Dr. Johnson,

Despite my recent endorsement of Elizabeth Warren, I once wrote off her candidacy because of her ill-advised debacle of widely publicizing a DNA test.

“I shouldn’t have done it. I am not a person of color. I am not a citizen of a tribe, and I’ve apologized for any confusion over tribal sovereignty, tribal citizenship and any harm caused by that,” Warren has said. This is a good start, but she is capable of addressing this better, and must before she receives the nomination. Trump will continue to call her Pocahontas, and she must be able to speak to this concisely, directly, contritely, in a way that undoes the damage to sovereignty that her DNA test reproduces.

Actions, however, speak louder than words. I support Warren today in spite of this serious mistake because of the intersectionality of her plans and record, for her foregrounding of environmental justice, and because I agree with everything you’ve said here about her climate policies. It was your support of Warren, Dr. Johnson, that began to open space for me to reconsider her candidacy.

You say here that “Warren even listened to me.” This demonstrated willingness to listen is why I support her and why I believe she can and must do better on the Indigenous sovereignty issue.

And on climate, I hope that she can listen to me also. Would you read my open letter to Congress and promote it within the Warren for President campaign? While this legislation, aggressively phasing out the social licence to profit off of fossils’ potential energy, is an important front in mitigating global heating, I fully recognize that it is only one peice of a broad offensive. I see it as complementing the policies and plans Warren has already adopted.

In solidarity,

Russ Fugal