Today I want to introduce you to my friend Julie Oliver, who is running in the mega-gerrymandered Texas 25th Congressional District, which extends an astonishing 212 miles from central Austin and is 180 miles wide.

Julie is another woman who never in a million years thought she would be running for Congress — and that’s exactly why she’s the kind of woman we desperately need to send to Capitol Hill.

Because Julie knows just how much is at stake with this year’s election. Julie grew up poor in Ovilla, Texas. When she found herself pregnant and homeless at age 17, she relied on Medicaid for health care. Later, while raising her young family, she worked her way through college and then law school with the help of Pell grants.

Julie, who has gone on to have a successful career in healthcare finance, knows exactly how much is possible in America if we have a government that believes in our potential, that lifts us up rather than crushing us. And as the mother of a child with a heart condition and an immune deficiency, she knows just how much is at stake when Republicans in Congress continue their endless assaults on Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Julie connects with people, and she’s worked tirelessly to bring new voters into the process. She takes her 9-year-old daughter Coco out knocking on the doors of the district, meeting people who have been disenchanted by the process, who’ve never had a reason to show up and vote before.

TX-25 was an R+11 district — one that is rapidly changing with the new influx of tech and clean energy jobs in and around Austin. It’s exactly the type of district we can, and must, flip to take back Congress in the fall, and reclaim our country from the embarrassing, treasonous buffoon currently running it into the ground.

If anyone can do it, Julie can — and I’m not just saying that because I’ve known her husband for most of my life. We found out yesterday that, in the last quarter, she outraised the incumbent Roger Williams for the first time. She’s relied on small-dollar donations to get her there — so let’s keep going.

If you’re interested in help sending this inspirational working mom to Congress, you can donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/jo-jul18?refcode=jul17lcm