Dear MoveOn member,
The New York Times reports that Trump’s attacks on the Gold Star family of the late Captain Humayun Khan are alienating many veterans and military service members, a key voting bloc that could decide the election.1
Donald Trump is (finally) vulnerable. We’re seizing the moment with an emergency campaign, in partnership with allied veterans organizations, to expose Trump in the media for who and what he is: disrespectful of veterans, dismissive of sacrifice, and completely ill-equipped for the presidency.
Our work to call out Trump over the past week has already been covered in more than a dozen newspapers and TV reports, including The New York Times and USA Today. Senator John McCain, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and others have been forced to do damage control, trying to explain how they can support Trump while repeatedly having to denounce his vile comments.
Now, we need to keep it going. Our strategy is working and we need to push forward quickly and at scale. Will you chip in $27 and fund our emergency actions to make sure we seize this moment and deal a serious blow to Trump's campaign, by making sure more and more veterans and military families see Trump for who he really is?
Yes, I'll chip in and help expose the truth about Donald Trump.
Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far: On Thursday, in partnership with Common Defense PAC (a veterans organization dedicated to making sure Donald Trump never becomes president), we delivered more than 100,000 signatures calling on Sen. McCain and other leading Republicans to revoke their endorsements of Trump over his attacks on the Khan family. The delivery was broadly covered in the mainstream media, as well as Stars and Stripes and the Military Times—publications that are widely read in the U.S. military community.
According to a recent poll, Trump is performing worse with veterans than John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 were at the same time in the election.2 And his continued attacks on the Khans could further erode his support among veterans and military families.
We need to keep this campaign going: With your help, we’ll work with veterans to take these petitions to Sen. McCain's Arizona office. We'll push Arizona media to ask Sen. McCain why he continues to endorse Trump, and we'll give Arizona voters a chance to hear his answers.
And after that, we're planning more deliveries targeting key Republican leaders and Republican candidates in swing states and districts—like in Pennsylvania, where embattled Senator Pat Toomey has tried to distance himself from Trump, while refusing to denounce him, or say he won’t vote for him.
Republicans like Sen. Toomey can't have it both ways. Will you chip in $27 and help MoveOn's efforts to hold these Republicans accountable?
Vets and members of the military are a key voting bloc that could decide the election. And if we can keep this story going, it may be the tipping point that saves us from a President Trump.
But there’s work to do: Before Trump’s comments about the Khan family, he was leading 49% to 20% in a survey of active duty troops and reservists.3
Right now, many veterans and members of the military are questioning their support of Trump. But we can’t let this be a flash-in-the-pan one-week story.
Your donation will help us do deep organizing work with veterans all election season long. Will you chip in $27?
Thanks for all you do.
—Jo, Manny, Anne, Stephen, and the rest of the team
P.S. This is moving fast. On Tuesday, MoveOn members and Common Defense PAC launched this petition, and by Thursday, we delivered 100,000 signatures, with the world watching. We were able to launch this event, fly in veterans from across America, provide media training, and do press outreach, because MoveOn members had donated enough in July that we had a reserve for emergency moments like this.
We hadn't budgeted for this event—but we saw that the moment called for it. We believe that next week is a critical moment to double-down—to make sure this story stays in the news cycle, that it's brought to local and state media, and that Trump and his enablers can't just wait it out. But we haven’t budgeted for any of this. And we can only keep this campaign going with the kind of intensity that we’ve seen so far if we raise another $75,000 by Monday.
Will you chip in $27 to our emergency campaign to organize veterans and members of military families to speak out against Trump and the Republicans who continue to endorse his hateful, divisive campaign?
Sources:
1. "Donald Trump Risks Alienating Military Communities in Swing States," The New York Times, August 4, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4999?t=22&akid=167570.10220574.f0h0cn
2. "Khans Jeopardize Trump Strategy Banking on Veterans’ Votes," Bloomberg, August 4, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4991?t=24&akid=167570.10220574.f0h0cn
3. "Trump has hurt himself with the military, family members say," The Hill, August 4, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/5000?t=26&akid=167570.10220574.f0h0cn
Want to support MoveOn's work? Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says, "As the biggest independent progressive group that supported Bernie Sanders, MoveOn is uniquely poised to help turn out those of his supporters who are most likely to stay home in November." Can you chip in to help us to turn out progressive voters and defeat Donald Trump?
PAID FOR BY MOVEON
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