A Syrian Man Emerges From The Darkness, House Dems Look To Expand The Map, Fighting The North Carolina Power Grab
Welcome new subscribers!
Good morning all. Got a few things for you today:
A Syrian Man Emerges From The Darkness - Please watch this video. It’s extraordinary, terrifying, hopeful, and a powerful reminder of why we must keep fighting……
As I wrote yesterday the fall of Assad and the humiliation of Putin should make it harder for Trump to get his unacceptable 4 - Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel and Kennedy - confirmed. The world has just grown far more complicated, making these unqualified and unfit nominees even more of an an unacceptable risk. Putin has stumbled, badly - again - and alliance with him may be far less appealing for Republicans going forward. The pro-Russian, anti-NATO stances and statements of many MAGAs, including these 4, will be far harder to defend in the confirmation process. We just have to keep working it peeps:
Call your Senators and Representative to let them know your dissatisfaction with the rapist, fraudster, traitor and 34 times felon’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy; and to inform them of your expectation that they will leave it all out there on the playing field to block these profoundly dangerous nominations whether they have a vote on them or not.
Contact the White House and ask President Biden to order the FBI to begin background checks into Trump’s nominees immediately and before Trump installs Patel to disable the process. Last week the Trump team signed an agreement allowing these background checks to go forward. President Biden should do Mr. Trump a favor and expedite the clearance process for the most sensitive jobs of State, Defense, DNI, CIA, Homeland Security and HHS (pandemic preparedness) so the new team can hit the ground running in January.
House Dems Look To Expand The Map - From The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer:
House Democrats launched a new effort Wednesday to recruit challengers for Republican districts in Arizona, Michigan, California and Virginia that were not contested this year, as a first step to taking back control of the House after falling just three seats short.
“The way we are looking at it is we have to start seeding the ground, recruiting the right candidates now, knowing that Democrats could shift the ground with Donald Trump and Republican control in Washington,” said Mike Smith, president of House Majority PAC, an independent group closely aligned with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York). “We are focused on expanding the map and recruiting candidates that have voted Republican but shifted toward Democrats in recent years.”
The list of new targets includes Republican Reps. Bill Huizenga in Michigan’s 4th District in the southwest part of the state, Rob Wittman in Virginia’s 1st District in the Richmond suburbs, Elijah Crane in Arizona’s 2nd District, which includes some Phoenix exurbs, and Kevin Kiley in California’s 3rd District in the northern Sierra Nevada.
The group will launch a 2026 Recruitment Fund to find strong Democratic candidates for those seats and at least 25 others, including longtime Democratic targets such as the New York seat held by Michael Lawler, the Arizona seat held by Juan Ciscomani and the Wisconsin seat held by Derrick Van Orden, who all held off well-funded challenges this year.
A recent analysis by the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman found that Democrats won 17 of the 25 closest elections in November but still fell short of taking back control of the House as Republicans nationwide won 2.7 percent more votes for Congress than Democrats. Wasserman’s analysis found that the House majority was decided by just 7,309 votes in three districts out of 148 million votes cast nationwide.
Very welcome news from Leader Jeffries and the House Dems.
North Carolina Rs Vote To Seize Power From Newly-Elected Democrats - From Talking Points Memo this morning:
The North Carolina House voted on Wednesday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto on a GOP-backed bill that will strip power from the newly-elected Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson. The vote total was 72-46.
In the waning days of its veto-proof supermajority last month, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a sweeping bill known as SB 382. The legislation allocates some funds to hurricane relief, but more notably explicitly limits the authority of Stein and Jackson. The bill also radically transforms the way that elections are run throughout the entire state, which will make it more difficult for election officials to carry out their responsibilities for upcoming elections.
“This is a most unfortunate vote,” Democratic State Rep. Pricey Harrison told TPM, after voting against the measure. “The Governor’s veto was spot on; the bill did not provide hurricane relief to an area that needs support now. The bill does contain a number of problematic provisions grabbing power from newly elected Democrats that will likely be found to be unconstitutional once the bill is challenged in court.”
Stein described the fast tracked bill as proof that “Republicans in the General Assembly are grabbing power and exacting political retribution.”
“This legislation was titled disaster relief but instead violates the constitution by taking appointments from the next Governor for the Board of Elections, Utilities Commission and Commander of the NC Highway Patrol, letting political parties choose appellate judges and interfering with the Attorney General’s ability to advocate for lower electric bills for consumers,” Cooper similarly said in a statement this month, shortly after he vetoed the bill.
National Democrats condemned the move as well. “The North Carolina Republican Party is desperately trying to cling to power after North Carolinians soundly rejected state Republicans at the ballot box this November, ” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, said in a statement shared with TPM. “Rather than respect the will of voters, state Republicans have put up bogus legislation that cloaks their attempt to overturn democracy and undermines essential hurricane relief.”
The bill contains a number of provisions, but most notably, it gives the newly-elected Republican state auditor Dave Boliek, authority over the five-member state election board. This is a responsibility that is typically given to the governor. There is no other state auditor in the country who holds this power.
A central reason we made North Carolina such a priority this past cycle was to break the hold of one of the most extreme, illiberal set of Republicans in the country over a swing, battleground state. Now you see why this was so important.
There will be legal challenges to this new law, and the NCDP and Anderson Clayton are also fighting hard to make sure a parallel effort to invalidate 60,000 votes and overturn several of our critical election wins isn’t successful. Yesterday the State Board of Elections certified our big Supreme Court win but Rs are fighting hard to overturn this decision.
Yes, Republicans are trying to take away the big wins in North Carolina our community did so much to bring about this year. It’s ugly, ugly stuff and why we need to keep fighting all.
A Few More Things Of Interest -
Our friends at MeidasTouch are gaining a big following in Canada for their coverage of Trump’s ongoing insults of our northern neighbor and ally
A new poll finds little support for the Trump-Kennedy plan to degrade public health in America
Navigator released more data this morning on the “brocatastrophe”
What Happened, What Comes Next - To help make sense of what happened in the 2024 election and where we go from here I’ve launched a new video discussion series to bring outside voices and experts into our conversation here, one that starts with many more question than answers. Here are the first seven of our discussions:
Senator-elect Ruben Gallego - On winning Arizona in a tough year, getting Latinos back and what he’ll be working on in 2025
Anderson Clayton - On our impressive electoral wins in North Carolina
Ken Martin - MN Dem Chair, a leading candidate for DNC Chair on the future of the DNC and the Democratic Party
John Della Volpe - On Trump’s gains with young people, particularly young men
Joe Trippi - On the power of networks and the need to build our own
Elaine Kamarck - On the perils of DOGE and lessons from Clinton’s reinventing government
Rep. Abigail Spanberger - On winning Virginia in 2025!
Learn more about Abigail | Volunteer | Donate To Her Campaign | We have already raised more than $10,000 towards our $100,000 goal!
You may also find these two segments from our fall Closing Strong series with Tara McGowan and COURIER Newsroom useful:
On The Need For Pro-Democracy Media - With Tara McGowan and Dan Pfeiffer
Beyond MAGA Creators - Russia’s influence on the Republican Party runs deep with Stewart Stevens and Jiore Craig
And here are my two most recent post-election videos and analyses:
I’ve set up a thread for paid subscribers to offer their thoughts on what this wonderful and plucky community should do next. I’m grateful for the many comments we’ve received so far. Weigh in if you can in the coming days, and note that an annual Hopium paid subscription is now 10% off through the end of the year for those who may want to sign up or give a bit of Hopium as a holiday gift!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
I’d like to see that Syrian victim of Assad’s brutality appear at Tulsi Gabbard’s Senate hearings.
Today I wrote to President Biden via your link and asked for the FBI background checks to begin immediately. I also called Congressman Cartwright, and Senators Casey and Fetterman to express my dissatisfaction with the Dangerous Four and my expectation that they will use their platforms to block these nominations, whether they get to vote on them or not. Thanks for the help with the concise messaging, Simon!