretend the ideas came from inside the building.

This Is About Integrity

Let me be crystal clear.

I am not mad because they used the words. (TBH I learned it was used in the 2010’s. And since 2023, my campaign, it has been used a lot of other places.) I am mad because they ignored the work, the race, the district, and the people.

If the Democratic Party wants to win, then start by respecting the people who actually show up and fight the hard fights. Do not wait until after the race is over to pretend you were part of it.

And stop punishing candidates because they think independently.

I do not care if a good idea comes from the left, the right, or the middle.
If it helps working families, we should talk about it.
We should fight for it.
We should pass it.

I ran on making Congress work again because Congress does not work.
Not for Democrats.
Not for Republicans.
Not for anyone who is not a donor, a lobbyist, or a corporate PAC.

Our slogan was about giving people a voice.

Whether or not some intern at the DCCC ripped off my exact slogan doesn’t bother me that much. What does bother me is the culture of bad ideas, shady consultants, dark money and crony politics that has brought the Democratic party to it’s knees.

Make DCCC Work Again!!