I’m Rob Strickler. Like many of you, I’m appalled and outraged that Donald Trump has moved our country towards a cruel, corrupt authoritarian government in the style of Vladimir Putin’s Russia or Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, both of whom he openly admires. Consider:

• Due Process Ignored. People taken off our streets by masked, unidentifiable ICE agents with NO DUE PROCESS. Not just dangerous criminals. It’s happening to undocumented immigrants with families who’ve lived here peacefully for years, including the father of three military veterans. Trump also wants to send “home-growns” to El Salvador as well. These home-growns are American citizens. Just like you and me.

• Free Speech Under Attack. Trump attacks individuals and groups that speak out against him, inciting violence and threats by MAGA zealots acting on his behalf. Words like "diversity," “gay” and "racism" are banned from use by government employees. Universities are threatened with retribution when students protest issues Trump deems off-limits.

• Presidency For Sale. The presidency is being used to enrich Trump and his family. Selling meme coins to billionaires in exchange for a private dinner and accepting a $400 million plane from Qatar are just two egregious examples. His son formed Executive Branch, an exclusive club that includes members of Trump’s cabinet, allowing extremely rich members access to make deals and influence policy.

• Free Press Endangered. The free press, vital to any democracy, is threatened by frivolous lawsuits with the intent of intimidating the corporate owners of CBS (Paramount) and ABC (Disney) and other news media. AP News excluded from press briefings for referring to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name. Openly hostile Press Secretary and Communications Director call reporters “stupid” and “fake news.”

• Courts Under Attack. Judges are denounced and threatened, often receiving death threats from MAGA zealots. Law firms with lawyers that investigated Trump are sanctioned and barred from practicing on federal property. Attorney General Pam Bondi forces her department to function as the president’s lawyers, and not on behalf of the American people.

Worst of all, to our utter shame as a nation, he pardoned the violent thugs he provoked into attacking our capital on J6 after he lost the 2020 election. This is unforgivable and an insult to the officers who protected the capital and congress that day, including over a hundred injured and five who died due to the trauma of that horrific day.

All that said, Brian Fitzpatrick has not kept his oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. Fitz voted against impeachment after Trump, in Fitzpatrick's own words, tried to "unlawfully overturn the 2020 presidential election." Fitzpatrick further condemned Trump, saying “President Trump’s attempts to undermine the outcome of the 2020 election have been unconscionable.” And “What happened today was nothing short of a coup attempt. The President of the United States has been lying to his supporters with false information and false expectations. He lit the flame of incitement and owns responsibility for this.”

Fitz called it a COUP ATTEMPT. But still he would not vote to impeach. He put keeping his job over doing his job, and didn’t even oppose Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

Since Trump's second inauguration and the shameful J6 pardons, I’ve called and visited Fitz's office and written to him, pleading with him to fight against these attacks on our constitution. But to no avail.

So now I’m running for Congress as a Democrat in District PA-01. I have no ambitions for a long career in politics. I'd much rather my wife and I enjoy our lives as is and only participate in politics as an informed, engaged voter. But our very democracy is in peril because we have a lying, vengeful fool in the White House and spineless Congress members like Fitzpatrick enabling him.

I know I will be the underdog in this race. Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie has a number of endorsements and support in the Democratic Party. But I fear in a general election he'll be seen as just another typical establishment political candidate, similar to Fitzpatrick, who’s beaten the last five Democrats who’ve run against him. I believe Americans have become jaded and cynical about elections and government and believe their vote makes no difference. In part, that was the appeal of Donald Trump to his supporters. He was an outsider, not the establishment. Voters are seeking people outside the so-called "system" in order to fix the system that’s rigged against them.

In order to stop Trump, we need to unseat Brian Fitzpatrick. Our best chance of doing that is to offer voters in the general election a candidate who is more than “not Brian Fitzpatrick.” We need vision and leaders. We need to fix the system, and to do that we need to choke off the money spigot to fix our elections so we can make our American democracy actually work for the men and women who actually work for a living.

I’m not a politician. I’m your neighbor. I’m just some guy. And I’m running for Congress, asking for your support.