What Comes Next

Starting over, and a few things I’ve been thinking about since the primary

Friends,

I wanted to be writing something different after my primary. Of course I’m disappointed by the outcome, but elections don’t always go the way we plan or hope. You take stock, learn what you can, and figure out what comes next.

But before I say anything about what comes next, I want to say thank you.

Since January, we have traveled across Florida and met tens of thousands of people who welcomed us into their communities, donated, volunteered, offered advice, told me what I was getting right and also what I was getting wrong (perhaps I should have listened to those people more!). They trusted me with their stories and their concerns about their families, their communities, and the country. I’m grateful for all of it, and I will carry it with me always.

Now I need to start over, and that’s something I’ve had to do before.

In my book Here, Right Matters, I included some of the lessons I had learned over the course of my life. One was: Start Over—and Keep Starting Over.

At the time, I was writing about leaving the Army. I didn’t want to start over. I loved the Army and had spent more than two decades building a career there. But circumstances changed, and eventually I had to accept that the future I had imagined for myself wasn’t going to happen.

Well, here I am again and it seems to me our nation is in a similar place.

America is at an inflection point. We’ve been approaching it for years, but I think the elections of 2016 and 2024 made it impossible to deny. The status quo isn’t working for a lot of people, and our politicians have been too slow to understand the depth of people’s dissatisfaction.

I heard it daily while traveling around Florida.

People are working hard and still falling behind. Housing, healthcare, groceries, and childcare all cost too much. Young people wonder if they’ll ever be able to afford a home. Parents worry whether their children will have fewer opportunities than they did. This reality exists across the political spectrum.

Meeting a crowd of supporters at The Villages, a community that has historically been a stronghold for the GOP in Florida yet is increasingly contested during the second Trump presidency

They look at Washington and see a government that largely seems incapable of, or uninterested in, meaningfully addressing any of it. They see business as usual while many are living in crisis. It’s no secret that wealthy people and corporations have political access and influence in a way that most Americans could never imagine having. People like you and I read about members of Congress trading stocks while writing the laws. The public sees billions of dollars spent on campaigns that nevertheless leave them feeling unrepresented in Washington.

People are angry and increasingly willing to reject anything that resembles the establishment. I didn’t fully understand the depth of that frustration during my own campaign, and I didn’t connect with enough voters who were looking for something different. I missed the mark. There’s no point in asking Democrats to learn from this moment if I’m not willing to do the same.

The frustration is real, and it’s warranted.

In 2020, I thought Trump’s defeat meant the country had rejected what he represented. In fact, in Here, Right Matters, I wrote about “moving together out of” the Trump presidency.

Then he came back. Whatever we thought we had settled in 2020, we hadn’t. Democrats need to be much more curious about why.

It isn’t enough to tell people Donald Trump is dangerous, as I know he is. I put my military career on the line and lost it all because I believed his conduct was a threat to our national security and our democracy. I’m hardly going to change my mind about that now.

Yet opposing Trump cannot be our entire answer to the moment we’re in. Too many Americans believe our economic and political systems are not working for them, and they want someone willing to fight to change them. In this environment, voters may be more drawn to someone who looks like a fighter than someone who promises to be a problem solver. Democrats need to understand that without giving up our responsibility to actually solve problems.

We can defend democracy and capitalism while understanding that we need to make changes.

The appeal of democratic socialism, particularly among younger Americans, is another indication that people are looking for something drastically different. It would be foolish to ignore the dissatisfaction driving it.

Another lesson I wrote about in Here, Right Matters was Don’t Self-Deter.

I was writing primarily from my experience studying U.S.-Russia relations. One of Russia’s advantages has been its ability to convince adversaries that responding to its aggression carries so much risk that they scare themselves out of acting. Individuals self-deter, too, as do political parties.

Democrats shouldn’t self-deter from demanding significant economic reforms because Republicans might call them socialist. They’re going to call us socialists anyway. We need an economic agenda that delivers for working people, strengthens the social safety net, and puts meaningful guardrails on concentrated wealth and corporate power.

But we also shouldn’t self-deter from having difficult conversations within our own coalition, including about antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. We should be able to condemn them clearly and consistently, whether they come from the right or the left.

These are complicated subjects, and I intend to write more about both of them here. For now, they are among the principles that will guide where I put our campaign’s remaining resources.

What matters to me is what we’re trying to accomplish.

I want an economy that works better for people who work for a living. I want a government competent enough to solve problems and accountable enough to earn people’s trust. I want a democracy in which ordinary citizens have more influence and money has less. And I want Democrats willing to reform institutions that aren’t working while defending the democratic principles that make reform possible.

I want us to win elections.

Politics isn’t just an exercise in being right. If you can’t persuade people, build coalitions, win elections, and turn ideas into policy, you don’t improve anyone’s life.

Which brings me to one thing I do know about what comes next.

Our campaign has substantial resources remaining, and I’m going to put them to work. We have already put nearly $1 million to work and plan to invest substantially more.

We’ll focus on competitive races in Florida, veterans running for office around the country, and Democrats with a realistic opportunity to win Senate seats. This is a project that will endure beyond the 2026 election cycle.

I’m going to be selective. I want to help candidates who understand the moment we’re in: people willing to address the cost of living and an economy that isn’t working well enough for working people; take on corruption and the influence of money in politics; strengthen our democracy; reject antisemitism and other forms of bigotry regardless of where they come from; and work with people they don’t agree with on everything.

As for my own next role, I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I do intend to continue to serve and have an impact in my community and my country. I cannot imagine not serving in some capacity.

One thing life has taught me is that your role isn’t always the one you planned for. I didn’t plan to become an impeachment witness or a public figure, and a few years ago I wouldn’t have predicted I would run for the United States Senate.

I’ve had to change course before, and I’ve learned that changing course isn’t the same thing as abandoning the mission.

For now, part of my role will be here with the Why It Matters Substack.

The path back to the White House and a lasting victory begins with the work we do now. If you believe in this mission and want to support my efforts to help veterans get elected and rebuild the Democratic party in Florida, I need you to pitch in and become a paid subscriber.

I’ll continue writing about politics, national security, foreign policy, veterans and military affairs, and the other subjects where my experience gives me something useful to contribute. I have missed discussing these ideas with you, but I also want to use this space to think through some of the questions this campaign left me with.

Why have so many Americans lost faith in our institutions? What does a Democratic economic agenda look like if we start with people’s lived experience rather than political labels? How do we build a coalition broad enough to defeat MAGA without being afraid to disagree with one another? How do we make government work well enough that people have reason to trust it again?

I have thoughts about all of those things. I don’t have all the answers.

Running for office has a way of reminding you of that.

I don’t know exactly what comes next. But I’ve had to change course before, and wishing the terrain were different doesn’t change the terrain in front of you.

So I’m going to take some advice I gave myself years ago.

Start over. And keep starting over.