Hopium's Audacious Expansion Fund
This new campaign is raising money for 5 state Democratic Parties critical to our success in 2026, 2028 and beyond. You can make a donation to all five by clicking here, and learn more about each party and the rationale behind the campaign below.
Alaska - Our Interview with Alaska Dem Chair Eric Croft | Donate | Learn More
Florida - Our Interview with Florida Chair Nikki Fried | Donate | Learn More
Iowa - Our Interview with Iowa Chair Rita Hart | Donate | Learn More
Maine - Our Interview with Chair Charlie Dingman | Donate | Learn More
Texas - Our Interview with Texas Chair Kendall Scudder | Donate | Learn More
September 17, 2025 - Over the next few weeks we will be updating our recommended candidate and party committee list as the cycle begins to take greater shape, new candidates have gotten in, and new opportunities arise. Our primary focus this fall is on ensuring that Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger win in NJ and VA, and that Yes On 50 passes in California. If you can please plan on spending some of your limited political capital and volunteer time on these three important projects in the coming weeks. They are all “must wins” and we just cannot take our eye of the ball here for one second.
The first update to current set of electoral recommendations is a new campaign I’m calling Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund. This new effort invests early resources in five state Democratic Parties - Alaska, Iowa, Florida, Maine, and Texas - that are expansion opportunities for us next year and in the future.
Simply, Democrats must learn how to win in more red states and red places if we are to retake Congress next year and build a better Electoral College map for us in the years ahead.
This fund will split each donation five ways and put resources into state parties that have not traditionally received significant national investment. Early, odd year investment will make a big difference as these challenging states gear up for critical races for Governor, Senate and the US House next year.
I am setting a ambitious goal - $250,000, $50,000 to each state party - by the end of 2025. Note that high net worth donors can give up to $50,000 to this fund - $10,000 for each state party. The earlier we get them this money the more valuable it will be.
Hopium is already raising for Jon Ossoff in Georgia and Roy Cooper in North Carolina. We will be adding Sherrod Brown to our list soon. But we need to put more seats in play if we are to flip the Senate next year. This fund will help make things possible that would not be possible without early investment and prior to us having a primary winner we can all rally around.
This is a higher risk set of investments than we have traditionally made here at Hopium. But with Trump failing and struggling more is possible for us now, and these kinds of early investments can help turn a long shot race into a competitive one in parts of the country where we simply must learn how to win.
Here’s the logic for picking these five:
Flipping The Senate in 2026 - To have a shot at flipping the Senate next year we will need to win at least two seats from four of our targeted states - Alaska, Iowa, Maine and Texas. As each state has to yet to settle on a Democratic nominee I’m recommending that we do not wait and go in now with early investments to help each state party prepare for the general election next year. This is the same approach we took with Arizona and North Carolina last cycle, with great success.
Making FL and/or TX Competitive - As we’ve been discussing the movement of people from blue to red states means we lose Electoral College votes after the 2030 census and simply we will have to expand our map and update our understanding of what the Presidential battleground is. This means that by the 2032 Presidential campaign we will need to put more states in play and the two states next up are expensive and hard ones - Florida and Texas. It’s why I am calling this an “audacious” expansion fund.
A New Opportunity With Hispanic/Latino Voters - As Senator Ruben Gallego discussed with us last week the war Trump and the GOP are waging against Hispanic/Latino families is giving us a new opportunity in the heavily Hispanic states of FL and TX. More may be possible now in both states than we would have believed a year ago. Check out the results of a new Bulwark backed focus group of Latino voters:
LATINO VOTERS FLOCKED TO DONALD TRUMP in surprisingly large numbers last November to help him retake the White House. But a year later, the same cohort has soured on his presidency, with many saying they regret their vote.
That’s the main takeaway from a new focus group of Latino Trump voters conducted by The Bulwark on September 10. Every single one of the seven participants said they regretted voting for Trump.
The participants said they were angry over the state of the economy and frustrated by Trump’s handling of immigration and deportations. Asked to give the president a letter grade for his term thus far, six gave him D’s and one gave an F. Asked later about her grade, one participant who gave a D said she was just trying to be nice.