Happy Thursday everyone. Got together with the proud, plucky patriots of our Hopium community last night for our weekly talk and Q & A. In these weekly strategy weekly talks I try to take a step back from the day to day and assess where we are in our great battle for our freedom and democracy against MAGA, You can find a video recording and rough transcript above.
I focused on a few main points in this week’s talk:
We Are Winning Elections, Overperforming Expectations, And Have Already Expanded The 2026 Map
As we discussed in last week’s talk due to the tough 2026 Senate and House maps, Callais and the Rs new rush to further redistrict, and the movement of people from blue to red states there is great urgency for Democrats to expand our maps and start winning in states and places that we’ve not been winning, or even contesting, in recent years.
At a strategy level building a new Democratic Party that can win in red states and red places - places, communities, voters we have not been talking to - is now an all-hands-on-deck pro-democracy family endeavor.
That strategic imperative has been driving our electoral work this cycle at Hopium for almost all of our campaigns have supported state parties in 2026 reach states or Dem candidates working to knock out incumbent Rs. That strategic imperative has also been the central focus of the new Ken Martin-Jane Kleeb DNC, which is making unprecedented investments and helping build capacity in state parties across the country. This new invest and compete everywhere spirit is something I saw first hand at the Maine Democratic Party Convention last week and something we heard Alaska Party Chair Eric Croft detail in our new conversation with him this week.
We have to understand the illicit SCOTUS-Trump redistricting strategy as a desperate act of a regime scared of voters, and scared of us, the Democratic Party. For right now we are successfully expanding the map, winning and overperforming in red states and red districts all across the country, and leading in enough Senate races that we could actually win back the Senate this November - something no one thought possible a year ago:
We also discussed how an old political order, an order of 80 years of Pax Americana/Four Freedoms and 60 years of the Voting Rights Act, is being torn down by Trump, John Roberts, and greater MAGA. Our work here at Hopium is to help our family build a winning politics for what comes next, and in doing so ensure that there is a new birth of freedom here and everywhere. We ended last night with a reading of the Gettysburg Address, which still speaks to us, powerfully, 163 years after it was delivered:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Trump and Putin Are Not Winning Their Wars, Further Weakening Greater MAGA
The central theme of our work this week has been to explore the emerging understanding that both Trump and Putin have lost the initiative in their wars, and have begun to struggle politically at home due to what looks far more like failure than success. Greater MAGA - Trump + Putin + Orban - looks far weaker today than a year ago. Close Russian allies have fallen in Syria and Hungary. Zelenskyy has remarkable international momentum, and Democrats are expected to have a very good election this November. The Putin-Trump alliance looks vulnerable now, and pro-democracy forces here and in Europe must be aggressive to pursue strategies that will continue to degrade and weaken these two regimes.
For more on the stumbles of Greater MAGA watch my new conversations with historian Phillips O’Brien and Lincoln Square’s Stuart Stevens:
Todd Blanche Has Emerged As An Extraordinarily Dangerous Villain In A Desperate New “Whatever It Takes” Phase of Trump’s Presidency
It is clear now that with Trump’s many manifest failures and soaring unpopularity that the regime and their allies have entered a new “whatever it takes” to remain in power phase of Trump’s second and final term. We’ve seen it in the series of outrageous rulings by the Supreme Court; in their furious quest to keep redistricting, even canceling elections already underway; in Todd Blanche’s new explosion of illiberal, illicit actions, many targeting Trump’s perceived domestic opponents; and in whatever else they are cooking up for us in the next six months.
It would be wise for Democratic leaders to come together to forge an unified national response to Trump’s escalating illiberalism for it is clear he and his increasingly desperate team are just going for it now. For more on how we need to be thinking about winning in a "whatever it takes” election this year see our new “Evolving Battlefield” project.
That’s some of what we talked about last night. Watch the video when you can, share it with others, hit “like” so more will see it, and now, my friends……
Let’s Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map
Rallying For Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin For Georgia Supreme Court - This is our next big opportunity to make good trouble all. The Election is May 19th, early voting has begun, and we have 2 great candidates, Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin, who have a serious shot at flipping two GOP-held Supreme Court seats. Watch our new interview with Jordan and Rankin, donate to their campaign, and volunteer no matter where you are! In just a week we’ve already raised $26,400 towards our $50,000 goal!
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $642,500 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new ambitious, audacious even, q2 goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed House challengers with one click | Get to know Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03) by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews.
James Talarico For Texas - $66,700 raised, $250,000 - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Enjoy my inspiring interview with Rep. Talarico as he fights to turn Texas blue.
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $89,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Enjoy my uplifting conversation with Mary Peltola as she fights to turn Alaska blue.
Winning Ohio - $135,500 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party | Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue | Watch my new discussions with US Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Lt. Gov candidate David Pepper, and Ohio Dem Chair Kathleen Clyde.
This total includes $21,000 sent by a Hopium community member directly to each of our three Buckeye State partners!
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $554,000 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our campaign that has helped expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas, all now central battlegrounds in the 2026 election | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up! | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five new battlegrounds.
Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $20,000 to each of our five state parties over the past two years.
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $109,800 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my new discussion with Gov. Cooper as he fights to turn North Carolina blue.
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $173,200 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff.
Advocate For The Hopium Agenda/Pass Resolutions Of Condemnation In Your Community/Winning In An Evolving Battlefield
There are a few more ways to go to work in the coming days - call your leaders and advocate for elements of our working, ever evolving Hopium Agenda; bring resolutions that condemn our Mad King and lets facts be spoken to a candid world to your state or local government; and learn how you can help us win in evolving political and electoral battlefield this year.
Here’s our working, evolving Post-Iran Disaster Agenda:
Work to end this new gulf war and Trump’s Imperial global ambitions
Support Ukraine and Europe, not Russia
Roll back the new, illegal tariffs
Rescind the Trump tax cuts, claw back the extra ICE funding, fund the IRS so it can collect the taxes the rich are hiding from us
Launch a major anti-corruption, renewing democracy campaign, one that ensures accountability for the crimes and treason committed, limits the political power of our emerging oligarchy, and strengthens democracy here and everywhere
Make the US a clean energy superpower, fight for true energy independence, and lower utility and energy prices for the American people
Rein in ICE, end Mass Deportation
End Trump’s destructive war on science, research, our health scare system and our public Health
Make clear to American farmers that we want to end the failed war, repeal the terrible tariffs, find legal pathways for farm workers, and make health care and energy more affordable
Please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.
Keep working hard all. We have a country to save and elections to win, together! - Simon
