Democrats Are Giving The American People Permission To Love Their Country And Their Neighbors Again

We Had A Great Hopium Event in Chicago Last Night!

Happy Thursday all. It was another remarkable night last night. I start us off with the emotional close of Governor Walz’s speech. Listen to the way he talks about loving and respecting others - neighbors, colleagues, other Americans - again. It is deeply powerful stuff in the age of Trump:

Next, catch this short speech from former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan. “Let me be clear to my Republican friends at home watching. If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 you are not a Democrat. You are a patriot.”

As I wrote on Tuesday, we are seeing a new ideology of the Democratic Party emerge under Kamala Harris, one grounded deeply in love of country, patriotism and love and respect of one another. It’s a remarkable development, a joyous one, and a necessary one if we are beat Trump and send MAGA into the dustbin of history. Here’s what I wrote about our need for Democrats to embrace to hope, optimism and love of country in my very first Hopium post last year:

I am calling it Hopium Chronicles because I want this to be a journey guided by hope and optimism, of belief in ourselves, in love of country and a clear understanding of the nature of the conflict we are in. I have become convinced that part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day. They want us to feel bad about America, our democracy, our leaders, our institutions, our success, each other, ourselves. We cannot let them do that any more. While they talk American down every day, we need to talk it up. While they spread lies, we respond with truth and data. Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win.

Here’s what Hopium community member Susan Troy wrote in our paid subscriber chat last night:

I think it is beautiful to see positive joy in the faces of so many of my fellow beings once again. It’s been a long and painful journey but that joyous warrior energy feels good. It feels like a dam breaking through those walls of hate and fear.

And all this love of country, optimism, joy appears to be, as we all hoped and believed, an effective politics. The Vice President has her largest lead to date in 538’s polling averages, 3.3 points, 47% to 43.7%. It’s a lead larger than any lead Trump had this year and 6.5 points higher than Biden’s last polling average:

Here is where 538 has the 7 battleground states today:

• AZ Harris 0.2% Lead

• GA Trump 0.8%

• MI Harris 3.3%

• NC Harris 0.2%

• NV Harris 0.4%

• PA Harris 1.6%

• WI Harris 3.7%

The election we are seeing now is the one we all hoped we would have this year. Now we have to listen to Coach Walz and leave it all out there on the playing field in these next 70+ days and win this thing, together.

Bill Clinton’s 50m Job Stat - Some of you have noted that Bill Clinton used a stat last night that sounded a bit familiar. Here’s the clip of my former boss:

The data and the reference to “since the end of the Cold War” comes right out of my With Democrats, Things Get Better presentation. Here’s the graph of that data that should be familiar to Hopium community members:

I’m not sure why the President’s numbers are a little different from mine but it’s possible he counted is from January of the first year of each Presidency (I give that last January of each term to the incumbent) and he used the latest Biden jobs numbers which were revised down a bit yesterday. That’s how you can get to 50m and 1m rather than 50m and 2m as I have it. It’s a distinction without a difference as they say. There has been one party really good at this capitalism thing in the age of globalization, and it sure as hell hasn’t been the party of Trump.

The Hopium Community Gathered in Chicago Yesterday, And It Was Awesome - Wow did we have a wonderful event yesterday in Chicago! The turnout was great, some old friends like Joe Trippi. Markos Moulitsas and Tom Bonier dropped by, and we had a surprise visit from actor Sean Astin who’ve we seen all over TV these past few days. Many thanks to my friend Erik Huey and his firm Platinum Advisors for sponsoring our get together.

This was the first in-person event I have ever hosted for Hopium community members. It was deeply rewarding to talk to so many who are so appreciative of this remarkable community are building, now more than 100,000 strong, together. Here are a few photos from our Hopium-infused gathering last night:

Thank you all!

Working From Joy, Supporting Our Hopium-backed Candidates and State Parties, Voting On Day 1 - In the spirit of not letting up, “doing something” as Michelle Obama said and leaving it all on the playing field as Gov Walz has encouraged, I share a few more things this morning. First, my two most presentations on the 2024 election and the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party I released a few days ago, still timely and relevant. And I think it is time to revive the very first strategy memo I released in the early days of Hopium, Get to 55:

• Harris Takes The Lead - My latest deep dive on the 2024 election and why I would much rather be us than them

• With Democrats, Things Get Better - my data-filled reflection on the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party

• Get To 55, Expanding Our Coalition, The Youth Opportunity - I’ve always believed the escalating extremism meant more was possible for us in this election cycle. We’ve seen how more was possible for us in elections across the US over the past 18 months. Now it’s time to make sure that we take advantage of this opportunity, grow our coalition, and get to 55.

Next, a pitch for the candidates and state parties we’ve been working for this year. Our next Winning The House Thursday phonebanking and postcarding Thursday will be for Josh Riley on Thursday, August 29th. We had a great turnout for Will Rollins last Thursday. I hope you will plan spending your Thursday nights with us in the home stretch!

On Saturday I offered an in-depth post on the strategy behind our candidate and state party endorsements, including our Presidential battleground “check” and “checkmate” strategy. 28 days to go before early in voting begins everybody - time to get to work!

• Harris-Walz!!!!!! - $868,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Merch | The Harris-Walz YouTube Channel - Let’s make this a big week people!

• Winning The House - $880,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. Watch our recent discussion with Leader Hakeem Jeffries. To go deeper catch one of our interviews with our great candidates - Janelle Bynum (OR-5), George Whitesides (CA-27), Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) Will Rollins (CA-41), Laura Gillen (NY-04), Rudy Salas (CA-22), Josh Riley (NY-19), Tony Vargas (NE-02) and Adam Gray (CA-13).

• North Carolina - $398,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton

• Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $330,000 raised, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego

• Nebraska/Blue Dot - $148,000 raised, $150,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb

Here are ways you can do even more:

• Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in three states on September 20th - just 28 days away!

• Help grow the Hopium community. Use this link to encourage others sign others up to be a Hopium subscriber during our Democratic Convention subscriptions sale (10% off through August 22nd!). You can gift a subscription to a friend or student here and get group rates too. If you have changed credit cards or moved you can you update your payment information or check your renewal status follow these instructions from Substack. Let’s keep our community growing the Hopium flowing!

Keep working hard all. Excited for tonight and proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon