Yorktown@: trust

I'm going to cut right to it, Robert—

I'm asking you to chip in $3, right now, to help elect an incredible slate of Democrats running to become their state's attorney general.

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Let me say this as clearly as I can: This is one of the most important things I will write to you about between now and November 6. I mean it.

Just think of the trust we put in our states' attorneys general.

We ask them to keep our kids safe from abusers and human traffickers. To keep the worst of the worst off our streets.

And we ask them to root out corruption — so that ordinary folks can trust that America's elected officials work for the American people.

We've gotta be able to trust our attorneys general, Robert. We've got to.

So today, I'm endorsing a new slate of Democratic candidates for attorney general from across the country. Folks who embody the loftiest ideals of public service. Folks we can trust — all of them recommended by folks like you.

Meet them, then chip in $3 or more to American Possibilities to help elect them:

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January Contreras, Arizona
January Contreras envisions an Arizona where everyone feels safe, where constitutional and civil rights are protected, and where the powerful no longer get away with playing by their own set of rules. From her work as the Deputy County Attorney for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to her time as a criminal prosecutor, January earned a reputation for being tough and fair. As Assistant Attorney General, January brought justice to victims and their families in elder abuse and exploitation crimes, and prosecuted fraud, waste, and abuse in the healthcare system. She founded Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services (ALWAYS), a nonprofit that ensures children and young adult survivors of trauma, homelessness, and the foster care system have access to lawyers who will fight for them. January also led the charge to establish the Council on Combating Violence Against Women at the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, January served on the White House Council on Women and Girls, contributed to the development of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, and volunteered on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. January is a proud fourth-generation Arizonan and the daughter of postal workers. January earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Steve Dettelbach, Ohio
Steve Dettelbach believes no one is above the law, no one is below the law and no one is beyond its reach. Born and raised in Ohio, Steve has stood before judges and juries to take on the tough cases and prosecute some of the worst criminals Ohio has ever seen. As a federal prosecutor for over two decades, Steve put child abusers, drug dealers, and human traffickers away, and he secured convictions against both Democrats and Republicans who broke the law. A husband and father of two, Steve launched his campaign for Ohio Attorney General in the summer of 2017 after traveling Ohio for months and visiting places as diverse as Cleveland's African American churches and Appalachia's union halls. He heard a very similar theme across these different communities — a belief that politicians have rigged the system to benefit themselves and powerful special interests, neglecting the real problems Ohioans face. Steve will work to fix this broken system as Ohio Attorney General by standing up to politicians in both parties and protecting Ohio from violent crime, and public corruption.

State Senator Aaron Ford, Nevada
Aaron has legal experience before our courts and administrative tribunals, as a law clerk, in private practice, and as an elected official. Before taking elected office, Aaron was a law clerk for two judges. In 2012, Aaron was elected to the Nevada State Senate. During his first legislative session, Aaron served as Chair of the Natural Resources Committee, Vice Chair of the Education Committee, and a member of the Judiciary Committee — and he was named "Rookie of the Year" by the Reno Gazette Journal,"Freshman of the Year" by the Las Vegas Review Journal, and "Senator of the Year" by the Nevada Conservation League. In the 2015 legislative session, Aaron led the fight against extreme policies that harmed working families as the State Senate's Minority Leader. In 2016, Aaron became Majority Leader and continued to pass legislation that kept Nevadans safe and strengthened the community. He passed legislation that combated elder abuse, increased transparency for big pharmaceutical companies, reduced recidivism and criminal-justice costs through improved educational, mental health and substance-abuse programs, and increased penalties for criminals who target our brave first responders.

Josh Kaul, Wisconsin
As a federal prosecutor in Baltimore, Josh worked closely with law enforcement on complex investigations and prosecuted murderers, gang members, and drug traffickers. When Josh returned to Wisconsin with his family, he took on a new challenge: protecting the right to vote. Josh has gone to court and fought against laws passed by the state legislature that restrict access to the ballot box. Josh was raised in Wisconsin by his mother, who was a prosecutor, and his stepfather, who was a police officer. He studied history and economics at Yale, where he met his wife, Lindsey and graduated with honors. Josh then attended Stanford Law School, where he served as President of the Stanford Law Review. Josh began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Michael Boudin, who was then the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. After his clerkship, Josh worked for Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C. Josh and Lindsey are the proud parents of two young boys, Simon and Henry.

Dana Nessel, Michigan
Dana began her legal career as an Assistant Prosecutor in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. For over a decade, she was assigned to a number of elite units within the office and handled some of Wayne County's most difficult cases. After leaving the Prosecutor's Office, Dana continued to vigorously defend the rights of indigent defendants on hundreds of criminal cases, from petty theft to first-degree murder. She is also recognized as one of the premier litigators of LGBTQ issues in Michigan. In 2010, she brought the matter of Harmon v. Davis, in which a Michigan court, for the first time, held that a non-biological parent in a same-sex couple could establish custodial rights to the couple's children. Dana spearheaded the precedent-setting case, DeBoer v. Snyder, which challenged the bans on adoption and marriage for same-sex couples in Michigan and was later consolidated with its affiliated U.S. Sixth Circuit cases into Obergefell v. Hodges in the United States Supreme Court. She is the President and founder of the Fair Michigan Foundation, and helped create the Fair Michigan Justice Project, a first of its kind task force which investigates and prosecutes hate crimes committed against the LGBTQ community. Dana lives in southeast Michigan with her wife, Alanna Maguire, their twin sons, Alex and Zach, along with various cats.

Phil Weiser, Colorado
After graduating law school, Phil worked in Denver for Judge David Ebel on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, then went on to serve as a law clerk at the United States Supreme Court for Justices Byron White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Phil served in President Clinton's Department of Justice's Antitrust Division before returning to teach as a professor at the University of Colorado Law School. There, he founded the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, litigated civil rights cases, co-chaired Governor Bill Ritter's Innovation Council, and served on President Obama's Transition Team, overseeing the Federal Trade Commission. He served in the Obama Administration as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he oversaw complex antitrust investigations, worked to strengthen the review of anticompetitive mergers, and spearheaded an effort to promote competition in agriculture. Phil also served President Obama in the White House as Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation at the National Economic Council, spearheading what became a bipartisan effort to increase access to wireless spectrum and enable the deployment of an interoperable wireless broadband network for public safety. After returning to Colorado, Phil led the University of Colorado Law School as its Dean from 2011-16, where he held tuition steady and more than doubled student scholarships. He continues to serve as CU's Hatfield Professor of Law and Telecommunications, and Executive Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. Phil and his wife Heidi, a physician, live in Denver, where they are raising their two children, Aviva and Sammy.

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I don't know about you. But if we elect folks like January, Steve, Aaron, Josh, Dana, and Phil, I'll sleep a little better at night this November.

And Robert? Making it happen is on us. Electing these attorney general candidates this fall won't happen because we want it to, and it certainly won't happen if we buy into all this nonsense about a "blue wave" being inevitable.

To elect these incredible candidates, it'll take folks from places like Yorktown, chipping in $3 at a time, until we get this done. It's that simple:

https://go.americanpossibilities.org/ag-candidates

Thanks for listening. And thanks for chipping in.

—Joe

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