Thank you Democratic Delegates

To the Democratic Convention Delegates who signed our petition and stood with this campaign –

 

I have been searching for the right words, trying to find a way to say what needs now to be said, that we have fallen short of our petition goal and deadline. I am not sure there are right words for this moment. But I know that silence is not what we need. Silence at this moment is wrong – what you gave and helped to achieve deserves to be named, and honored, and carried forward. 

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You are our neighbors, our union members, our teachers, our firefighters, our baristas, and our workers. You traveled and participated in caucuses and town meetings. You signed your names on our petition in the midst of your own lives and the turmoil that is swirling throughout our Commonwealth and our Republic. You signed to help us be a part of the debate at our convention and fight for our future in the middle of your own lives – you took the time to find us, to read what we stood for, and to say: “Yes.” That is not a small thing. In a political moment defined by cynicism, and doubt in our democratic process, a signature of genuine conviction is an act of moral courage. You gave us that. You gave it freely, and I will never forget it.

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You supported the hope that we can once again center justice and hold accountable those that are destroying our republic. We were asking people to believe something different was possible. Some people who weren’t sure they still believed in anything political anymore – and because of you, and the audacity of your hope, maybe they believed again, even if only for a time, that indeed something different is possible. Every delegate signature earned was a testament to that hope. 

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We did this with almost no money. As of today, we have spent less than $ 4,000 dollars. But what we lacked in money, we made up for in tenacity, teamwork, perseverance, grit, hope and a vision that our nation stands for more than what it is at this moment. We did this because we believe in a new vision that embraces, without fear and influence, in a democracy of, for, and by the People. It is a moment in our history of great peril. It is, as Abraham Lincoln expressed, a “testing whether our nation or any so conceived and dedicated can long endure.” 

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Robert Francis Kennedy once said “that each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

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You were those ripples. Spreading out across all directions, advancing and moving forward. Every conversation with a fellow delegate, a ripple. Every person spoken to, every caucus and town meeting, every moment you defended this campaign’s vision, in a room full of skeptics – a ripple. 

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We did not make the ballot. That is the hard truth. I want to be honest with you about that because we all deserve honesty. A deadline has passed. The system that was designed to make it difficult for campaigns like ours, with little money to compete – did what it was designed to do. That is also a hard truth, and it hurts to have been subject to it.

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Here is what else is true: We built something. We built a platform far beyond what any other campaign developed or had the courage to speak to. We built a vision of hope for our Commonwealth and for our Nation. We built a platform of 32 planks. 32! Planks rooted in human dignity, justice, democracy of and for the people, the Four Freedoms, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the belief that Massachusetts – the Commonwealth that lit the spark of the American Revolution – can light it once again! We argued for Medicare for All, for an enhanced Green New Deal, a Green Corps, for free public college, for the full release of the Epstein files, for a Department of Peace, for the abolition of nuclear weapons, for a free and independent Palestinian nation, for the prosecution of every abuser regardless of power or privilege. And for the enactment of Article 2, Section 4 of our constitution to remove, for treason, the President and those that currently hold power and have abused their office. We did not whisper those positions. We said them out loud and without fear. 

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What is also true was that our campaign was getting stronger every day. In the last 24 hours over 120 delegates signed our petition to allow us to participate in the debate at our convention. Together, we were bending the arc of democracy. And hundreds of Democratic Delegates – our neighbors, union members, teachers, firefighters, baristas, & workers – signed their names to say: “We want this. We want a candidate who speaks this way in the debate for our future. We want a politics that treats us as adults who can bear the truth.”

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All of this does not disappear because we missed a deadline in gaining signatures on our petition. Even this morning, as I write these words, people are still signing our petition. This is a foundation to build upon.

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RFK also said something I have carried with me since I first read it when I was 11 years old, standing outside the United Nations in NYC on a day in June 1982, holding a sign for universal healthcare and world peace: “The future is not a gift. It is an achievement.” We have not achieved it yet. But the work of achieving it, - the signatures, the conversations, the moral courage to say yes when the easier answer was silence – that is what you did, that is the work you & I did together. And we can move forward with that understanding in our hearts and the moral courage that our campaign and efforts have bestowed upon us. We have set the example. Our work lives in the ideas we fought for, the relationships between us and the network of people who found each other through this campaign and now know they are not alone in what they believe. 

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I am not done. This campaign is not done. The fight for the soul of Massachusetts and America – that fight continues, and I intend to be in it. I hope you will be too. It is a time to begin again, a time of a new hope. 

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For now, Thank you! Thank you for believing when it was hard. Thank you for believing when belief required something of you. Thank you for putting your name beside ours. Thank you for being, at this hour and in this moment of peril and democratic urgency, exactly what a democratic convention delegate is supposed to be – a citizen who shows up. Thank you for caring and for helping to carry the weight, even if only for a time, of the kind of change we are seeking. I am honored today to have had your support. Together we made this campaign something to be proud of – not because we won, but because of who we were in the trying.

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Those ripples that we created in our trying, they are still moving forward. And so shall we.

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Very Sincerely and Respectfully,

William Francis Gates

Candidate, United States Senate · Massachusetts · 2026

Educator · Firefighter · Researcher · Father