Hello friends, my name is Eduardo Castillo, and I’m a political activist here in Monmouth County and, obviously, in the state of New Jersey. In the past year, I’ve run two write-in campaigns for office as a means to spread progressive ideals further and to steer the political conversation into under-discussed topics that usually don’t see the political limelight in mainstream politics.

I never intended to run against anyone; instead, I run for things, and that’s what we’re lacking in politics these days: people who are for something and not just against the other side. Partisan politics, in my view, is theatre, performance; it is about who can put on the best smile, be the version that their consultants and dreams want them to be, but never the person that they authentically are. Politics in this modern age, in essence, is a performance akin to acting, but the art is not subjective; it is objective in the sense that it is terrible.

Politics is a performance that elevates dreamers, opportunists, and good-intentioned citizens in a direction that is to the detriment of society. The exacerbation of this heavily partisan, ugly art form has escalated political violence, lawlessness, nihilism, and deadlock. And it is not working for you or me. So, to get to the point, I am running for the United States Senate here in New Jersey, not to oppose any man, but to propose new ideas and expose this ugly art form that has turned us more against each other than it has produced substantial results for all of us.

I am 23 years old. I am not legally allowed to become a U.S Senator, but I am allowed to run as a write-in. For third parties, the truth is that they don’t stand a chance in the current system, and in this predicament, it is impossible for a third party to win in any race that’s not localized within the smallest of communities. And that is the point: if something that I’m running against, it is that very system of corruption, inefficiency, and undemocratic status quo that perpetuates our current fragile and detrimental two-party system.

And that is the point: I am running because I think this way of so-called democracy is a joke; it’s a farce, and if we want this joke to stop being told, then we simply need a better system where these sorts of jokes aren’t allowed to be formulated. And now we get to the point: the policies that I support that will mitigate the harm that this unfunny joke of a system encompasses and consolidates.

They are
- Abolishing the senate
- Abolishing the electoral college
- Enacting Mixed member proportional representation in the House
- Enacting Ranked choice voting for the Presidency
- Abolishing judicial review
- Expanding the courts
- Implementing Nationwide same-day and automatic voter registration
- Lowering the voting age to 16
- Allowing Nationwide no-excuse absentee voting option
- Allowing 1.5 month early voting period nationwide
- Mandating $35 minimum wage for poll workers
- Making Election Day a federal holiday and require paid time off to vote
- Abolishing Super PACs and publicly-finance elections
These are the policies that we need at the moment, and with this systematic electoral reform, we’ll have better tools for the future. Now, to address a concern that I’m sure some of you are asking: why throw your vote away? Doesn’t Cory need it? Well, Cory Booker does not. Cory Booker has won more than 54% of the vote since he was first elected in 2013. He has won in landslide after landslide, and will do so again this fall. His main opponent is a rather unknown Republican who won his primary in an upset, and he is severely underfunded; he does not stand a chance. He has only raised $27,316 as of June, and Cory has raised $33,504,255.

So if there’s a time to throw your vote away to send a message to the political establishment and the two-party duopoly in our country, now is the time. Write in Eduardo Castillo for the U.S Senate in New Jersey on November 3rd if you support progressive policies and much-needed electoral reform. Thank you.