I wanted to thank all who supported my candidacy whether it was volunteering, voting, or offering your words of encouragement. Although I came up short this time, I have no regrets and I will forever be blessed with the new relationships I made and experience it gave me. I will forever be grateful to Linda Nguyen and Wylie Chen who convinced me into running. Their confidence in me was both humbling and heartfelt. To my fellow AAPI Caucus endorsees, Gregory Cendana and Laura Shin, for looking out for me and motivating me along the way. I could not have done this without the tremendous help of Joel Greenberg and Jocie Fong who tirelessly and patiently dealt with my sporadic requests to develop my website and logo, allowing my face and name to be branded to the world. Special thanks to my friends who volunteered: Will Reese, Nick Casey, Alison Witkowski, Elyse Peters-Arnold, Bruce Chen, Anne Chiang, Kayla Firriolo, David Spett, Vincent Fang, and to the countless others who voted for me including my colleagues at CAP, my Hillary 08 crews, my sisters at WIN, my Theta Chi brothers, my Jumbo family, my AAA-Fund/AAA-Group friends, my middle school buddies, the DC AAPI community, and those who I met traversing the Wards of Washington, DC who took a chance on me like Louise Wides and others like her. I must highlight the extraordinary help of my boss Jessica O’Connell who was highly supportive of my endeavor, was one of my most important advisors, and gave me the flexibility at work to undertake this endeavor. I also am grateful to my office’s President Neera Tanden who took the time out of her busy schedule to vote for me and spread the word of my candidacy. In addition I want to thank the DC Young Democrats led by their leader Don Isaac, Jr. who showed me some of the ropes of DC politics and introduced me to several future supporters. I also want to thank Romaine Thomas who took me under her wing and to Bill O’Field who patiently answered every one of my endless questions. And I’ll thank Linda again who volunteered for me, advised me, and inspired me to do more and reach higher.

Thanks again for all your support. I look to continue my life by living up to the confidence you all placed in me.

Sincerely,

Nick Lepham

P.S. Tonight belongs to my friend Gregory Cendana who ran in the other district, CD #1. He not only won his district out right but defeated the entire establishment including Councilman Marion Berry, Councilman Jack Evans and others. It was an incredible and inspiring victory and one that DC will be talking about for a long time. Greg, I tip my hat to you.

On February 13^th, I submitted my statement of candidacy for DC Delegate for the DNC in District 2 which represents the people of Ward 3, 4, 5, and 7.

I am running to be an Obama Delegate at the Democratic National Convention because I believe in the power of a united DC. I seek to promote the ideals of the Mayor’s One City Summit, that we are all in this together and the challenges we face are best solved together. This will be ever important with the changing face of DC to a younger and more diverse community. As one of the thousands of young professionals who have made a home here in the last several years, I feel it is important that they have a voice at the table and have a stake in building a better future for all Wards.

More importantly though, as the GOP declares war on women, working class families, LGBTs, and others through their extreme policies it will be critical that the National Party remains ever vigilant in its fight for justice and steadfast in defending the most vulnerable among us. If selected to represent the District, I plan to build on the relationships with Democratic activists I have made from my organizing experience across the country to advance DC’s right to a vote that counts, a budget it autonomously controls, and self-determination over its own city. I will fight for the party to stand behind its base and to not compromise on the principles that make us Democrats. When the party develops its platform language for 2012 and the years beyond, I will be there to represent all of DC.