Tim Cywinski and I got coffee and a bagel at Abi’s Books and Brews a couple weeks ago. The Iran War had just started, and the weariness was behind both of our eyes.
He impressed on me that he had some fresh ideas, a great legacy of accomplishments, and is in need for some publicity for his campaign for United States Congress. Which seat? Who knows. Those districts are being redrawn right now, and your guess is as good as his as to who exactly he’s running to represent.
But uncertainty be damned, he’s doing it.
This is part one of a very long and sprawling talk I had with Tim, one that I enjoyed, as I think he did, albeit through clenched teeth and frustrated sighs. The world is not okay right now, and we both know it. Trying to infuse some hope into it is like trying to give a stone a blood transfusion.
This is a start.
Christian Detres: Well, let’s just kind of ease into this. First, tell me about yourself, who is Tim Cywinski, and why should we care?
Tim Cywinski: I’m a community organizer. I’m a policy advocate, and I’m a communications professional. These are skills that I use to try to make sure people get a fair shot in our system. I want to help elevate their voices, and I’ve been pretty good at doing that.
Whether it’s been for education, for young people who, like me, need financial aid to do that, I was at a small nonprofit that focused specifically on raising funds for that purpose. On top of the allotted annual budget, I contributed to raising an additional $100 million in financial aid for in-state students. I left that nonprofit because it continued to take money from Dominion Energy. I moved on to the Sierra Club from there to focus on environmental issues.
I didn’t like what I was seeing with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. I didn’t like what I was seeing with the Mountain Valley Pipeline. To me, it has always been about justice. If everyone can’t experience justice, then justice isn’t real. My mom raised me to believe that.
We’ve helped stop a landfill in Russell County, which is a place that D.C. has forgotten about. Rural America in general is a place D.C. has forgotten about. Lately, we’ve been really successful in stopping data centers from proliferating and siphoning resources they have no right to. I know data centers and the environment don’t usually go hand in hand, but in Virginia, big tech takes more than it gives.
In the last six months, we’ve been able to fight. We’ve been able to effectively stop six different data centers, all in rural areas, all in places where communities were completely outmatched, outfundraised, and out-influenced. The community rose up and said, “We deserve better than this,” and they won. Those stories are what I hang on to in our political system when everything has gotten this dark. Everybody is so tired of looking up and being disappointed. Maybe we just need to look around and realize the people who could actually deliver for us are around us, in the trenches with us.
Maybe they’re everyday people. And as much as I like my job, eventually you hit a ceiling. You hit a ceiling when there’s some asshole politician who will not listen to what is morally correct and morally right, and will do what’s politically convenient. A lot of times, it comes down to corporate funding stopping progress. Our system is full of people like that.
So if I can be someone who can have a position of power to try to reform the system that allows people like that to thrive, then I’ve got to give it a shot.
CD: I want to go back to the statement that you’ve helped raise $100 million. That just sounds like an absurd amount of money. Even by political fundraising standards, that’s a lot of money. Give us a window into what that process even looks like?
TC: And yeah, absolutely. I was a full-time lobbyist for nonprofits, not one of the bad guys, haha. That’s a loaded word. No one was paying me big bucks to talk about the struggles of college students.
The thing about our system is that it is overly complicated on the surface, but there are a lot of opportunities for everyday people’s voices to be elevated and have an influence. During that same time, I was helping folks learn how to do grassroots lobbying at the state legislative session. I created my own curriculum based on what I saw because everything was so complicated. I don’t think you should need to have a policy degree to lobby your own government.
I would go to college campuses and talk to people who were under the crushing weight of student loans, like myself. I would try to make sure they were put in front of people in positions of power. I want our elected officials to look people who are suffering with the consequences of government inaction, or from something specific that politician voted for, in the eye. I want them to have to say no to their faces.
CD: So you’re bridging the communication gap between the bottom and the top. You facilitate that communication.
With success stories like that, why is it that we’re just not seeing the benefits of these wins? I’m not seeing anybody being like, “Oh man, all my problems just got solved.” Where’s that disconnect? Why am I not seeing more people giving great testimonials about how things got so much better for them because this happened?
TC: Because the price of higher education has gotten outrageously inflated.
CD: Prices became inflated in light of that extra money coming in? “They got $100 million. I guess we’re going to raise costs in light of the extra funding?” Like that?
TC: Yes, like that. This is a great question, and this is part of a nihilistic view that people have about our political system.
CD: Can you blame us?
TC: No, I can’t. People have every right to feel that way. People, no matter where I go and at any of the jobs I’ve had, experience the same thing. Whether it’s in a rich neighborhood or poor neighborhood, or a Black and brown place, or in a predominantly white place, there is something that is happening to us that is unfair. Our leaders aren’t listening to us. Any of us. That’s where my job comes in.
CD: But that’s not fair, though. You are listening. You went out and you did the thing. You got the money. Then we see no change, except the prices go up to reflect the amount of money that you just won for us. Seriously, WTF?
TC: This is getting at the heart of why I call myself a Reformist Democrat. I have worked inside and outside the government. I have seen, for more than a decade, all of the things that make change stop. I have seen all of the things that make it hard for everyday people’s voices to be heard. In fact, they’re outright ignored, and anyone who disagrees with me on that either doesn’t know the full truth or is trying to distract us from the fact. They’re enriching themselves. That is objectively true. They don’t have an understanding of what it’s like to struggle every single day like I do.
I think that there are a lot of people who care, I just think that they are outnumbered now.
CD: “They” is a very vague term.
TC: Obviously, I think the powers that be care by what they say, yes. By what they do? No. I think that’s a fair thing to say. I meet people in my job who are in power, who do give a shit, and who actually take time and diligence to learn about the issues that people are struggling with. They just are still trying to play a game that is strategically designed to disadvantage everybody else, a game where the rules were written for the people already in power. They write the rules so that they can keep themselves in power, even though that means that the haves get more, and the have-nots get even less. That is the system that we have.
If we don’t do anything about that, then we’re going to continue to have the perfect ecosystem that allows hatred to thrive, that allows division to breathe. So unless we’re addressing those underlying issues, we’re gonna get another Donald Trump.
One of the reasons I decided to run is because my biggest gripe with the Democratic Party, the one I voted for my entire life, is that they love to beg for power but then refuse to wield it when they get it. We had the power from 2020 through 2022. We didn’t codify Roe v. Wade. We didn’t raise the minimum wage. We didn’t make billionaires pay their fair share, which, by the way, if we did, they’d still be billionaires. We didn’t do any of the social justice things that they loved to campaign on in 2020, when we had a historic racial justice uprising in this country. People feel the most frustrated by the fact that we had the opportunity to do something and did nothing.
What did we do? We passed an infrastructure package that took forever to build anything. A lot of that has already been removed by the Trump administration. We passed a tax bill that we called a climate bill, where only the people who could afford it could benefit from it. People who can’t afford a lobbyist, what do they get? They get nothing. They get left out. Yes, I’m angry. I’m pissed off, but I’m also optimistic.
CD: So, that leads me to another question. I’ve known more than my fair share of politicians in my life. Not sure exactly why, but I have. Most of them, I see as good people, former community organizers, activists, the last people on Earth that you would think would betray their fundamental principles. Yet, from time to time, I see them vote for something I know for a fact is against their goals. Why does this happen, and why should we expect that you’d be different?
TC: I mean, it happens because we’ve accepted the politics of “it is what it is.” They have to make deals, whether it’s tied to big money or tied to political players that want to have their own agenda. And there has to be pay to play in one way or another, right?
CD: Is it the fact that the ecosystem is, yeah, they care, but when it comes down to it, they’d rather have the fundraising money?
TC: That’s exactly what it is. This is what I truly believe, and I say this in my stump speeches. It’s one of the key parts of my reformist agenda. If you’re not willing to fight big money in our politics, then you’re not willing to fight for everyday people.
I mean, we can look at Cory Booker. For example, he didn’t vote for lowering prescription drug prices, and he’s considered one of the good ones. It’s because his top donors are from the pharmaceutical industry. If he wants to argue against that interpretation, fine. But it’s my job as a citizen to hold him accountable. It is our job to call these things out. I truly believe that we can’t have big money in politics and also have justice. They are wholly incompatible.
CD: You’re aspiring to sit on a stage that is the biggest stage in the world. You’ve already told me that you understand why ideals get shifted, priorities get shifted, under the weight of navigating our system to induce incremental change.
TC: Wait. That’s only on the left. That only happens to us. Do ideas get watered down on the right? No. They don’t waver. They fought for decades to get rid of Roe, and they stood steadfast. Eventually, they got what they wanted.
CD: Why do you think that is? Why is it so much easier for them to just barrel through and hold their values, and I use the word “values” loosely?
TC: It’s a couple things. I think that the demographics that make up the Republican base are a little bit more monolithic than you have in the Democratic base. I think that’s one part of it. It’s easier to keep a smaller ship. But they’ve focused on it. They tell a story. They have a vision. They say, “This is part of a greater purpose.” And what I think they understand, that the left doesn’t, is that moral clarity is our sword, the facts and figures are our shield. We have to start with what we know is right for the sake of doing what’s right. And if somebody comes at us, then we can also have the facts to back it up.
That’s my model. I talk about what it means to be a patriot. To me, it is actually thinking about other people. If I don’t know someone who’s losing their SNAP benefits, even if I’ve never met them, I consider it my patriotic duty to ensure that they’re taken care of. Their success is tied to the success of all of us. I truly believe that.
I know what it’s like to be excluded. I know what it’s like to lose a house because of healthcare costs. That’s what happened to my family.
My brother was born without the right valve of his heart. Healthcare companies first said that’s a pre-existing condition. He was a baby, and they say it’s a pre-existing condition. My mom luckily threatened to sue them. They caved, which she shouldn’t have had to do in the first place. Luckily, he survived. He’s thriving. But the day came to either pay his medical bill or pay the mortgage. What parent wouldn’t choose their child’s health, of course, right?
And that’s not an anomalous story. Why haven’t we done anything about that? That was back in 1990, and that is still the same story people are experiencing every single day.
CD: Okay, I’ll bite. Why haven’t we done anything?
TC: Because the disjointed nature of the Democratic Party. Their record is one of “let’s pay lip service, but not actionable deliverables.”
CD: But they’re getting called out for that every day.
TC: Yes, but consider the timeline of inaction here. First, we were mobilized into staving off what Donald Trump would bring. We gotta do everything we can to make sure that we stop him. And then we got power and didn’t deliver anything that made anything better. Didn’t make anything worse, but it didn’t make anything better. That’s why I think in 2026 you’re seeing a lot more candidates like me, a lot of people who have absolutely had enough of being gaslighted into accepting crumbs at the most lavish table in history.
CD: That’s actually the next thing I wanted to get to. Here’s the question. What is the single greatest threat to the American project? I’m going to give you a hint. There is a correct answer.
TC: It’s authoritarianism. It’s fascism. Donald Trump is following the authoritarian playbook. Make the economy bad by stealing from it every chance you get, and blame people with the least amount of power because they can’t effectively fight back. That’s the whole ball game. That’s what every authoritarian in the entire history of the world has always done, and that’s what he’s doing.
When we deny a people’s dignity in our political system, the system breaks. Democracy falters, and people start looking for someone to blame. It’s the lowest form of politics, and they get away with it every single time. Now it’s trans people and immigrants, right? It’s been other groups historically, and will be someone new in the future.
CD: I think your constituents need to know what the actual fuck are you going to do about it? Not Hakeem Jeffries’ sternly worded letters, you know? Or Chuck Schumer’s “I’ll do something about it next week.”
TC: If I win this election, I would have a modicum of power. I have to use that for good, if that’s what you’re getting at. If you’re asking if I would impeach him, of course I would. If you’re asking what else I would do, it’s not just about him. It’s about his whole cabal of goons that have been transgressing again and again with impunity.
We have a justice system that is punitive for some and “get off scot-free” for others. There are giant corporations that have knowingly put out products they know will kill people, and they get a slap on the wrist, maybe a fine if we’re lucky. When people in power are violating not just our constitutional rights but our human rights, that is supposed to mean something. That is actionable.
We have to at least start somewhere. If justice isn’t experienced by everyone, then there is no such thing as justice in this country. We have to be diligent about making sure justice is a representation of equality.
CD: Why are we always on our back foot? If we’re so fucking right about everything on the moral side of things, why are we the ones defending ourselves? Why do they get to wrap themselves around the flag and say “our selfishness is patriotism”?
TC: The most patriotic thing you can do for this country is believing in one another and acknowledging the fact that this country was built by all of us, and our future should contain the same opportunities. Again, it’s the powerful who exploit the lowest common denominators of humanity. Those same people flood the political system with a bunch of money, flood the zone with disinformation and divisive non-issues, made-up controversies.
This is a critical moment in American history, where what we do right now in this election is going to decide what kind of country we’re going to be known as forever. We’re repeating the same old “2026 is the most important election of our lifetime,” even though they’ve said that for every election in my lifetime.
CD: But “they” weren’t wrong. That’s the sad part. Every single election they’ve said that about was absolutely right. We’ve had chance after chance to right the boat, and we’ve failed every time. Sometimes it’s the DNC screwing over their most viable candidate in favor of a “crowning” of the heiress apparent cough Bernie cough, and sometimes it’s putting the Justice Department in the hands of the most ineffective and disingenuous attorney general that isn’t Pam Bondi, Merrick Garland. We wouldn’t be where we are right now if more people could look back and see the reality of those moments and learn from them.
So this is more of an appeal than a question, and I think I need to leave off with this.
I have not seen, ever, a comprehensive list, from the descent down the golden escalator to this morning, of all of the Orange One’s crimes. I know he thinks his strategy of “just do ALL the crimes and leave their heads spinning about which ones to prosecute, ride out the statute of limitations, confuse everyone, project, obfuscate, cover up, lie, threaten, etc., etc., etc.” I want someone to prove him the fuck wrong. Like, so bad I can taste it. Where is the database that says “Pepperidge Farm remembers”? Where is the proof that we are not letting him slip by unnoticed? Where is the invoice we send MAGA at the end of this?
TC: The receipts are all over the place. I don’t know of a committee that is dedicated to compiling all of this…
CD: I want to see it on a website. All of his crimes, laid out, cross-referenced, and separated by jurisdiction so we also know who’s dropping the ball by not securing justice for us. I want to see a social media push. I want to see this on VOTE BLUE, that we will not forget, that all of these things are going to be addressed, litigated, and prosecuted. Convictions should not be hard to get, considering the brazenness of the crimes. I mean, why have I not seen that? I mean, it could exist?
TC: Great. Now you’re right. You know what? As soon as we’re done here, I’m going to add it to my website issues page. Because you’re exactly right. If I’m going to preach about justice, then I need to make sure that people know that this is what I’m focused on. Do we let the fact that they have more money than God stop us? Nah, we do it anyway. Yeah, we do it anyway.
STAY TUNED. PART TWO INCOMING SOON
Photo courtesy of the Tim Cywinski for Congress campaign
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