As the former Mayor of Huntington Beach, I never believed that government was the set of beige buildings where we worked. I believed that government was the people – our friends and neighbors coming together as a community to solve our hardest problems.
My strong belief in people-powered solutions is why I am endorsing Brian Forde for Congress.
After graduating from UCLA, Brian left Orange County and everything that was familiar to him to serve in the United States Peace Corps. He was sent to a rural village in Nicaragua where he worked as a high school teacher. Faced with a high unemployment rate, he taught his students how to start their own companies and create their own jobs rather than be unemployed.
Brian took that same focus on community resilience to the Obama White House where he led recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. To address the chronic fuel shortage after the devastating hurricane, he worked with high school kids in Franklin, New Jersey to catalog tweets identifying gas stations with fuel, and those without – uploading that information to Google Maps so local residents could avoid long lines and quickly fill up to get to safety.
I know Brian will take that same people-focused approach to Congress. Reminiscent of President Kennedy, he’s not asking what Congress can do for us, he’s asking what our community can do for Congress.
At a time when fake news is undermining our elections, cyber security is threatening our national security, and the Equifax hack is destroying our personal privacy – Brian will tap into our world-renowned science and tech knowledge that fuels our local economy and is critically important to addressing the key challenges facing our country.
I’m thrilled to support Brian’s candidacy and hope you will too.
I’m with Brian,
Former Mayor Debbie Cook
(Huntington Beach, CA)