When our neighbors are under attack, we fight back.

At a time when Americans are asking questions about the future of our democracy, political parties should answer one of the most fundamental: whose voices matter?

For Democrats, the answer is straightforward. Everyone’s.

That’s why the Democratic National Committee selected South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia to lead off our next presidential nominating process. It’s about more than a calendar. It’s a statement about the kind of Democratic Party we want to be — and the kind of country we believe America should be.

Our party is at its strongest when it reflects the country we hope to lead. And our presidential nominees are at their strongest when they must earn support across the full breadth of America: every region, race, generation and economic circumstance.

The states we’ve chosen to kick off the 2028 process reflect that diversity.

More than 4.6 million Black Americans call these six states home, a nearly 160% increase from the 2020 early window. More than 4.2 million Latinos call them home, along with nearly 1.4 million Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders and nearly 370,000 Native Americans.

But the diversity and representation are about more than demographics.

The six early states are also home to more than 14 million Americans without a college degree, 2.8 million young people, 1.1 million union workers, 2.1 million veterans and military family members, and 4.4 million Americans with disabilities.

These numbers matter because the people behind them are our neighbors, friends, and family.

They are nurses coming home from overnight shifts, parents trying to afford groceries and child care, veterans starting new chapters, union members fighting for fair pay, young Americans preparing to vote for president for the first time, and small-business owners wondering what next year will bring.

Anyone who asks those Americans for their vote — and hopes to lead the Democratic Party and this country — will have to earn their trust.

That means more than speeches and television ads. Candidates will need to organize, listen and explain how their policies will improve working peoples’ lives. And they’ll need a coalition broad enough, not only to win a Democratic primary, but to win the White House and govern a diverse nation.

This is the test our presidential nominating process should provide. It also provides a sharp contrast to Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

While we are opening our process and inviting more Americans to participate, Republicans are doing the opposite. Trump’s Republican Party has waged a relentless campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act and strip away protections from Black and Brown voters. After the Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, Republican legislators raced to redraw electoral maps, especially across the South. More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus are at risk of being drawn out of their seats because of Trump’s racial gerrymandering scheme.

In the face of this onslaught, Democrats had a choice: Accept a politics that diminishes our fellow citizens, or choose a different path — one that elevates diversity and fights efforts to silence these voices. Last month, I’m proud to say, we chose the latter.

This choice says something bigger about this moment.

The great challenge facing Democrats is not simply defeating Donald Trump or winning the next election. It is restoring Americans’ faith that democracy can still deliver for them — that government can make their lives better, that their participation matters and that our differences need not become divisions.

Restoring trust in our democracy starts with our party’s actions.

The DNC undertook a rigorous and public process and emerged with a stronger, more representative path to selecting our nominee. We should be proud of that accomplishment. But its significance will ultimately be measured by our candidates’ commitment to representing all Americans.

They’ll need to compete for every vote and hear from Americans who too often believe politics has forgotten them. And they must demonstrate that the Democratic Party is capable of bringing together people whose lives may look different but whose hopes for their families and their country are remarkably similar.

America has never been strengthened by asking fewer people to participate in its future. Our progress has always come from widening the circle.

That is the Democratic tradition. It is the choice our party has made again with this historic calendar. And it is how we will build a coalition capable, not only of winning the White House, but of leading this country into its next chapter.