I worked my way up

Nobody expected me to end up in the White House

As you know, I’ve put everything on the line to speak out against Donald Trump and his far-right, enabling cronies. A lot of you know me already because you’ve been with me from the very beginning, but let me introduce myself for the new faces.

My name is Olivia Troye, and I’m the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a truck driver from El Paso, Texas.

Growing up, my grandparents didn’t have indoor plumbing – just an outhouse. But I then went on to be the first in my family to graduate from college.

Nobody in my life expected me to end up in the White House, least of all me.

But after 9/11, I was moved to serve my country. I worked my way up over nearly two decades in national security and counterterrorism. From Baghdad, where I was often the only woman in the room, to the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, and the Office of the Vice President.

I tracked domestic terrorism threats. I briefed senior leaders on mass shootings that were fueled by the same hateful rhetoric coming out of the Oval Office today.

When a white supremacist opened fire in an El Paso Walmart, my aunt was inside that store, and I was the one who walked into the West Wing, manifesto in hand, and told them to their face: “This is a hate crime.”

This is the great replacement theory. And your president’s words are radicalizing people.

They didn’t want to hear it.

During COVID, I ran the White House Coronavirus Task Force day-to-day. I set every agenda. I coordinated with Dr. Fauci and every cabinet official on that task force. I was the one calling governors to figure out how to dock cruise ships full of stranded Americans when no port would take them.

Behind the scenes, I fought Stephen Miller’s team when they tried to slash the refugee ceiling to zero. I fought Katie Miller when she doctored public health guidance to serve the president’s political agenda. They blocked me from meetings, but I showed up anyway. I told them I represented the Vice President, and had every right to be there.

And that’s why I’m showing up this week as I announce my candidacy to serve Virginia in Congress.

We need fighters who aren’t afraid to push back against Donald Trump and his entire MAGA agenda. As one of my most trusted supporters, can I count on you to rush a donation to become a founding member of my campaign?

Look, I’ve been in this fight for quite some time.

After I resigned, they offered me the position of Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security to keep me quiet. I turned it down. I walked away from everything I’d built.

Because I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror anymore.

Not after watching a president order peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could hold up a Bible for a photo op.

Not after sitting in meetings where Donald Trump discussed shooting American citizens in the streets and invoking the Insurrection Act against his own people.

So I resigned. And then I did something that terrified me more than anything I’d faced in Baghdad: I went public against MAGA.

Some of you were there for what came next. And I will never forget that.

The night before the story dropped, a Washington Post reporter called me and asked if I had security cameras at my house. I didn’t. My husband was installing them the next morning. The Vice President’s office called to tell me they were concerned for my life.

People showed up at my old address. Trucks drove past my home, taking photographs. Online, the threats poured in, people saying they were coming to find me. I talked to detectives. I talked to the FBI. For a while, I didn’t leave my house.

To those of you who stood with me through that, who supported me when the Proud Boys were shouting my name in hotel lobbies, when Trump’s allies went on television and lied about me, when his attorneys dragged me into court, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

You showed me that their intimidation tactics would not work. That their lawsuits and their death threats would not silence the truth.

I have never backed down. And I won’t start now.

That’s why I’m launching my campaign for Congress, because Virginia and the rest of our country deserve every fighter they can get in Congress.

I grew up being told I didn’t belong.

I didn’t belong in the gifted classroom.

I didn’t belong at Penn; they said I only got in because of affirmative action.

I didn’t belong in the intelligence community.

I didn’t belong in the White House.

But every single time someone told me I didn’t belong, I fought harder. And I made a difference because I was there.

Now, we need people like me in Congress. Because the same people I fought inside the Trump White House are back, and this time, fewer guardrails and fewer people willing to stand in their way.

I’ve set a goal to raise $500,000 in the first week of this campaign. I started from scratch, so I need every single person still reading this to step up. Will you be brave with me and chip in $10 or more right now?

I’ve spent my career protecting this country from threats, foreign and domestic.

Now I’m asking you to join me in the fight to protect it from the inside of the United States Congress.

Grateful to have you in my corner,

Olivia