June 5, 2026

About 18 months ago, the results of the 2024 election motivated me to become more involved in the political process, briefly running for Congress in Virginia’s First District. That seat is currently held by Trump enabler Rob Wittman, an individual who, at last check, has already amassed a $3.8 million re-election fund from his high-dollar GOP donors. My friends at Wittman Watch have done an extraordinary job over the last several months explaining his repeated inactions and failures.

During my campaign and in the months that followed my exit, I got to know five of the candidates running for the Democratic nomination very well. Tim Cywinski, Ericka Kopp, and Mel Tull are tremendous people who bring a variety of strengths to the position. But in the absence of ranked choice voting, I have to make a difficult choice about who to support — ultimately narrowing my personal decision between Jason Knapp and Salaam Bhatti. Knapp has served his country with distinction and is a strong candidate. However, this moment calls for fundamental change via an exceptional communicator who has walked a path similar to mine. As a result, I will be supporting Salaam Bhatti.

When I first saw Bhatti speak publicly, I was struck by his ability to vividly explain how the financially oppressive policies of the GOP have nearly killed the American Dream. He understands the personal stories of people who are struggling and the objective math leading to the hoarding of wealth and resources by billionaires.

Bhatti and I come from different backgrounds and different faiths, but we both relied on free school lunches in elementary school, grew to understand a complicated America as adolescents, and scraped together loans and scholarships to pursue our educational goals. Bhatti is now a public interest lawyer who understands the horrors that the Trump administration and the complicit GOP have inflicted on hard-working American families of all faiths, colors, and creeds. Meanwhile, Trump has turned the presidency into an organized crime syndicate — shredding the Constitution, raiding the treasury, betraying our allies, rewarding treason, and squandering our future by dismantling American science.

Bhatti supports Medicare For All and fundamental tax reforms that will make billionaires pay their fair share — relieving small businesses of burdensome health insurance costs and allowing working families to keep more of what they earn. Further, he has the courage to support institutional changes to repair our democratic republic: expanding the Supreme Court and introducing term limits, ending Citizens United to get dark money out of elections, and requiring neutral commissions to draw voting district lines to end gerrymandering.

And in my experience as a meteorologist, I also know he understands the warming climate and how to implement cost-effective solutions that will slow it down and reduce the impacts on all of us.

To be clear, I will wholeheartedly support the Democratic nominee for the First District, no matter who emerges from the field. This fall’s election is too critical to do otherwise. But in the primary this summer, I will be supporting Salaam Bhatti.