This week, we witnessed yet another horrific and tragic shooting in an American school, which took the lives of a young student and a teacher and victimized countless others. Young people are constantly confronting the unthinkable in their schools, which should be safe places of learning, creativity, and growth.
In 2019, a school shooting occurred at STEM School Highlands Ranch, the school my son attended at the time. I looked around for answers and for leadership to respond with action. I reached out to political leaders and tried to tell my story and seek solutions. No solutions were to be found.
This experience motivated me to run for Congress. I didn’t plan on becoming a candidate for office. I didn’t—and don’t—want to be a politician. But this moment requires us to step up and lead.
Thoughts and prayers won’t keep our kids safe. They need us to act. Serving in the Marine Corps for over 20 years, I learned and put into action the following maxim: You don’t run away from a crisis; you run towards it.
We’ve had absent leadership in Congress for too long. It isn’t just gun violence—on healthcare, jobs, clean energy and the environment, our leaders have not reacted with the urgency these crises require.
Elected officials like Ken Buck and Lauren Boebert, and the extreme right wing media machine, have demagogued and scapegoated instead of pursuing consensus and agreement for common sense solutions we can all get behind, like universal background checks and red flag laws.
I’m fed up with this. We don’t have to agree on everything, even about the issue of gun violence, but we do need leaders who will work together to find common ground.
Thank you—your support will help defeat right wing extremists like Ken Buck in November so that Congress can continue to make strides on gun violence prevention.
Semper Fi,
Ike McCorkle
Ike McCorkle is a Purple Heart recipient, Marine Force Recon Veteran, and the Democratic nominee in Colorado's 4th Congressional District. Ike will fight for working class families and to restore the people's trust in American Government and leadership.
