Dear Friends,

Over the past seven months, I’ve had the honor and pleasure to get to know New Yorkers all across this state and listen to their concerns, frustrations and hopes for the future.
 
Running for the U.S. Senate is such a big move to make, with such potentially serious consequences, that I felt a responsibility not to rush into a decision.

And it is a big decision, because there are those who believe a primary fight could eat up millions of progressive dollars better spent elsewhere...and those who believe that New York’s late primary would leave the victor, whether Senator Gillibrand or me, depleted of funds to win a mere 8 weeks later, and possibly bruised by whatever unflattering portraits she or I painted of the other.
 
In today’s world, losing a Democratic seat to a Republican is not a risk to take lightly.
 
Although I took calls from good people in high places asking me not to risk this, until recently I was almost certain I would mount a primary challenge.
 
After all, I felt New Yorkers deserved a choice besides an NRA-supporting, immigrant-bashing, tobacco attorney who had only flipped on marriage equality as a condition of being appointed to her seat.
 
But one recent Saturday, I flew down to Washington and had a private dinner meeting with Senator Gillibrand.  I did this because a mutual friend challenged me to do so.  He told me that what I knew about the Senator from press reports was simply wrong.  And he suggested that if indeed it was wrong, my ignoring that and running anyway would be like declaring war on Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction.
 
Didn’t I have a responsibility, he asked, to take a few hours to determine whether the enemy was real?
 
I was somewhat reluctant, having come this far, but at the end of the day, I always try to do what I think is right.  So down I went to Washington, fully prepared for a “snow job” that I would easily detect and resist...and pretty certain I would come back to declare my candidacy.
 
But what I found instead – based on facts I subsequently verified – is a woman quite unlike the one that has been portrayed in the press.
 
Believe me, it’s a conclusion I did not jump to.
 
But in reviewing the “source materials,” as you might put it, instead of relying on second-hand accounts, I determined that Senator Gillibrand is no more a tobacco stooge than I am...that she was 100% pro-LGBT equality long before she was ever appointed to the Senate...that her positions and votes on guns are not at all what that “100% NRA rating” had led me to assume.
 
Plus, as it turns out, Senator Gillibrand is smart, warm, energetic and committed to doing a great job.
 
So I looked at all that and asked myself whether I should be running to unseat an incumbent Democrat with whom I agree on all the major issues.

For those of you who continue to think the answer is YES -- believe me, I sincerely appreciate your support.  I realize how wrenching this is.  Certainly it has been for me.
 
But at the end of the day, I asked myself whether I wanted to run by perpetuating negative impressions I had determined to be untrue.  That would simply be dishonest.
 
Or did I want to run a positive campaign against an incumbent who would vote the way I would, work as hard as I would, and strive for the same progressive goals as I would.
 
The answer might have been “yes” if this was an open seat or a different time.
 
But it’s not an open seat...and the truth is, this is an extremely serious time for our country.  We simply cannot risk losing this seat.
 
I realize this is a letdown for many of you, as it is for me.
 
But it turns out - somewhat to my dismay, frankly, but certainly to the benefit of New York State and the country - that Senator Gillibrand is the real deal.
 
I apologize to the more hardened political pros who feel that doesn’t matter.  Well, to me, it does matter.

I’ve always said that my decision would ultimately be based on what’s best for the Democratic Party, New York State and our nation.  And that’s why I am today offering Senator Gillibrand my wholehearted endorsement.

Thank you again, and may we all work together to restore this great state and our wonderful country to the inspirational example both have been in the past and surely will be again.

Best regards,

Jon Cooper