Afternoon all. Fresh off our big wins last night I send along an interview I did late Monday afternoon with Jen Rubin of The Contrarian. A video recording is above, a transcript is below and you can find Jen’s version of it here on The Contrarian.
Jen asked me to come by and talk about our electoral successes in 2025 (there have been many) and how I think 2026 is shaping up (it’s a year of opportunity for us). It’s a comprehensive look at our current moment that I hope you will find both useful and uplifting. Please share it with others you think might be interested and hit the like button so more will see it on the Substack app.
Look for reports from my time here in Los Angeles at the DNC/State Chairs meeting tomorrow! - Simon
Rosenberg-Rubin Transcript
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. I’m delighted to have back with us our friend Simon Rosenberg, and we are here to take a trip down memory lane, at least for 2025. Where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and where we are going. Welcome, Simon!
Simon Rosenberg
It’s great to be here, Jen. Good to see you.
Jen Rubin
It is good to see you. Take us back to the very beginning of the year, where you think the Democratic Party was, in terms of support, and kind of political sense, in January when Trump took office. Seems like a lifetime ago, but it really wasn’t. Where did we start the year?
Simon Rosenberg
Yeah, I mean, I’ve been thinking about how to enter this conversation with you today, and I think just one foundational thing, because this will become very important for 2026, is that Trump, his approval rating after the 2022 elections was terrible, and I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but he was, like, you know, negative 15 or negative 16, similar to where he is now in many polls. He actually, after the very bad, you know, the disappointing election Republicans had in 2022, when the red wave didn’t come, Trump’s approval rating actually went down, and there was some sense—and if you remember, he struggled in the primaries a little bit. He underperformed expectations in a lot of the primaries in 2024, right, going all the way up to 2024.
But what happened to his approval rating over the year and a half, two years from the beginning of 2023 to the election is that he recovered virtually all the lost ground that he had, and he entered the election only down 4 points, 5 points, 6 points in approval, and he was able to recover. And this is really important, because it’s a central reason that he was able to win the election, was his recovery. The fact that after the terrible election, and after 2021, and January 6th, and his getting booted out of the presidency, and all the ugliness, he was able to restore his standing through an expensive and dedicated campaign, and just, you know, the way that he campaigns. But now, this year, sort of the dynamic has been this steady erosion of all that. T
That coalition that he built in 2024, where he was able to break through with Hispanics and young people, you know, in lower political information voters, to get a majority, only the second time the Republicans have gotten a majority in a presidential election since 1988. But the big story of 2025 has really been the unraveling of all that under Trump. And he’s now, you know, usually 10, 15, 20 points underwater. Blacks and Hispanics… I mean, Hispanics and young people have really wandered from him, and so he’s now back in a place that he sort of was similar to where he was at the end of 2022 and early 2023, where all those gains that he made have completely unraveled, and it’s created a year, and hopefully a cycle of opportunity for us, that began, as you pointed out, in Wisconsin in the Supreme Court race in the spring, where we had a dramatic overperformance in that race, where we were able to win what had been a very close, competitive state in 2024. We won by 10 points, even though Elon Musk and all the same band of you know, ugly people were there together to fight us, we were able to win that.
And then we’ve seen, you know, the rest of the year has been a story of repeated democratic overperformance. and Republicans struggle. Very similar to what we saw in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023, where Democrats continued to do better in many of these elections around the country than expected, and Republicans continued to struggle. Because, Jen, I still think at the end of the day. The most powerful force in our politics today is fear and opposition to MAGA. I think it has been since all the way back in 2018.
And when we can evoke it, and put it in front of voters, and explain it to people about the ugliness and the danger that it represents, you know, we can do… we can outperform expectations and win. And so. Net-net, this has been a year, politically, where I think, you know, even though Trump has done enormous harm to the country, and we can talk about that, politically, we are probably further ahead. Than I thought we would be at this point, in part because he has been such a horrific president, and the country has really rejected his presidency this time.
Jen Rubin
I think what we have seen, both before the election and after is this dichotomy between the idea people have of Trump in their mind and the reality of Trump. the longer he was out of office, the less current, obviously, that became. And people forgot the chaos, and we’re not reminded on a daily basis of, the racism and the oligarchic policies and kind of the corruption. And when he got back in, and he kind of doubled down, people said “This is what we hated.” And so, when they now see the corruption, and they see the cruelty in immigration, and they see the tariffs, and they see he hasn’t improved, you know, prices, then they say, okay, this is not what we like.
It may be hard for you and I and people who are so enmeshed in this day-to-day to understand how people can forget, but they do! And I think Democrats have made the mistake in thinking, oh, this was somehow a permanent repudiation of Democrats, or somehow we had done something terribly wrong. The terribly wrong thing was allowing Trump to continue to run for president, but to play on this natural amnesia, and inclination to think, well, maybe things will be better this time, or maybe he’s not serious, or maybe it’s just talk. But now, the reality is there, and that’s why he’s underwater in all of these areas, and why he’s losing so badly.
Simon Rosenberg
I agree with that analysis, and I think that there are lessons for all of this as we enter 2026, which is that, you know, things can change, and they can get worse, or they can get better, too, right? I mean, it’s not… this is not a predetermined outcome, and, you know, we should feel good. Look, the November elections were extraordinary. I mean, we won four states, California, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Georgia statewide, very different kinds of things that were on the ballot, but we won those four states by more than 20 points. You never see 20-point margins in American politics and in competitive places that the Republicans contested.
I mean, let’s be clear about this. I mean, they contested these places, and we beat them by 20 points. Sherrill and Spanberger had these extraordinary wins, in the mid… you know, 13 and 15 points, I think, in New Jersey and Virginia. We saw, to your point, you raised this earlier, I think, that we saw the restoration of our coalition of our margins with young people and Hispanic voters in particular in those states, which have significant…matter a lot for the battlefield of 2026. So, you know, we should come out of this period feeling like when we fight Trump, we can beat him, right?
If I can just go back on the narrative and the story that you were trying to get at, we have to, I think, also look back at the year and give the Texas Democrats and Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker a lot of credit for the fight on redistricting, which I think lifted the whole Democratic Party kind of off the mat. I think that, you know, we were… people were upset in March when the Democrats cut the deal on the budget, and we can debate that all day long. There was a sense that we were a weak party and not a strong party, and we were losers, and we weren’t winners, and there was just a lot of despondency that we know from our own anecdotal stories, but also from data, right?
Like, Democrats, the reason our approval rating has been low is because Democrats are disappointed in us, not Republicans and Independents. So, when I look back at what led to this incredible election result, that was the first kind of big, you know, obviously Trump’s unraveling approval rating. Second thing, and his awful presidency. Second thing was spirited leadership by the Texas Democrats, J.B. Pritzer, Gavin Newsom. Third is that I think Schumer and Jefferies deserve more credit for having picked the fight on the ACA subsidies. And because during that period, we now know that during that period, Trump’s approval rating dropped significantly.
Jen Rubin
Yes.
Simon Rosenberg
And it contributed to the size and scale of our victories. Now, obviously, for me, and probably for you, that ended prematurely, and I think we thought they should have kept fighting, but it was successful, and the reason this matters is that we have to learn the lesson that, you know, this guy’s rotten to the core, and he’s weak, and he’s old, and he’s ailing, and he’s addled, and he’s making crazy decisions, because his response to our challenging him during the shutdown reinforced all of the central arguments that we were making about him, was that he was so liberal.
Jen Rubin
He’s cruel, he’s random, he’s chaotic.
Simon Rosenberg
Right, and so, you know, what happens is that when he gets challenged, he’s so arrogant and crazy that he lashes out and acts out in irrational ways, doing further damage to him with the American people, making it clear he’s unconcerned with their welfare and only concerned with his power and his plunder. So the big lesson as we head into this next year, and the end of this year, is that, you know, when we fight this guy, we can win, and so we should fight him more, and more aggressively, and on more fronts, and be more aggressive and more ambitious than we’ve even been.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. I think there are two other factors if we’re looking at the metanarrative. One is that because Trump won, and because he won the popular vote. He felt over-empowered to go big, double down. He did not do what other autocrats do, which is methodically go in small doses down the road. Had he boiled the frog slowly, we might not have been in the position, that we are in now, but as my partner, Norm Eisen likes to say, he micro wave the frog. People had a reaction. So, it was his enormous overreach with these crazy nominees and the tariffs and everything that kind of set the stage. And the other part of that is, we have to remember that the grassroots matter.
The ability almost from the beginning, for Indivisible and the other grassroots organizations to keep people in the fight, to build from one event to the next, whether it was Doge, and you can look back, President’s Day, hands off, June 14, October 18th. This was a building-building effort, and I think when you put those two things together, which is some strategic sense with some great candidates. And a grassroots that’s all focused on the weaknesses inherent in him. That has brought us to where we are right now.
Simon Rosenberg
If I can just add… put an exclamation point in the last point, and yes, you’re exactly right, and I, you know, if I can amend my remarks to add that in there, because particularly, I think, the last No Kings coming right before the election was really important. It’s also something that I think is you know, we have in our party something that I call the tyranny of kitchen table issues, which is this culture where we can only talk about the economy and healthcare and that if you talk about anything else, it’s a distraction.
What the No Kings movement has done is that it’s really forced the political leaders in our family to add a third leg to the stool, in essence, right? Which is the affordability and tariffs and healthcare, which are obviously very central to everything we’re doing. But also this issue around these basket of issues around threat to democracy, his crowning himself a monarch, right? Ripping down the East Ring of the White House, the corrupt, the unprecedented corruption, now the selling out of Europe and Ukraine to Putin. All of that has been an area that I think has been… we’ve been less cogent and are less effective, and I want to give Indivisible and the No Kings movement a lot of credit for keeping our family in the fight on these matters that have historically been a little bit more challenging for the conventional political class to really engage in adequately, I think, given the gravity of the moment.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Let’s talk in a little bit more detail about the whole spate of, special or, particularized, elections. We talked about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. April 1st, we made a big push here at The Contrarian to cover it. There was an enormous grassroots, effort. Elon Musk kind of led with his chin and became the chief villain in that race, and won big. How important was that in kind of giving Democrats the sense that, oh, maybe they’re not as invincible as they might appear?
Simon Rosenberg
It was huge. And, you know, Ben Wikler, who I know is a good friend of the Contrarian, is an old and dear friend of mine. You know, that was his last big kind of hurrah as one of our great state party chairs in recent years. You know, it was huge. It gave us a sense that, you know, we could do this, and we could take him on, and beat him, and that… because I think, Jen, one of the things we’ve talked about when we’ve been together is that they’re really… Trump, I think, sees the world in a very simple way, and is that you’re either strong or you’re weak, or you’re winning or you’re losing, or you’re succeeding or you’re failing, and you’re a hero or you’re a villain, right? This is, like, the basic way that he sees everything.
Jen Rubin
Yes.
Simon Rosenberg
We have been a little… I don’t think we have adequately understood that in the way that we’ve battled him, because we, as Democrats, and in the pro-democracy movement, we tend to stay very focused on issues, like healthcare and the economy, and yet, people make up their mind about parties and candidates. using other information, right? Like, are they attractive? Are they interesting? Are they charming? Do they give good speeches? Are they strong? Are they weak? And one of the things that we’re learning is that this issue of being strong really matters to folks, and they want strong leaders who are strong enough to be able to fight for them. That’s the way that I describe it.
Jen Rubin
Yes.
Simon Rosenberg
And I think that what’s happening now, in what is really essential, and one of the reasons I think you’re starting to see greater panic. among Republicans in Washington, including now Trump, is gonna go out on the stump for the first time, right? Because he’s not gonna change his policies, he’s just gonna try to bullshit his way through things more effectively, which is gonna clearly be their strategy in 2026, which is to grossly outspend us and try to, you know, shove his terrible year down the memory hole and claim that none of this stuff happened, right? They’re erasing government data, they’re doing everything they can to pretend that 2025 never happened and all the ugliness of it.
And so, he’s going out, but I think the key is, is that they know they’re in trouble. They know the midterms are likely to be very challenging for them, and I think that part of the dynamic, Jen, as somebody who’s been working with Democratic politicians for over three decade is there are now thousands of Republicans running for office all over the country, right? State rep, city council, mayor, you know, county council, state, you know, whatever, who are in competitive races, who are in purple places, or lean blue, or lean red places. And all of their races have gotten much harder now. And there’s a lot of anger and sense of betrayal in the Republican family. You can see it in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s language. You could see it in the Epstein vote.
There was a near unanimous rebuke of this president, you know, just a few weeks ago. And this dynamic where these young, ambitious politicians are all of a sudden seeing their careers potentially be derailed by this old, adult man who, you know, can’t rub two sticks together any longer, is creating incredible pressure on the Republican system for them to do something. And what we’re seeing is they can’t do anything legislatively. There’s too much division, there’s too much ignorance and idiocy, and as you know, this is a political movement that has, you know, has collapsed ideologically. And, I don’t even know what the right word is to describe.
This other dynamic is that they’re in, they’re in a form of panic right now, and, you know, it’s why, it’s an affirmation. that we’re succeeding. And just like they had to spend millions and millions of dollars in Afton Bain’s race to defend a plus 22 seat. that was an affirmation that they were in trouble. And so, we should go into 2026 feeling like, hey, you know, together, we did a pretty good job, because whatever… version of getting to the other side of Trumpism is, in your mind, it starts with him weakening the way that he has this year. Absolutely. And so, it’s necessary, but not sufficient, but together, we did something very meaningful and important this year.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. And I would even put it stronger, and that is, some of these Republicans have never had a competitive race in their entire careers, and those people who thought they were being so clever and gerrymandering in Texas are gonna have even harder times this time, because they wrongfully assumed that certain groups had shifted with them on a more permanent basis. Just to give folks a sense of what happened up to the midterms. We had, I don’t know, 25, 26 special elections. How well did Democrats do in those? Where’s the kind of the overperformance level that you saw throughout?
Simon Rosenberg
So we overperformed by an average in double digits, which is gargantuan. I mean, the way to think about what’s happened is by the various measures that we have of party strength. The special election overperformances, the party… what’s called party ID, which is… do you see yourself as a Democrat or Republican? We track that over time. What’s called the generic ballot, which is, are you going to vote Democrat, Republican? The battlefield has shifted between 7 and 13 points since a year ago.
And so it means that if you were a Republican in a plus-two Trump district, you’re now in a minus… at least a minus-five Trump district, right? What it means, importantly, for the Senate, is that all of a sudden, states like Alaska and Ohio and Iowa and Texas could be competitive, meaning that the Senate could very well be in play if we run good elections.
So the whole, the whole, you know, the special elections were indicative of a battlefield that has moved towards the Democrats between 7 and 13 points. I mean, in Aftyn Behn’s race, it ended up being 13 or 14 points. In New Jersey, you know, Sherrill overperformed by 7 points, Spanberger by 9 points, right? So what you see is that we’re in a range. It’s a range between 7 and 13, 14, And what that means is, for 2026, it means the house is much more likely to flip. It means that we could be playing on a battlefield of 40 or 50 seats and not, you know, 20 to 25 seats. It means the Senate is likely to be in play. We have to have an aspiration to win a majority of the governorships.
Jen Rubin
Yes.
Simon Rosenberg
Another thing. And all of a sudden, you know, this could end up being… I think what’s exciting is that we’re gonna have a lot of new—if I can just go back on one other piece of 2025—is that we also saw the emergence of a lot of different kinds of Democrats in 2025. And I think this is super important, and it’s, you know, I call it embracing the rainbow, right? Which is that, you know, we don’t exactly know, Jen, how to win and do all this, right?
We’re in a brand new world, every election cycle is brand new, no election is like any other election. And I think the idea that we’re winning in different parts of the country with different kinds of candidates, with different kinds of strategies, is a sign of incredible health. As opposed to a sign of weakness. And because we need to embrace the rainbow, and what works in New York City doesn’t necessarily work in Virginia, but we need candidates, and people often talk that we talk about how do you… what kind of, you know, progressive versus centrist, old versus young, insider versus outsider. What we need are good candidates who can win, right? You know, that’s the most important.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely.
Simon Rosenberg
And we saw all those kinds of candidates emerge this cycle. It was very… as somebody who’s been doing this a long time, it was really encouraging to me that we weren’t settling on a single strategy, because I feel like we’re much more likely to win if we’re kind of open. To sort of innovating, experimenting, trying new things, which is what you must do to win, because every cycle is unique. And if you’re playing off of an old playbook, you can miss opportunities.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. The one myth that I think was completely exploded, and maybe it’s happened before, is this notion of electability. You know who’s electable? The people who get elected. The voters decide electability, and it’s not gonna be a pundit, it’s not gonna be a donor, it’s not gonna be Chuck Schumer, or Jennifer Rubin, or Simon Rosenberg. The people are going to decide who’s electable, and you don’t know necessarily in advance Who thought Donald Trump was going to be elected in 2024? Who thought that Mamdani was going to be elected in 2025? Guess what? People decide, and they decide on a whole range of issues, as you say, that have nothing to do with ideology, have nothing to do with the minute details of the day-to-day.
And you need people who are going to capture the imagination of people, speak to their heart. Get their enthusiasm. And we don’t have a formula, a fill-in-the-blank form. There’s no ad-libs, you know, kind of, routine for the Democratic Party. So, I couldn’t agree with you more in terms of the differentiation. Now, I do want to talk a little bit about November, just because, it is breathtaking in how the numbers repudiated this notion of just a year ago about how Democrats had it all wrong, they had lost this group, they were talking too much about this, they were talking too much about that.
And in fact, the electorate was much more fluid and much more open than people gave them credit for. They actually listened, they saw what was going on around them. They said, okay, you and I might have seen it coming, but a lot of people did not see that they were going to be kicking grandmothers out of the United States. So, lo and behold, yes, Trump made inroads in some states on the, Hispanic vote, but after months of this really, ludicrous, cruel, brutal. kind of, vendetta against immigrants. Well, guess what? Mikey Sherrill won Hispanics, 68% of Hispanics. Guess what? Abigail Spanberger had a similar thing.
That just because people thought X at one point, doesn’t mean they don’t change their mind, doesn’t mean they don’t kind of see what’s going on around them. And I think that says that… speaks to what you were saying, that if you keep exposing the reasons why Trump has not either kept his promise, or kept faith with these people, the better chance we are gonna have to persuade people that, yes, it’s okay to get off the train, it’s okay to make a change. In fact, you’ve got to make a change, because this isn’t really what you want.
Simon Rosenberg
Yeah, I mean, the Navigator just had a poll that 16% of Republicans… 16% of Trump voters now regret their vote, right? And, you know, already, right. that’s, you know, you could expect it over four years, but in year one, to have one out of six of your voters say openly they regret it, you know, makes it very hard for you to win elections, right? That’s a large number of people in your coalition.
Jen, look, there were a lot of people—it was a hard election, and, you know, disappointing election, dangerous election for the country, and I think there was a lot of—what is my term I use? Half-baked hot takes that came after the election, and for all sorts of self-interested reasons. And, you know, one of the myths, you talk about myth-busting and the undaunted, and you guys have great words that you use to sort of lift people up at the Contrarian, is that, that one of the sort of wild kind of myths in our family is that there’s been sort of an erosion of the Democratic Party and our brand over a long period of time.
In the Cold War period, From 1948 to 1990—88. Republicans dominated the presidential elections when, you know, you know this from your own journey, right, is that Republicans dominated the presidential elections. Reagan, you know, Republicans regularly broke 50% in the national vote. Reagan had blowout elections both times. Democrats really struggled during this long period to ever get to 50%. We only, you know, Kennedy won with 50.1, Carter won with 50.1, You know, of course, we had the 1964 elections, but the basic dynamic during that period is that Republicans were a far more dominant presidential party, and when you look at the numbers, it’s actually kind of startling how much we struggled after FDR’s four remarkable elections for this next sort of 40-year period. after the Cold War, when the Cold War ended in 1989, and one of the major planks of republicanism, right, this anti-communism went away, we started seeing the evolution of a new politics, globalization, everything else.
And in this period from 1992 to this last election, Democrats have won more votes, 7 out of 9 elections. We regularly got to 50%, right, which is something we didn’t do for an entire 40-year, you know, period. And, and we’ve been winning more votes more regularly than they have at a national level, and I realize that and this is very important because this sense that the Democratic Party was sort of, like, in bad shape… I mean, Trump only won by a point and a half, the majority that he has is one of the smallest in congressional majority in American history. And so it, statistically, our ability to bounce back was always going to be far easier for us than it felt. Given you know, the gravity to losing to this guy, the crazy orange guy, right?
So, I think that what you’re seeing now is that we’re entering this year of opportunity for us. One of the big lessons is that we have to keep the hard negative on him and keep attacking him in an unrelenting fashion, continuing to remind voters who are not living in the political news day, every day that we are. It’s much… it’s much easier to be connected, but far harder to be informed, perhaps, than it used to be, and it gives us more responsibility. But we also, I think if I have one big lesson from this year, is that we do have to recognize that we are strong now, and they are weak, and that we’re winning, and they’re losing, and we’re successful, and they’re failing, and we’re the heroes, and they’re the villains, and that we need to step into our own power, and we need to stay there all year.
We need to have ambition. Because people… one of the things that Trump—and you look at the exit polls—one of the things that really matter to voters is, are you strong enough to fight for me? That if you have power, will you be able to deliver? So being strong And being successful, and being forceful, and being resolute, and being passionate, right, really matters to people, and that’s gotta be one of the big lessons that we take into 2026.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. I think what I’m going to be looking forward to, and looking for, is the degree to which—and remember, Trump’s not going to be on the ballot, and traditionally, when he’s not been on the ballot, the Republicans have suffered a lot—and that is to not allow a certain type of Republican to escape responsibility for this parade of horrors. Susan Collins, you can go down the list. Every kind of swing district, every swing state, whether it’s Ohio, which is now, I think, in play, whether it’s, Iowa, which I think is now in play, whether it’s Texas.
Every single Republican lawmaker has been responsible for the pain and the discomfort and the chaos and the cruelty and the brutality, and making sure to hold these people accountable for their own votes, or their own paralysis and spinelessness. I think is going to be really important. And that goes to your point about strong candidates. Who can make the case the best? Who can point the finger at a Susan Collins, or a John Cornyn, or whoever, and say, this guy wasn’t strong enough to stand up to Donald Trump for you, I will be. And that seems to be so important in making sure that these people who have hidden in the shadows, who have said nothing, literally run from cameras all year long. pay a political penalty. And I think that puts a premium on really good candidates and really clean and clear messaging.
Simon Rosenberg
Well, and I think for, you know, for people out there, it means also that the earlier our candidates get funded, and the more aggressively they communicate, the more likely it is that we’ll win. And so there can be more money, but there also can be early money, or early volunteers. And so part of it is that, you know, come hit the ground running after the holidays. We can’t take any time off. This early money, you know, and particularly for new candidates, being able to communicate, to define their opponent, to tell their story early, not waiting to the spring and summer, this can make a huge difference.
And so, it means that, you know, your giving and your volunteering isn’t a summer and fall thing, it’s a January thing, and it’s really important for people to realize that. If I can just build on something. you said, because I love the way that you talked about it. There’s, you know, the Washington, there was a focus group just done that I read about today. And in one of the newspapers, did a focus group of 14 voters who voted for Trump in New Jersey and Virginia, and then voted for Sherrill Spanberger. And the overwhelming conclusion from the people that did the focus groups is that people want strong leaders. They want people who are gonna fight, and who they feel like are in the fight with them, right?
And it was a really interesting group. I wrote about it in Hopium today. It was a fascinating piece, and Jen, look, I think that what I’ll say is that, as just to wrap up for you, what we talk about at Hopium is that we have 3 jobs. We have to mitigate the damage he’s doing. you know, advance our agenda and win back power, and that, you know, we… I think that the Democrats are in a very strong position to win back power.
I think we have to do a better job, I think, in 2026 also at mitigating the damage. I think we need a strategy that allows us to challenge him more forcefully every day on the things that he’s doing, because I also think it makes it more likely, then, that we actually win back power, right? These are not disconnected, but I think that, you know, we are… he continues, despite his decline and his and his illness. You know, as you know, in the last few weeks, we’ve seen, you know, dangerous things evolve in foreign policy and our standing in the world, and, you know, our leaders need, in my… if I could say one thing, if Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer were here in front of me and said, what, Simon, what do we do? Is that you need to act from love of country and patriotism. And really find your inner patriot, and go out there and fight as hard as you can. for the American people, because, you know, we’re Americans, and finding for freedom and democracy is what we do. It’s who we are. And so, you know, we need to all find our inner patriot here over the next 12 months to be able to go do what we need to do together. I know that every day. All of you are flowing with patriotism of The Contrarian.
Jen Rubin
As does your community at Hopium. That’s why we love you guys. And I would leave with just two things.
You don’t win or you don’t compete, so you have to compete in every race. You do not know what’s going to be competitive, especially since the electorate has shifted. And the other thing is, we’re going to have some primary races. Where all the candidates are good choices. We have a very competitive Minnesota Senate race. Two great candidates there. We have a competitive race in Minnesota. We have a competitive race in Iowa. Lots of good candidates. So we should fight hard in those primaries, but any one of those people would be a fine competitor, not only in the general election, but a fine addition to… in this case, I’m talking about Senate races. So I think as we kind of have our contests, and we should have vigorous contests to find the best, candidates, that we should also recognize that we’re kind of blessed with a lot of good choices.
And sometimes you have to recognize that even if you’re number one, number one… gosh, the consolation is really, really good, too, and you can get fully behind that person, and you can invest in the general election. And I think that’s a good takeaway for all of us, because we’ll have differences. Do we like Angie Craig? Do we like Flanagan? Do we like, you know, Walls? Do we like, Nathan Sage? But all good candidates bringing different things to the race. So…
Simon Rosenberg
Amen to that. Amen to that.
Jen Rubin
Well, Simon, we will have no shortage of political news in 2026. I look forward to going through it with you. Good times and bad, and in the meantime, I hope you get some downtime at the holidays and enjoy yourself, because everyone has to come back. January 2, ready to fight, ready to win.
Simon Rosenberg
And Jen, listen, congratulations to you and the Contrarian team for building this powerful, amazing thing that you’ve built this year. It’s hard to believe that it’s not even… it’s not even a year old yet, right?
Jen Rubin
Correct.
Simon Rosenberg
It’s soon, but, you know, hats off to you for your leadership and your, entrepreneurship, and, and your grit. I mean, you’re in there 5 days a week at 9.15 in the morning. I’m still in my, you know, my jammies, and just doing my hopium in the morning, so I just appreciate the fact that you’re even camera-ready at 9.15 every day. I think it’s a huge accomplishment, but listen, thank you, and congratulations to all of you.
Jen Rubin
Thank you, thank you, we’ll see you.
