Let me tell you a story about your congressional seat.
Not the one they tell at fundraisers. The real one — the one you can trace in FEC filings and public records. The one that explains why your representative votes the way she does, and why nothing in this district seems to change.
In 2021, Ohio's 11th District had a special election. Nina Turner — a progressive from Cleveland, backed by working people and small-dollar donors — was running for Congress. She had grassroots energy, community support, and a real shot.
Then the outside money showed up.
The Numbers
Democratic Majority for Israel's Super PAC, DMFI, poured over $1.9 million into the race to support Shontel Brown and attack Nina Turner. (Source: Mondoweiss, Aug 3, 2021) That is $1.9 million from a single outside group — in a special election for one congressional district.
Where did that money come from? A big chunk came from Stacy Schusterman, the chair of Samson Energy, an oil and gas company. Schusterman gave $1.55 million to DMFI between 2019 and 2020, making her their largest individual donor. (Source: The Intercept, Jul 16, 2021) A fossil fuel billionaire heir funding attack ads against a progressive candidate who signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge. You cannot make this up.
DMFI spent over $660,000 on ads in this race alone — ads attacking Turner and propping up Brown. And this was the same PAC that had already spent $1.4 million attacking Bernie Sanders and $1.5 million going after Jamaal Bowman. There is a pattern here, and it is not subtle.
Brown won by about 5 points. Nina Turner said it plainly that night: "We didn't lose this race, evil money manipulated and maligned this election."
And the money did not stop. Between March and December 2023, AIPAC's PAC gave Shontel Brown $68,593 — more than any other Ohio Democrat, and more than every Ohio Republican except Michael Turner. (Source: Ohio Capital Journal, Mar 22, 2024) By then, AIPAC's war chest had grown to $90 million, and their Super PAC, the United Democracy Project, had raised $35 million in a single year. They also spent $198,877 directly against Nina Turner in OH-11.
Read those numbers again. Millions of dollars from outside Ohio, from people who will never live in this district, deciding who represents you in Congress.
This Is Not About One PAC
I want to be clear: this is not about one country's lobby or one organization. This is about a system where outside money — corporate PACs, Super PACs, billionaire donors — can flood a district and drown out the voices of the people who actually live there.
When your representative's biggest donors are fossil fuel heirs and foreign policy PACs based in Washington, who do you think she is working for? When Republican strategist Bill Kristol endorses a Democrat — ask yourself what that tells you about who that Democrat is actually serving.
The question is not left vs. right. The question is: whose money, whose power, whose voice?
What I Am Doing Differently
I take zero corporate PAC money. Zero. I take zero foreign-interest PAC money. Every dollar that funds this campaign comes from real people making small donations — people who live in this district, or people across the country who believe working families deserve a voice.
That is not a slogan. It is a structural decision. When I get to Congress, I answer to you — not to the groups that wrote the checks.
I am a nurse. I am a mom. I have spent 12 years watching working families get squeezed by a system that was not built for them. I am not running to climb a ladder. I am running because this seat belongs to the people of OH-11, and it is time we took it back.
What You Can Do Right Now
We need 2,200 signatures to get on the ballot. That is the first fight — before we can take on the PAC money machine, we have to earn our place on the ballot the old-fashioned way: one signature at a time.
Sign up to volunteer. Help us collect signatures. And if you can, chip in $10 or $20 to keep this campaign running. No PAC is going to fund us. That is the point — we are funded by you.
This seat was bought once. We are going to take it back. But only if we do it together.