Aarika Rhodes is an elementary school teacher running to unseat Congressman Brad Sherman.

At the encouragement of the young people in her district, Rhodes added Bitcoin as a donation method to her campaign. She attributes a large portion of her campaign’s viability in unseating 20+ year incumbent, Rep. Brad Sherman, to Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. “If it wasn’t for Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, a grassroots campaign like ours wouldn’t have made it this far with the amount of cash on hand at this stage in the race, especially as a full-time elementary school teacher. Fees impact how much of a donation we can keep. It’s hard to unseat an incumbent when you’re a grassroots candidate that depends on every penny,” says Rhodes.

Aarika wants to serve on the Education and Labor & Financial Services committees in Congress. She is devoted to improving and modernizing public education and reforming our criminal justice system. She will be a strong advocate for foster youth, the d/Deaf community, those experiencing homelessness, and small business owners. Aarika believes in order to get meaningful change and legislation passed, we need campaign finance reform, term limits, and bi-partisanship. All good ideas need to be brought to the table. With the help of her community, she plans to show a new way of governing in California’s 32nd Congressional district and represent another voice of advocacy in Washington.