Happy Thursday all. Got a few things for you today:
Harris Takes The Lead - My New Video Presentation On The 2024 Election - I’m excited to send along my latest video take on the 2024 election, above. I start it off with 25 minutes of observations about our new, bluer election and then opened it up for discussion. This is a recording of our monthly gathering of the entire Hopium community, now over 100,000 strong. Watch, let me know what you think and share with others. This is an exciting and joyous time for our politics, and we need to keep being loud and proud about it all.
My bottom line - the election has moved about six points in our direction in recent weeks, from +3 Trump to +3 Harris. The polling is remarkable consistent now, with very few outliers. Harris has the edge in recent battleground state polling, and is far closer to 270 than Trump. We are tied or ahead in North Carolina, the only one of the seven main battleground states which we didn’t win last time. Our ticket is electric, with a powerful and clear message, and drawing enormous crowds. The surge in volunteers, money and energy has made all of our campaigns stronger, more muscular, more capable. We are now beating Trump on social media, not trailing him. Senate polling remains very encouraging and House Democrats are increasingly optimistic. Our party is unified, the torch has been passed to a new, dynamic generation and friends, we are not going back.
A new, well-regarded Emerson poll has Harris ahead among likely voters 50%-46%. Trump led in their last poll.
Look at this remarkable chart from a new Monmouth poll. It says it all:
While we are kicking ass they are melting down. The Vance pick has been an ongoing nightmare. Trump’s performances on the stump in recent weeks have wild, self-destructive and disqualifying, overflowing with vitriol, misogyny, racism, idiocy and extremism. Republicans for Harris are organized, and working overtime to bring reluctant Rs to our side, expanding our coalition. Their thing is starting to feel a lot more like a Monty Python skit or an episode of Veep than a modern American political campaign.
Here’s the latest lunacy from Commander Vance, a leader of the Handmaid’s Tale wing of the Republican Party. “Postmenopausal female” - who in the world talks like this?
Yesterday Trump at his own big speech on the economy said he’s not sure the economy is the most important issue and once again incoherently rambled, reminding us how profoundly unwell he is:
Meanwhile, back in the real world, we’ve gotten more really good news on inflation and the American economy this week, an economy the Wall Street Journal recently called the “envy of the world.” This morning President Biden announced enormous cuts in the prices of some of the most expensive prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare:
Tomorrow the Vice President will be laying out additional ideas on how we can lower costs for the American people:
WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first policy-centered speech as Democratic presidential candidate on Friday, taking aim at price gouging, in a sign her whirlwind campaign could rattle big companies and corporate executives.
Harris will travel to Raleigh, in North Carolina, a state Democrats hope to flip this election, to outline her plan "to lower costs for middle-class families and take on corporate price-gouging," her campaign said on Tuesday.
Friends, we have a long way to go in this campaign. There will be good days and bad days. We have an enormous amount of work to do. But the election we’ve all wanted to have this year is within our grasp. Let’s keep our heads down. Let’s keep doing the work. Let’s make our plans to Vote on Day 1, and let’s go out and win this thing, together.
Tonight, 730pm - 9pm ET - Hopium Winning The House Thursday For Will Rollins (CA-41) - Excited for this one! Our third postcarding and phonebanking event for one of our 11 Hopium endorsed candidates is tonight. You can register here for our event, and note when doing so you can now select which breakout room you want to join. A reminder that the registration link is new each week so if you registered last week you will need to do so again. We are a little light on phonebankers tonight so if you can give us a shift I would be really grateful.
We have trainings for both activities live each evening, and for those who are more experienced you can a select a breakout room without training and just get to work. Visit here to learn more about ordering postcards for these events.
I will kick things off tonight and talk about the goal of these Thursday night sessions which is remind hard core Dem voters in these districts when early in person and mail/drop box voting begins in their states and encourage them to Vote on Day 1. We will talk a bit about the district and our great candidate Will Rollins. To learn more about Will and prep for tonight be sure to watch my recent interview with him. He is one of the most impressive candidates I’ve seen this cycle. We will go over our goals for the night and folks will get to work. At around 845pm we will come back together and I will give a brief update on the latest in national politics and then close at 9pm ET. These events have been great - come check it out tonight!
Working From Joy, Supporting Our Hopium-backed Candidates and State Parties, Voting On Day 1 - 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. 35 days to go before early voting starts and we just need to leave it all out there on the playing field everyone!
Harris-Walz!!!!!! - $853,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Merch | The Harris-Walz YouTube Channel - Let’s keep working it people!
Winning The House - $836,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. Watch our recent discussion with Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Come to our next Hopium Winning The House Thursday for Will Rollins (CA-41) - register here. Watch our interviews of 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) and Tony Vargas (NE-02) - great candidates all!
North Carolina - $375,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton
Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $325,000 raised, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego
Nebraska/Blue Dot - $143,000 raised, $150,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb
Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in three states on September 20th - just 35 days away!
Help grow our 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!
Watch my With Dems presentation on the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party, this six minute video on the incredible stakes in this election.
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - S
Harris Takes The Lead (My New Video On The 2024 Election), Biden-Harris Cutting Costs for Seniors, Calling/Postcarding For Will Rollins Tonight!