A letter from johnny
My friends, my fellow fighters,
Whether you’ve stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me since the earliest days of this battle or you’re just now finding your way into our unbreakable community, I want you to know exactly who I am and why I’m here.
I’m Johnny.
I grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia, raised on a single, unshakable truth my parents burned into my soul: We are here on this planet to do good; every single step, every single day. They showed me what that meant, not with words alone, but with action; bringing me to the local food bank, where I learned that compassion isn’t charity; it’s justice in motion. By middle school, I was launching an anti-bullying program because no child should ever feel small or afraid. Those early lessons didn’t just shape me; they ignited me.
At eighteen, I stepped into the arena. I announced a run for school board in my district. I knocked on doors in the snow, listened to the real stories of people who’d built their lives on the unfair cards they were dealt, and I fought. I won the Democratic Nomination; becoming the youngest openly gay Gen-Z American ever to do so in Pennsylvania. That victory wasn’t about age or identity; it was proof that courage backed by conviction can rewrite what’s possible.
By twenty, I was serving on nonprofit boards; lifting up the arts, championing early education in forgotten rural corners, learning that true service means showing up where the need is greatest and refusing to look away.
Politics wasn’t a career choice; it became my calling. I poured myself into campaigns and administrations; from Governor Josh Shapiro's social media director to a regional organizer for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Every lesson, every late-night strategy session, every hard-won insight fueled my deeper mission: to chase truth relentlessly and defend it fiercely.
I’ve coded tools that hold power accountable; like a website that tracks every dollar of Donald Trump’s mounting debt, interest ticking upward in real time as a reminder that no one escapes consequences. I’ve sat in the Supreme Court chamber and watched Justice Clarence Thomas drift off during historic arguments, then raised my voice to demand better from those who hold our democracy in their hands.
I was there in Butler, Pennsylvania, meeting voters just hours before shots rang out and a brave firefighter lost his life in the chaos of an assassination attempt. I walked the streets of Minneapolis, documenting Trump’s lawless ICE raids as an independent journalist, bearing witness so others couldn’t look away. From the State of the Union to the marble halls of Congress, from lobbying lawmakers to impeach Secretary Kristi Noem over her dangerous failures to sitting with elected officials to push real change. I’ve been in the fight.
Our words have echoed across HuffPost, USA Today, Business Insider, CNN, MSNBC, even Fox News. We’ve broken through the noise. We’ve made waves. But this isn’t about me. It’s about us.
As independent journalists; as truth-tellers; we are still out here, boots on the ground from Chicago to Portland, Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. We're capturing the stories that matter, exposing the threats to freedom, and refusing to be silenced.
This moment demands everything we have. The stakes have never been higher. Democracy isn’t a spectator sport; it’s a daily act of defiance, of hope, of love for our country. So let’s rise together. Let’s keep showing up.
Let’s keep speaking truth to power.
With unbreakable resolve,
Johnny Palmadessa
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