Here’s the essay: redstatebluevoter.substack.com/p/tell-your-...

I wrote about how to find that story, how to tell it, and the simple 3-3-30 rule that keeps candidates honest.

If you’ve ever thought about running… read this.

Here’s the truth:
A résumé doesn’t move people.

A lived story does.

The moment your life cracked open and changed how you see your community — that’s the thing voters lean toward.

If you’re going to run for office right now, you owe people more than ambition.
You owe them meaning. Purpose. Honesty about why you showed up.

But this moment is different.

School boards are pulling books.
County commissions are shutting out sunlight.
Families are carrying the cost of every decision made in rooms they can’t enter.

This isn’t a “wait your turn” era.

All of this is the drumbeat of the authoritarian playbook in real time… doxxing, firings, silencing, punishment. And it isn’t a question of if this gets worse.

It’s only when.

And JD Vance cemented it today with six little words: “There is no unity with them.”

Not with murderers. Not with violence. With us - fellow Americans.

Prayer vigils. Flags at half-mast. Fundraising emails.

And from the Oval Office, the President blamed the “radical left.”

This piece is about what it means to be a Democrat in the South, and how we stop bailing water and start rebuilding the ship.

Let’s talk about what comes after settling.

…and how we rebuild from the ground up.

We can stop settling. Stop slapping a new band-aid on the same old problems every election cycle. Stop pretending that politics-as-usual is enough when it’s failing everyone outside the top.

If we’re not winning, why are we still playing it safe?

This isn’t health policy.
It’s a punishment.
And it’s going to hit every corner of this country—rural, urban, red, blue, all of us.

We need to be sounding the alarm now.

Full breakdown here: