John Washington III: "You Work for Us. We Don't Work for You."

John Washington III is done, in his words, fighting to save political careers. In a statement Saturday, the 2028 presidential candidate argued that politicians have spent years passing laws that, he wrote, "take more money from our pockets and strip away our rights" - and that now, with the same system turning on them, they want the public to stand up in their defense. "Where were you when we needed you?" he wrote.

His charge is about what elections buy. "We elected you to fight for us, not become part of the very system hurting us," John Washington III wrote. "Every election, you beg for our votes, money, and loyalty. Then, once you win, you turn your backs on the people." Asked what the public has to show for that loyalty, he answered in capital letters in the statement - and, in the same passage, drew the line his campaign is built on: "I'm fighting for the people, not politicians who forgot who they work for."

The close of the statement is the candidacy in one exchange of roles. "Your political battles are not our responsibility," John Washington III wrote. "You work for us. We don't work for you." He signed it with his campaign's standing line: "The people come first. Period!" No Dallas–Fort Worth angle is manufactured here - the statement is national, as his campaign is - and it is carried as written, with his positions reported as his positions and nothing added beyond them.