John,

Yesterday, Perdue Pharma made headlines by announcing their plan to emerge from bankruptcy without any accountability for their role in creating the opioid epidemic that is ravaging our communities.

This issue is personal for me. Less than a month after I announced my candidacy in April of 2019, a member of my extended family suffered an addiction tragedy. I found myself trying to find a detox bed for our loved one, and I drove 8 hours in the middle of the night to be there.

We were able to find him help, but only after several days and hundreds of calls. I watched as he looked at the paperwork and the cost of treatment. He and his family could never afford it, but he was one of the lucky ones because he had insurance.

The same week our lives were turned upside down, my opponent, Elise Stefanik, voted against a bill that would help families suffering from addiction. It would have helped connect families to healthcare navigators and treatment and saved lives.

Why would she do this? The answer is hard to stomach: Stefanik was cashing campaign checks from the very corporations that were profiting from the addiction crisis and our suffering.

I’d never been angrier. I’m still angry.

This is part of the reason I started BACKROADS PAC. Rural America needs a voice. We need representatives who have the courage to fight for what’s right by passing HR 1 to get corporate money out of politics.

The irreparable harm that pharmaceutical companies have caused can’t be settled with a lawsuit. There’s no amount of money that can fix broken families, bring back loved ones, or heal wounds.

The scourge of addiction hits families from every walk of life. Here in rural America, it’s even more pervasive. In my district in Northern New York, we have 3 counties with some of the highest opioid death rates per capita. Yet our representative chose her donors over our families.

While I am no longer a candidate, I’ll be damned if I don’t continue to fight for families like mine. This story isn’t the exception. It’s become an American reality. My family member has been clean for nearly two years but it didn’t have to be this way.

We will work to defeat every rural Republican in the pocket of Big Pharma. We won't let them get away with this.

Thank you,

Tedra