Friends,

A year ago, they told us foreign aid had no constituency.

They said no one would lose an election for gutting it, and no one would ever win for defending it. That the people who deliver America’s humanitarian work could be fired, smeared, and forgotten, and voters would never notice. That hundreds of thousands of people could die needlessly around the world, and Americans would shrug and say that’s not our problem.

Tuesday proved them wrong.

The numbers are out: 89% of the candidates endorsed by the Alliance for American Leadership won their races. These are the candidates who stood up for American leadership in the world and knew that USAID made us safer, stronger, and more respected. From Jon Ossoff in Georgia to Lateefah Simon in California, we backed Americans who understand keeping our country safe and respected is not a partisan question, but a crucial requirement. And then our army of interns made 1.9 million calls to reward them for that commitment.

I want to be clear about what this means because it matters.

Some people are using the term “foreign investment” these days, some still call it foreign aid. Whatever name it goes by, it is undeniable that foreign assistance is now a voting issue. For the first time, there is a real political constituency for diplomacy and development--the kind of backing that defense, agriculture, and labor have always had. We built it together, one campus chapter and one congressional meeting at a time.

Our new Congress will have more champions for American leadership than the last one. When the fight to restore funding comes — and it is coming — there will be people in the room who can name the lives lost and will refuse to look away.

And we did it the hard way. No corporation or billionaire bankrolled this movement. Every call, every chapter, and every meeting was powered by ordinary Americans who believe this country should do the right thing.

But winning elections is not the finish line for A4AL. It is our starting bell.

Fourteen million people may die by 2030 if we do not reverse the cuts and fully restore foreign assistance. The leaders we just helped elect cannot restore that funding alone: they need our voices in the Capitol every single morning, naming the people who have died and holding Congress to its word. That is our job, and we cannot stop.

So I’m asking you directly: keep us in the fight with your support. Your donation puts our briefers in the Capitol, our organizers in every district, and political muscle behind the leaders who will carry this forward.

They said no one would fight for this. One hundred thousand of us just did: and with your help we are only getting started.

With resolve,

Asher Moss
Founder & Executive Director, Alliance for American Leadership