Afternoon and morning all. Got a few things for you today……
Love To Minnesota - Sending all my love to the good people of Minnesota who have now experienced a second horrific shooting this year. This photo of a mom running towards the school has been sitting with me these last few days……
Breaking News - Within Days Of Our Big Win In Iowa, Senator Ernst Announces She Is Not Running For Re-election - Great news all, Joni Ernst is out. As we’ve been discussing here flipping the Senate will be hard but not impossible this cycle, and this is another big boost for us.
If you haven’t caught it yet do watch my new interview with Iowa Dem Chair Rita Hart who is kicking ass this cycle and showing us that we can win in red states and red places.
We Need To Be Very, Very Loud Next Week - Congress returns on Tuesday and I am encouraging everyone in the Hopium community to hit the phones or emails first thing on Tuesday, hit your Senators and Rep regardless of party, and plan on being aggressive all week. Washington must feel us next week, must feel our anger, resolve, and love of country. My top four recommendations for things to lobby them on next week (consistent with our emerging Hopium agenda):
Roll back Trump’s terrible and unconstitutional tariffs that are re-igniting inflation and hurting Americans across the country
Block the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC
End Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; demand the removal of madman Robert Kennedy from HHS - yes we need to FIRE HIM
Stand with Ukraine and block Trump’s selling out of the West to Putin. Bring back the Senate Russian sanctions bill that has over 80 co-sponsors.
Rest up this weekend and come ready to rumble on Tuesday everyone!
Leon Krauze On The Need For Democrats To Challenge Trump Directly, Everyday - On Tuesday I offered a series of recommendations for how Democrats can find a higher gear when they return to DC next week. My basic recommendation is Congressional Dems must challenge Trump far more directly, be in his face, 24/7/365. While things are going well for us electorally, he and his regime continue to do enormous harm to the country. We just have to fight harder to mitigate the damage he is doing and do not get lulled into complacency by the increasingly likely prospect that the midterms will go our way 14 months from now. We can and must do more.
My thinking in that Tuesday essay was heavily influenced by my recent - and remarkable - conversation with Nathan Heller. The other person whose inspiration I drew from for this memo is our friend, Mexican-American journalist Leon Krauze. Earlier this year Leon joined us to discuss an essay he wrote for the Washington Post, Mexico has lessons for Democrats trying to oppose Trump. His advice can be found in a clip of our discussion above, and here:
“My main argument, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot, is that when you count the list of factors of why Trump won, one factor that is not analyzed deeply enough is the fact that he never left the stage. I don’t think there’s a similar case in American politics - the fact that Donald Trump refused to leave the stage from the very first day he became the nominee for the Republican Party. He was anointed the leader of the party almost immediately, and he refused to leave the stage, becoming a shadow president for Joe Biden, criticizing every decision that Biden made, exploiting every mistake over four long years. This had never happened, as far as I know, in the modern history of American politics, but it certainly happened in Mexico.
When [Obrador] lost his first election in 2006, he refused to leave the stage - he remained there and even declared himself the legitimate president of Mexico - very similar to Trump. He played the role of shadow president to Felipe Calderón. Then the next election came along, and López Obrador, of course, had become the de facto candidate for the left, and lost again, now by a wider margin. He did exactly the same thing - refused to leave the stage, questioned the legitimacy of Enrique Peña Nieto, became the shadow president for six years, and then he finally won.
When he won, what he chose to do was remarkable from the perspective of political communication.
The first thing he decided to do was to hold a daily press conference. He became the narrator-in-chief of Mexican life, no matter the topic, López Obrador had an opinion. A bunch of pseudojournalists would ask him comfortable questions… he became the owner of the narrative of Mexican political life and Mexican life and general. What concerns me the most when I think of the current moment in the United States, is that this Mexican opposition froze. It never found a way to offer a counterweight to this constant owning of the narrative that Obrador displayed every day. Not one single figure emerged to reply to these daily press conferences. The result - López Obrador’s chosen successor won handily. He ended up owning the stage.
What I suggest in the piece is that the Democratic Party should learn from this lesson and quickly find a way to counter Trump’s very clear intention to own the narrative. It’s not a coincidence that he holds press conferences all the time in contrast to his first term in which he rarely talked to the press outside of informal settings. Now he’s there all the time. This is not a coincidence - he’s trying to follow the López Obrador playbook, even if he doesn’t know it. And by the way, I think he might know this playbook, as the two of them are close friends, but even if he doesn’t, he’s following it, and the opposition in the United States is making the same mistake the opposition in Mexico made - letting him own the stage and failing to offer a counter-narrative.”
Want more evidence that our voters are looking for far stronger and more aggressive leadership? Look at this new data from Emerson:
I am going to try to have a restful weekend before what is going to be a very challenging fall. So expect a little less than usual, and enjoy your time with family and friends this long holiday weekend.
Now, let’s get to work everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our “Must Win/Everyone In” Races
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $55k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Rep. Sherrill
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $174k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $28,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton. We hit our $25,000 Labor Day goal Monday - great work everyone!
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $52k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $186k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents
Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.
For more on Hopium’s approach to elections check out 1) our big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections 2) the many important wins we had together last cycle 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community.
Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing two actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it:
1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. We must demand that Congress
Roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs
Block the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC
End Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health and demand the removal of madman Robert Kennedy from HHS
Stand with Ukraine and block Trump’s selling out of the West to Putin
2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community.
Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 64 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 20 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?
Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!
As we get ready for what is going to be a very intense fall of politics let’s end with that famous Robert Frost quote - that “the best way out is always through” - Simon
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