I was raised in the county area outside a mid-sized Southern city, where old traditions met new opportunities. My parents, Col. Michael Caldwell, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) and Lt. Col. Peggy Caldwell, U.S. Army Reserve (Ret.) met while my father was stationed in south Mississippi. After a posting in the Philippines, where I was born at Clark Air Force Base, and later time in Washington, D.C., we returned home to be near my mother’s family.

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​My childhood was one version of the American Dream. With steady military paychecks supplemented by my parents teaching in local schools and community colleges, we lived a secure middle-class life. Summers were spent traveling the country in an RV, seeing firsthand the breadth of America. That foundation carried me from a full academic scholarship at a state school to professional politics—working for Members of Congress, an aspiring governor, and as a union organizer—before earning a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics and studying law at Duke University.​

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This life rested on the stability my grandparents had provided. One grandfather followed war service with a job in the Apollo program; another ran a Texaco station and then a fabric shop with my grandmother. Family heirlooms and stories connected us to America’s journey: a record of service in every major war since the Spanish-American War (now with the exception of Afghanistan); a reported patent for an early refrigeration device purchased by President Thomas Jefferson; and a cast-iron pot, stolen during the Civil War and later recovered, that sits in my home today.​

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I am running because I fear that life of economic stability and feeling of integration with the American story is slipping away. I intend to contribute my voice to the growing chorus of Americans saying that things are broken. Too often the big money has too much of an advantage. Government seems unwilling to regulate efforts to nickel and dime the middle class but quick to regulate average citizens working to stand on our own two feet.

Our country is supposed to be wealthier than ever but our town squares are shuttered and decent housing is hard to find. It seems impossible to start at the ground floor in a company and work your way to the top. And we all know tragic stories where promising people lost themselves to drugs, drink, or despair.

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This feeling of disenfranchisement is no accident: It is the result of policy choices designed to concentrate political and economic power in the hands of a few. America has overcome aristocracy before, and it is time again for us to plainly declare and commit to the basic principles we know are essential to good lives: Independence. Equality. Freedom of speech and expression. Freedom of worship. Freedom from want. Freedom from fear.

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In doing this we can push toward new frontiers to build a great society. That is the message I will be spreading in the coming months as I travel from Mecklenburg to Gaston to Burke, Cleveland, Rutherford, and Polk Counties. I invite your support, your voice, and your participation in this effort.