Morning all. Let’s start with some news. GDP growth in the second quarter came in lower than expected at 1.5%. Here’s the trend line of Trump’s second term. It’s not good:
We will have more economic charts tomorrow but the data tells a very clear story - Trump’s policies have slowed overall growth, slowed job growth, increased the deficit, driven inflation and interest rates higher, spiked the uninsured rate by many millions, increased health care costs and made access to care harder for families, harmed farmers and small businesses, and are creating labor shortages throughout the economy.
It’s failure, across the board, from A to Z, top to bottom failure. Trump’s regime has failed the American people. He is a failed leader, which is why we are seeing so much willingness in official DC and around the world to challenge him now……
Let’s review. The Senate has delayed this morning’s committee vote to advance venal Todd Blanche’s confirmation for Attorney General. Senators Cornyn and Tillis are continuing to hold out. This is amazing news all! Keep making your calls, particularly those of you in Texas and North Carolina. The two Senators are asking Trump to choose between enabling his historic corruption or advancing his loyalist and, shocking!, he is choosing corruption and self-enrichment. Much credit to Cornyn and Tillis for holding the line against Trump’s greed and lawlessness.
Senate Republicans also continue to deny Trump his SAVE Act, an end to the filibuster, and the House’s Pentagon funding bill. On Tuesday the Senate passed a Russian sanctions bill, cheered on by Trump’s nemesis Zelenskyy, 86-12 - another incredible repudiation of Trump and his rancid regime. Yesterday the Fed held interest rates steady, refusing to accede to Trump’s demands for cuts. Iran continues to toss him around like a chew toy.
It’s been a bad, bad week for our rapacious and failing leader.
In my talk last week I argued that as bad as things were for Trump and the Republicans - and they were already bad - the failed war, higher prices, the escalating damage of barbaric health care and food aid cuts, the savage inhumanity of an out of control ICE - were likely to make things worse for them in the coming weeks:
And what polling this past week has shown us is that indeed things are getting worse for Trump and the Rs. Trump has seen erosion in every poll released in recent days and has had without question the worst week of polling of his second term. This data represents staggering levels of rejection, repudiation, and disapproval:
Zelenskyy’s great triumph here this week was a sign of how much weaker Greater MAGA - Trump, Putin, Bibi, Orban/European right - has become. The Senate celebrated a very aggressive sanctions package on Putin with Zelenskyy present, overcoming months of intense opposition from Trump. Netanyahu was - remarkably - upstaged this week by the world’s most important Jewish head of government, the leader of Ukraine. Like Trump, Netanyahu has lost support his electorate and is losing his fall election too:
And so while Trump and Greater MAGA weaken in this closing stretch of the 2026 elections we are becoming stronger. Poll after poll have showed Democrats now more trusted on the issues that matter most to voters. Our Senate polling continues to be encouraging all across the country. Fox News released a new poll of North Carolina this morning showing Roy Cooper ahead by 9, 53%-44%. Here’s a summary of their recent polls, ones that have been widely seen throughout the GOP ecosystem:
Then there’s what’s happened to the generic ballot over this past week. We’ve seen a big jump at the upper end of generic ballot, which has been bouncing around between +3 and +6 Dem. The chart below shows that we’ve gotten eight new generic ballot polls in the past week with us up +7 or more, and +9 on average. It’s incredibly encouraging, and suggests, as that GOP operative told Politico last week, the bottom could be falling out now for the Rs:
Let’s review other ways our party is closing strong in the home stretch.
- The DNC adopted a new 2028 Presidential primary calendar that has broad support and needed legitimacy.
- The Maine Democratic Party successfully managed a process to produce a new Senate nominee under incredibly challenging circumstances, and our new nominee Troy Jackson, leads in early polling.
- Leader Hakeem Jeffries rolled out his closing argument to voters, promising to cut costs, improve health care, and ensure accountability for the lawlessness, corruption and betrayal we’ve seen in Washington. Many have wanted Democrats to make it clear what we were for - and we have - and here at Hopium we’ve lobbied hard to make sure “accountability” was at the very core of our agenda - which it is. So good news all around.
- The Senate Dems announced an aggressive $40m investment into the coordinated campaigns, field operations, and election projection operations in ten battleground states.
- Our candidates are outraising Republican candidates throughout the battleground.
- Barack Obama has returned to the campaign trail, powerfully, starring in this new, inspiring video with Josh Turek:
We discuss this and more in my weekly talk which you can find above. I began my talk last night with my new daily reminder:
There is nothing Trump and MAGA wants more than for us to be fighting with each other and not with him. We have one job now - elect as many of these wonderful candidates running for the House and Senate as we can. It’s where our focus must be. It’s a year of opportunity for us across the country. We must seize it, together.
As I wrote to you yesterday I believe the American people, after we let them down in 2024, have once again put their trust in us to lead. They have not just rejected MAGA. They have placed their faith and hope and trust back in us - the “Establishment” Democratic Party - and are counting on us now to rid the country of this terrible MAGA and lead us to a better day. They’ve given us an opportunity, the opportunity we have all wanted. Now we need to justify their new and fragile faith in us by going out and winning this election, and then fighting with everything we got to deliver for them and hold the betrayers to account when back in power next year….
That’s we talked about last night in our weekly gathering of the proud, plucky patriots of this remarkable community. Hit like so more will see my video and this analysis. Share it with others, and now, my friends, it is that time again…..
Time To Seize The Opportunity We’ve Been Given, Together!
Winning The House and Senate In 2026
Special Fund To Rush Troy Jackson $100,000 By August 10th - Donate Today! | $62,300 raised, $50,000 original goal, $100,000 new stretch goal | Friends we hit our original $50,000 goal in the first 24 hours of this new campaign to get Troy Jackson the resources to staff up, build out his campaign, and beat Susan Collins. Amazing - thank you all!
We aren’t stopping here - this early money really matters, and I want to now try to get to $100,000 by Friday, August 7th. We can do this people!
Our Winning The House Campaign - $1,023,800 raised, $1,250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate | Donate to all twelve of our initial wave of House challengers with a single contribution split twelve ways | Get to know Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03) by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews.
Friends, if these twelve courageous candidates win, the House will flip, even with Callais and their rancid mid-decade redistricting. So eyes on the prize here everyone!
Winning The House - The Second Wave Fund (Newly Expanded) - $226,400 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from recent primaries and need a bit more help. Our newly expanded list now features Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Randy Villegas (CA-22), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).
A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these twelve, and more as other worthy candidates emerge from their primaries. Our total above includes money we’ve raised for directly for each candidate. You can watch interviews with those who’ve interviewed so far here. We are off to a great start here everyone!
Winning The Senate - $587,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our six candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), Troy Jackson (ME), and Josh Turek (IA). Our working total includes what we’ve raised for these six so far through direct donations to their campaigns. You can watch our interviews with each of these great candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them directly here.
Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Battleground And Expansion States
Winning Georgia - $26,200 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a contribution three ways among Senator Jon Ossoff, gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Georgia Democratic Party | Watch my new interview with Georgia Dem Chair Charlie Bailey to get a terrific overview of the opportunities we have in Georgia this cycle
Winning Iowa - $28,400 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Our Winning Iowa fund splits a contribution three ways - to Josh Turek for Senate, to our gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party | Watch my new interview with the great Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart to get an overview of why this is a year of such opportunity in Iowa
Winning Maine - $79,100 raised, $75,000 goal - Donate | We set up this fund to help the Maine Dems get through our nominating process. With this community’s strong response we put up almost a third of the resources needed for what became a very successful process to pick a nominee. We had a big return on this investment - thank you all! | Watch our interview with the inspiring Executive Director of the Maine Dems Devon Murphy-Anderson | We are keeping this fund up for we behind in Maine and need to keep building our momentum there
Winning Ohio - $183,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Our campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton-Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party and its terrific Chair, Kathleen Clyde
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $639,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | 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 | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five critical battlegrounds | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up!
A Few More Things To Do
Let’s work to make sure everyone you know is Voting Early this year; learn more about how we can best protect our elections this November and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in January; bring our Resolutions Project to your community; fight for Hopium’s Agenda today and everyday; become a paid subscriber to Hopium to help us grow this community of proud, plucky patriots.
Many are asking about the news coming from the DNC these days. Rather than commenting I will let Chair Ken Martin speak for himself through a new memo he just published, The DNC Is Building a Democratic Party That Can Win the Moment and Win the Future. It is well worth your time.
Please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.
Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections to win, together! - Simon
