There’s a reason more women, and mothers, don’t run for public office. It’s not just that the endless work-life balancing act really is a lot more complicated than our parents told us it would be when they said we could “do anything we want with our lives.”

It’s that many fear personal family attacks. Just like the kind I’ve received in the last 24 hours.

Last night, I was shocked to find myself the subject of an unprecedented attack by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The basis was a single quote that was blatantly taken out of context — a silly joke twisted into a desperate, clumsy smear.

As this campaign has progressed, it has become clear that many of the bigwigs decided long ago who they wanted to represent you. They had narrowed it down to the same kinds of corporate candidates that they always run — with their ties to big banks, big law firms, and big money.

Let’s not lose sight of one obvious fact: Democrats have not been winning. We don’t control the White House. We don’t control the Senate. We don’t control the House of Representatives. We control fewer governorships and statehouses than in a generation. We’ve lost nearly a thousand seats in statehouses nationwide just in the last decade. We have not had a Democrat elected statewide in Texas since 1994. Is that because there is no constituency in Texas for our ideas, or is it because our party has forgotten how to reach those voters?

As a lifelong Democrat, I’ve always been proud to stand with our party. I started knocking doors for Democrats up and down the ballot in the 5th grade, when my dad was running for judge, and I never stopped. It’s still my favorite part of every election cycle, and it’s a tradition I’ve continued with my young children.

My candidacy has been based on a patriotic idea shared by people all over the nation: that we must do everything we can to be the change that we want. I was tired of seeing the Democratic Party put up the same kinds of candidates year after year — and then, when those candidates lost, return to the same old playbook. I knew there was a hunger for a new direction because I had the same hunger. I did not feel that the mainstream Democratic voter — the one who worries about paying for college for the kids, the one who is shocked by Donald Trump’s racism and corruption, the one who is terrified of the next hurricane season — was being represented.

And the record shows I was right. Our campaign has garnered an unprecedented amount of media coverage. We have a huge number of social media followers. We’ve eschewed PACs and corporate donors and reached out to small donors across Texas and the nation. If you’d like to join them in supporting our campaign, you can do so here.

In fact, this attack was launched only hours after our campaign announced that we had outraised the other candidates in 2018. Think that’s a coincidence?

This is not about policy. You’ll notice that not a single one of my positions, be it on health care, women’s rights, or repairing our infrastructure, is out of the Democratic mainstream. It’s a matter of people in Washington thinking that they, and not you, should decide who represents us.

Challenging the status quo is a matter of life and death — for people who need healthcare, and for people whose houses might very well flood again this summer, and for the women whose rights are being taken away one by one by one.

We’re in a national emergency. It’s not a time for high school shenanigans like quotes ripped out of context, doctored photos, and easily disproved allegations. It’s a time for leaders who understand the seriousness of this moment and who are ready to rise to the occasion.

I’m ready to be that leader.

Your friend in the fight,

Laura Moser

Democrat for TX-07