Yesterday evening, I was able to gather the 1,000th signature on a petition to have my name appear on the upcoming November ballot for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District. This was the last and biggest hurdle that I had to clear to qualify for the 2022 election, in fact, I became the first candidate to be listed by Ballotpedia for the general election for my district. The next obstacle and even bigger challenge is ensuring that I have a fair chance to be heard by the electorate.
While career politicians or partisan hopefuls who aspire to join the ranks of Democrats or Republicans in DC hire teams to canvass and gather petition signatures, I collected all 1,000 signatures on my own by walking the streets of Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, and Southern Fairfax, meeting constituents, talking to them about my platform and hearing first-hand about their hopes and their struggles.
It goes without saying that our political system is meant to discourage regular folks like me from being elected unless they sell their souls to either and bend the knee to multinational corporations and their billionaire owners. A Republic that was supposed to be of, for and by the people has been subverted to work against our interests by globalist oligarchs who are only out for themselves. The Republic that Benjamin Franklin implored us to keep has been aborted by neo-aristocrats like Bezos, Gates and Buffett.
Consequently, I faced a mountainous climb running for Congress as an independent who refuses to take a penny from corporations either directly or indirectly. While mainstream media like the Washington Post, Washington Times, Politico et al and local press like Alexandria Times, Alexandria Now, the Sun-Gazette News, etc are lavishing praise and giving free airtime to career politicians and partisan hopefuls, they deny non-aligned candidates like me the right to have our positions and ideas heard. In this way, our political system rewards money while paying lip service to merit.
I live in an area that has more #BlackLivesMatter signs than I can count yet the very media professionals who virtue-signal with hashtags are ignoring the one candidate in the race whose life they say matters. As much as I acknowledge the hypocrisy of our politics and the pernicious of overt and covert racism, my campaign transcends identity and ideologically-based politics because I know that the very inequalities that rob black people of their agency is the same system that has indentured the vast majority of Americans without bias to our differences and impoverishes tens of millions in towns and countries throughout our country.
The core issue is Wealth Supremacy where those who have vast fortunes at their disposal are able to leverage their assets to curry favor with politicians, policymakers and pundits to get their preferred outcomes while fleecing the rest of us. Such is the case with my opponent and incumbent Representative Donald Beyer. Just like Trump, Beyer inherited fortunes from his dad and multiplied it thanks to the “cash for clunkers” scheme of 2009. While millions of Americans were undergoing foreclosures, Beyer was raking in more dough than Pillsbury.
This is the graft that is sold to us as a “democracy” where millionaires are working for billionaires while working the rest of us over. I’m running for Congress because I’m tired of the very people who are perpetuating inequalities keep gaslighting us to make it seem like they care about justice. While Beyer has a machine and corporate money behind him, I have a relentless work ethic—which is the only thing I inherited from my father—and the empathy borne out of struggle pushing me forward.
I believe that this year represents a unique chance for us to truly change our government and reclaim our national and individual sovereignty. We can’t do so by voting for the same two bankrupt political parties and expecting change, we must finally declare our independence from the duopoly. Every election cycle, we keep being promised of a new day only for the old ways to remain fixed in our nation’s capital no matter who owns the gavel in Congress. I make this case forcefully in my latest campaign video below.
The choice in November could not be any starker, on one side is an incumbent who was given his fortunes and is worth more than most of his constituents combined and on the other is a first-generation immigrant who worked my way through college and currently holding down two jobs to make ends meet. While Beyer pretends to “feel your pain”, I live your reality on a day to day basis, I put this question before voters in my district, who better resembles your life and who will better represent you in DC?
It is time for authentic change and I’m determined to work to affect this paradigm shift. I hope you join me in this effort, bookmark this website and check in frequently, follow us across all social media platforms @Fikre4VA and spread the word on and off social media. It doesn’t take that many people to turn a fledgling campaign to catch fire, all David needed to fell Goliath was faith, a slingshot and five smooth stones. I have the faith and determination to fight for justice, I ask you to arm me with your encouragement and support either by contributing to my campaign or amplifying my message.
I know the establishment will never get behind my campaign, in fact when the time comes, they will try to nullify it by engaging in the politics of personal destruction instead of covering the issues I’m advocating for. But I earnestly believe that the energy of people can meet and exceed the money of the plutocracy. It’s time for us to stop being bamboozled by bought and paid for politicians and instead get behind aspiring public servants who are in it to make a difference. My name is Teddy Fikre and I approve this message.