7/28/2019 Letter from Tom FitzGerald

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Tom FitzGerald1600 Dundee Way

Louisville, KY 40205(502) 451-2492

e-mailFitzKRC@aol.com

My dear friends:

It is with a heart full of gratitude that I write to tell you that I will not be a candidate in

the Democratic Primary for the United States Senate seat now held by Senator

McConnell.

I arrived at this decision after much reflection, soul-searching, prayer, and conversations

with family, friends, and with those more familiar with electoral politics (which is a quite

a large universe, as you who know me can attest).

Since it became public that I had been asked in early May to consider such a campaign, I

have received hundreds of letters, emails, and calls of support from all across this

remarkable Commonwealthfrom Paducah to Pikeville, Florence to Fulton - and acrossthe political spectrum, from diehard Democrats to dyed-in-the-wool Republicans (with

more than a few libertarians sprinkled in for good measure).

The idea of leaving almost thirty years of environmental advocacy as Director of theKentucky Resources Council - thirty years of working with and for folks who live

downhill, downstream, and downwind of natural resource extraction operations, factories,

factory farms, and other sources of pollution - in order to try to reclaim the Senate seat

for the people of our Commonwealth was both exciting and daunting, a little heady andvery humbling.

Yet each days phone calls, frantic emails, and hand-written letters since then from

Kentuckians whose lives, families, homes, and health have been put at risk by the

negligence, carelessness, or avarice of others, and who seek help, guidance, or

representation that they cannot find elsewhere, tell me that it is not time to step awayfrom my current work. As the Board of the Council and I prepare next week to map a

strategic plan for the Kentucky Resources Council, and to shore up the Councils finances

so that it may continue for the next thirty years to be an unrepentant voice with and on

behalf of those who seek environmental justice, I beg the privilege of using the last two

of my 15 minutes in the spotlight to offer my personal observations and an unsolicitedcautionary note or two regarding the upcoming Senate race.

There is, among Kentuckians with whom I have talked, a great hunger and thirst. A

hunger for representation by elected officials who wake each day with the goal of helping

Kentuckians of all ages, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and identifications, to findjustice and the opportunity to lead full and rewarding lives. A hunger for elected officials

focused not on increasing their power and position while supping at the public trough, but

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on assuring that no child in the Commonwealth goes to bed at night hungry or homeless.

A hunger for representation grounded in producing results, not in obstructing needed

reform. For representation that will work to right our listing ship of state withoutthrowing overboard the poor, the elderly, the working class, students, and our childrenshopes for a good education, rewarding work, and a healthy economy.

Kentuckians thirst - for clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, healthy and safeneighborhoods, and a fair shot at a decent wage and a secure retirement. They thirst for

leaders who offer hope and a path forward, not obstruction and division.

They want representation that will help rebuild our communities, our infrastructure, our

shared future; not representation focused on tearing holes in the social fabric that weaves

us together as a commonwealth. They want leaders who recognize that, in answer to

Cains question, that we are our brothers (and sisters) keepers accountable to eachother and before God for how we treat each other and Gods creation.

This election cycle presents a real opportunity to bring Kentuckians together to begin tochart a new courseto leave behind the policies and politics that have led to the states

dismal rankings of children in poverty, in health, in education, and in median income

and to renew our commitment to each other and to the generations to come as people of

good will, of good faith, of creativity, and of hope. Another cycle of cynical politics ofpersonal destruction, of gutter politics intended to destroy and divide rather than to unify

and inspire, is something we can ill-afford as the fourth poorest state in the nation. It is

something that will backfire on the SuperPACs who traffic in the politics of fear andsmear. Kentuckians deserve leaders and candidates who will take the high road.

I wish fervently that Senator McConnell does some soul-searching and finds within

himself the moderate, caring reformer that he once aspired to be; and that the candidatesfor the Democratic primary find the strength within themselves to stand for justice in all

its facetseconomic, racial, environmental, and socialand to present a real alternative

to more of the same from Congress.

Let me end by again thanking those who reached out to me with offers of support,

pledges of money, and the gift of their time and opinions. Let me publicly express my

undying gratitude to my ever-patient, supportive, and wonderful wife Patty, my threesons Garrett, Luke, and Sean, my extended family, those whose counsel I sought who

have been so generous with their time, my good friend Art Williams, and the irrepressible

Christy Brown, who has done so much for Louisville and the Commonwealth.

As I return to my work with the Council and take my last toe out of the political waters,

let me share with you a prayer written by childrens advocate Marian Wright Edelman:

Lord, help me not be a taker but a tender

Help me not to be a whiner but a worker

Help me not to be a getter but a giverHelp me not to be a hindrance but a help

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Lord, help me not to be a critic, but a catalyst for good.

Let us work to assure that those we elect to be our voice in ournations capital and inFrankfort, are not takers, whiners, getters, and hindrances, but are catalysts for good,

even as we strive to be so ourselves.

In solidarity and with gratitude,

Tom FitzGerald