Matt Ortega
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mattortega.com
Matt Ortega
@mattortega.com
Husband, father, small business owner, union member. Democratic candidate for CA-14.

Fight for a future you can afford at https://mattortega.com

(I am committed to the protection of your data and *no* spam texts.)

ሉካ + ኒኮ

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Pinned
For my family and yours, I'm running for Congress.

We cannot afford this broken system any longer. Higher premiums. Expensive groceries. A criminal administration's knee on our neck while the powerful pick our pockets. It's unsustainable and it must end.

I'm ready for the fight.
Matt Ortega for Congress
Fight for a future you can afford—and the freedom to live it.
mattortega.com
Close the camps.
I know this makes me an extremist but I think our baby concentration camps should be abolished.
‘His life is in danger,’ U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said about newborn Juan Nicolás. The child fell ill after spending almost a month — or half his life — in a San Antonio-area family detention facility.
February 17, 2026 at 4:20 AM
When these people talk about "trust in news" they mean "get more right-wing readers" which they will never do.
The first ever Semafor event was Ben Smith in conversation with Tucker Carlson to discuss trust in news.
come for brendan carr. stay for matt murray.
February 17, 2026 at 4:19 AM
I worked on my first campaign in 2006 after college. Afterward I couldn't get my retail job back at the mall or anywhere else as the recession set in and had to go on unemployment. Nearly enlisted in the Army as I burned through my savings. By the end of that year I helped elect Obama from the DNC.
I got approved for SNAP today and it told me 2 things

1. I’m broke broke . But I can pinpoint how I got here. I had a savings. I had a 401k. I had a job. I did everything you’re told you’re supposed to do and things just dominoed backwards

2. I got up once, I can and will get up again.
February 17, 2026 at 1:59 AM
It didn't work for this guy, either.
February 17, 2026 at 1:32 AM
It's right in line with Nick Fuentes' declaration that "The number one enemy in America is women... They have to be imprisoned."
"Hold on, we actually allow a failsafe"
The failsafe: Having a birth certificate, ID, and being willing to sign an affidavit on penalty of perjury.
This is what gendered administrative burdens look like.
academic.oup.com/jpart/articl...
Chip Roy on Fox News tries to explain why the SAVE America Act won't actually prevent women from voting
February 17, 2026 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
"Hold on, we actually allow a failsafe"
The failsafe: Having a birth certificate, ID, and being willing to sign an affidavit on penalty of perjury.
This is what gendered administrative burdens look like.
academic.oup.com/jpart/articl...
Chip Roy on Fox News tries to explain why the SAVE America Act won't actually prevent women from voting
February 16, 2026 at 10:24 PM
For years many of us noted that as Trump stuck around on the national stage, he would create a new normal for young people who were not old enough to remember the Before Times. That fear has come to pass.
"Most members of Generation Z were still children when Trump came down the escalator…They don’t view Trump as sui generis or beyond the pale, because he’s been the dominant force in our politics for as long as they’ve been politically aware."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The Disappointment of Young Trump Voters
Americans under 30 swung to the right in 2024, but they’re not getting what they voted for.
www.theatlantic.com
February 17, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
Meet Courage Candidate @mattortega.com , running for Congress in CA-14. He's a husband, father, small business owner, union member—and he's ready to fight. 🔥
February 16, 2026 at 10:55 PM
I'm going to tell my kids this was the Google Doodle.
a neighbor set up this werewolf for halloween and instead of taking it down they just update it with seasonal outfit changes. now it’s dressed for valentine’s day and holding a sign with a picture of bad bunny and his super bowl slogan. i love him.
February 16, 2026 at 11:29 PM
Obama describes an impetus for why I am running.

My wife and I hold good-paying jobs and grew up in homes our parents owned but homeownership is out of reach for us.

We have two sons but child care is so expensive we could only afford to send one part-time.

Many families share our struggles.
Obama: "At some point, you age out. You're not connected directly to the immediate struggles that folks are going through. I'm not making a hard and fast rule here, but I think Democrats do well when we have candidates who are plugged into the moment. To the zeitgeist. To the times."
February 16, 2026 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
Calling it now: the US political media's treatment of AOC is going to make their treatment of Hillary Clinton or Al Gore look like a model of balance and discretion.
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
February 16, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
Hungary holds elections in 2 months. And the US Secretary of State is in Hungary campaigning for Viktor Orban. And as you can see, Russian state media loves it.
February 16, 2026 at 11:25 AM
FIFA Peace Prize winner Donald Trump has the military planning "weeks-long" operations against Iran with forces amassing in the region.
February 16, 2026 at 6:01 AM
A MAGA candidate in New Mexico was revealed as the owner of Epstein's ranch in the state since 2023.
MAGA Candidate Outed as New Owner of Epstein Property
Several Epstein survivors have said they suffered abuse at the sprawling ranch.
www.thedailybeast.com
February 16, 2026 at 5:41 AM
February 16, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
This is the kind of American I am.
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
February 16, 2026 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
Sign me the fuck up for every bit of this
My plan for dramatic democratic reform includes:
- SCOTUS expansion
- DC statehood
- PR settlement of status
- Codify DOJ independence
- Constitutional amendment(s) to reverse SCOTUS decisions, abolish Electoral College, restrict presidential pardon power
“By law we can create an independent US Prosecution Service to replace the POTUS controlled DOJ and abolish and replace ICE and USBP. Reform the pardon power by law and term-limit and expand the size of SCOTUS. Make DC and Puerto Rico states, enfranchising millions of Americans."
February 16, 2026 at 2:54 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
If you want to know who took your money, it's the people with all the money.

And if they can talk you into believing anyone else is to blame, they will keep picking your pockets and purchasing themselves politicians and getting away with it.
We can't fall into right-wing populism’s lie that the most vulnerable in society are to blame for wealth inequality in our countries. We need to build movements that tell the truth: the story of wealth inequality is not a cultural one, but a class one.
February 16, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering

The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
February 15, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Trump seeks international gendarmes to protect the Western colonial real estate outlined by Jared Kushner, a private citizen with international real estate investments.

This farce is going to be a vector of extremist recruitment and violence. One of those bold-faced events in textbooks.
President Trump said Sunday that members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory. https://to.pbs.org/4bXt2fj
Trump says Board of Peace members promise $5 billion for Gaza rebuild
Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes in Gaza and frequently fire on Palestinians despite a ceasefire deal. Trump did not detail which member nations were making the pledges for reconstr...
to.pbs.org
February 16, 2026 at 2:29 AM
My plan for dramatic democratic reform includes:
- SCOTUS expansion
- DC statehood
- PR settlement of status
- Codify DOJ independence
- Constitutional amendment(s) to reverse SCOTUS decisions, abolish Electoral College, restrict presidential pardon power
“By law we can create an independent US Prosecution Service to replace the POTUS controlled DOJ and abolish and replace ICE and USBP. Reform the pardon power by law and term-limit and expand the size of SCOTUS. Make DC and Puerto Rico states, enfranchising millions of Americans."
FDR’s Four Freedoms and the Second Bill of Rights
The social welfare state, winning World War II, and building the liberal order after Trump.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 16, 2026 at 1:28 AM
The American story is one of a constant struggle for us to live up to our self-professed values. It is, for me, a hateful thought to abandon the struggle and a dishonor to the memory of those who fought, and bled, and died for it. Sacrifices found in Selma and Fort Wagner.
Reading American history will break your heart a thousand times but it will also fill you with such admiration and awe for all the people who were excluded from the protection of America’s founding principles and fought to promote, protect and expand them anyways
February 16, 2026 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
Jeremy Carl, whom Trump has nominated for a senior position in the State Department, made precisely the same claim --white people are becoming "second-class citizens"--in his 2024 book as David Duke did in 1975, when he was the leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
February 15, 2026 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Matt Ortega
wealth concentration is already 200% as bad at is was in 2020. think about that
The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering

The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
February 15, 2026 at 3:20 PM
I’m not sure these “Western culture” freaks would consider Marco Rubio to be one of them, honestly.
This “Call for unity” has roots
February 15, 2026 at 3:05 PM