Friends,

I launched my campaign for City Council last year because my guiding principle has always been to try and do the most good for the most people that I can. I believe that Ward 3 deserves more than what we have had over the past 4 years. Ward 3 deserves a leader who is proactive in helping meet the needs of our neighbors, a leader who is willing and capable of collaborating with fellow council members while also building the necessary relationships at the county, state, and federal levels to ensure that Minneapolis can truly be a city that works for everyone, protects all of our neighbors, and ensures we can all thrive.

As a veteran, I have been horrified over the last few weeks as Donald Trump has systematically worked to dismantle checks and balances meant to safeguard our constitution and our democracy from an authoritarian like himself. We have seen an unelected billionaire — with Trump’s blessing — destroy countless lives to line his own pockets while Republicans in Congress bend the knee and too many Democrats in Congress cower and wring their hands with defeatism. Trump has already created a constitutional crisis and is accelerating a path toward a dictatorship by unconstitutionally removing the Inspectors General, the Judge Advocates General, as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and other senior leadership and installing unqualified lackeys across the government loyal to him — not our constitution. Trump has openly discussed using the military domestically in unconstitutional and illegal ways and with high level purges at the pentagon it is increasingly clear that these were never just theoretical thought experiments.

We must rise up and meet this challenge and we must all ask ourselves what we can do — individually and collectively — to fight back against fascism and protect our neighbors, our communities, and ourselves in solidarity together. To that end, after serious consideration and conversations with many community members and my campaign team, I am officially suspending my campaign for Minneapolis City Council to focus on organizing against Trump for the safety of our communities and the preservation of our democracy. For over 2 years, I have led communications at Common Defense, the largest grassroots organization of progressive veterans in the country. With Trump’s attacks on transgender service members this week, purging of the Pentagon last week, and targeting of sanctuary cities like Minneapolis and Saint Paul, it is clear that I can be most effective in fighting for our city through continuing my work at Common Defense in the immediate term. 

I love this city and I believe Minneapolis is worth fighting for. It is my hope that we see new leadership in Ward 3 this November that will work to build a Minneapolis that works for everyone and ensures we can all thrive, together. Our City Council and the Mayor’s Office must work together to solve the problems our city is facing. As Trump threatens to cut federal funding to the vital services people within our city need, we must find innovative solutions to replace that funding without placing further burdens on working families. We must also treat our unhoused neighbors with dignity and compassion by pursuing housing first approaches and programs like Duluth’s Safe Bay to finally end the crisis of homelessness and housing insecurity too many of our neighbors face. We must implement major and meaningful reform to the Minneapolis Police Department that holds our police accountable as the public servants they are supposed to be in the same way we should expect all city employees to be accountable to do the job expected of them. No one should feel unsafe or be unsafe in our city; yet too often, our neighbors feel unsafe because of police actions and misconduct, which is unacceptable. I look forward to continuing to work with community members, advocates, and current or future city leaders to accomplish these things because I know we can find paths forward on these issues and many more to serve the people of Minneapolis.

As my team and I work to wind down the campaign, we plan to partner with local and national organizations in the coming weeks to provide concrete ways for people to get involved, take action, build resilient communities, and keep each other safe.

To everyone who supported and believed in this campaign, from the bottom of my heart: thank you. While this moment of crisis we are facing means a premature end to my campaign, it in no way means an end to our work of building a better Minneapolis, together. May we never lose hope in each other and may we never lose hope in the promise of America. We have a long history of fighting fascists and winning, and I intend to keep it that way.

In Solidarity,

Jacob Thomas

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