I sure love your messages and leadership Simon. I appreciate Hopium SO much!! And you walk your talk. And help us walk it too. Beyond helpful, our community keeps me sane and helps me participate as best I can.
Is it okay to share a new song, written by my friend, for our country’s birthday? We need the arts in this time too, right?
An original work by Boulder County songwriter Wendy A. Watkins.
🇺🇸 New release for America's 250th: "American Dream" — The Thawing
Vocals are her own voice, shaped with AI assistance — all under her full creative direction.
I so agree. Simon - we are staying focused on the midterms - calling it our NORTH STAR. It is that serious ... In these midterms, democracy is my North Star. Just as sailors used the North Star to navigate through dark and uncertain waters, a commitment to protecting our free and fair elections is the fixed point guiding every strategy, vote, and action I take right now. And - can you please tell the top elected leaders to stop - STOP with the attacks on Democratic Socialists - it is so distracting and unhelpful right now. So people may stop talking about "sucking" if truly the top leaders LEAD and stop this nonsense. Voters are picking DSA candidates because they are talking about what people want. That's all.
Absolutely spot on, Simon, we have an election to win and traitors to our country to deal with and from this day on we have to focus on pulling the rug from under their corrupt feet. “This We Must Do If America Is To Long Endure”, Judge J. Michael Luttig, is worth reading.
I am also confused by negative discourse within the party and members of this group. There are Democratic candidates I love and some I don’t. There are things I want changed - for instance, Democrats speaking strongly and clearly and proudly of what we stand for instead of letting Republicans make us believe we have to stay quiet about our beliefs-and things I love. But surely we have learned from Republicans how disruptive, hurtful, and unAmerican it is to bash and speak harshly to each other. Let’s be adults and have conversations, not arguments. We can model the type of daily discord we want in our lives by utilizing it in this space. I’m a proud Democrat and I’m not ashamed of our values and goals and candidates. I feel so lucky to have Talarico as my candidate for Senate and Gina Hinojosa as candidate for Governor. I want to be loud and proud; are you with me?
Darla - as a Midwesterner who lived in Dallas for 31 years, NOTHING would please me more than to see some Dem wins in Texas!! I am rooting for you all and donating to candidates. I moved to TX in May 1989 when Ann Richards was beating Claytie Williams for Governor. What a joy she was to watch, huh? I really believe 2026 is the year some sanity returns to Texas electeds.
Well written, Simon. Let’s stop being our own worst enemy as a party.
As a Michigan voter I’m very interested to see how our Senate primary pans out. There is a lot of momentum with Abdul (I use his first name not out of disrespect, but because that is how he brands himself as a candidate) and I’m curious to see how that will pan out in August. (I also hate how late the primary is.) It’s a tough primary because I think he, McMorrow, and Stevens are all strong candidates working from a place of virtue. They all have the strength to win in November, and many local voters I know haven’t made up their minds yet. Regardless, based on the messaging I’ve seen I think the winning candidate will rally behind the party because they know what’s at stake here.
I want to add some additional support to bringing strength/weakness and democracy/civil liberties into the debate. Because the antidote to the inertia that everybody is so upset about where it seems like our party can’t get the big reforms across the finish line, is to make sure that when we have a resounding victory in an election, it isn’t just based on those kitchen table issues, but rather it’s based on arguments that we make about big structural reforms.
In order to apply the pressure necessary to overcome Senate rules, and inspire some of our more endangered incumbents from difficult places to win to join us in these bold steps, they have to believe it’s good politics to do it.
I’m a huge believer in massive campaign finance reform, but the idea that suddenly a Democratic Senator from a state like Louisiana, if we were to win a seat there, suddenly is going to pull the lever and vote yes for Medicare for All just because we overturn Citizens United is laughable.
That person is gonna have to believe that it’s not just the right thing to do for their constituents, but that it’s also the right thing to do for their continued political success because they have a hell of a lot more than one issue they’re trying to get something accomplished on, which requires longevity in the seat.
Some of it is ego, some of its narcissism sometimes, but sometimes a lot more of it is that they have one issue that they really care about that they wanna make a huge impact on and they’re gonna have to be in the Senate for two or three terms to get the seniority necessary to be on the right committee and in a position of leadership to be able to actually write a reform bill for that issue, and they can’t blow their whole career up over one vote and compromise that.
I think it’s good that the activist class is outraged by the number of things that have broad consensus with the American people that have not been turned into law… But we also need to grow up and understand how our system works and start playing the game that can actually beat it. We’re all on the same team, let’s go kick the other team’s asses…because they richly deserve it. 💪💪💪🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
To be cleaf, the Democrats do not suck, but much of thd parry heierarchy does suck. It is a party that does not listen to its footsoldiers and hires way too many consultants. It is NOT the people's parfy. I quit the party after the powers that bd decided that Biden was going to be the nominee a second time. I canvassed and supported Biden in 2000. Hoever, time changes people, and it was clear that he was too old for the job. I had been a Dem since 1971 and quit in 2024. I still vote Dem and give to individual candidates. But natiinal Drm organizations (DNC, DCCC etc.) do not get a dime from me. Nor do I work under the direction of the Party. They do not listen. All they want are small donor shdep.
Respectfully, voters decided Biden was gonna be the nominee again. Yes it’s true there wasn’t a significant primary challenge against him, but that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have. But, there was not a universal sense among the primary voter base that he should get out. Those of you who were correct about that have rewritten history on this, but a lot of of us wanted Biden to run again because first of all, he was the greatest success legislatively that we’ve had in the office since Lyndon Johnson, and second of all he had had the best midterm and nearly a century of a sitting incumbent outside of George Bush like literally right after 911 in wartime… And thirdly, there was a pretty clear trend that incumbency was about the biggest advantage you could hope for in an election, and we didn’t wanna blow that up. But there was not a secret conspiracy to make Biden the nominee more than there is in any year where we have a sitting incumbent president. Somebody could have done what Ted Kennedy tried to do in 1980, but no serious candidate tried. And the voters re-nominated Biden. In hindsight I certainly wish they had made a different choice, but there’s a pretty defensible position for everybody who wanted him to run again that made a hell of a lot of sense at the time. So, I’m not trying to get get into a shouting match with you at all, but I just fundamentally reject your premise that somehow the powers that be decided he was gonna be the nominee. He didn’t have universal support amongst the party but for you to suggest that there wasn’t a very strong faction of support that was at least 50% or more of the primary voters is just flatly wrong.
Wasn't it clear to you that the party leadership did not want compettion in the primary? Thd party leadership did not allow serious competition. Post debate behavior by the core Biden handlers. Anyway, I just got riered of being lied to and used as free labor by the leadership. You should try communicating with the DNC and gettung anything more than a cannex response. The average party mmber has no say. After I sent prepaid.envelopes from the DNC with requests for discussion, they simply stopped asking me for money.
I believe Pres Biden had a '50%' of the primary vote as you suggest in your final sentence as polls in 2023 indicated (Yougov/CBS Apr 2023). However, independent voters also get a vote in the general election.
Yes that’s true, but Biden‘s renominate was not decided by independents… every presidential cycle builds a strategy to win the nomination from the base, and win the general from the undecideds…. Just because you’re not pulling well with independent voters doesn’t mean that you can’t secure their votes in the general if you properly disqualify your opponent. They definitely failed to do that, and they might have failed no matter what. But people who refuse to affiliate with the Democratic Party have a lot of opinions about everything the Democratic Party should do, and I don’t understand why they don’t just register as Democrats and then have a greater impact on the process. Pretty hard to change an institution from outside of it.
You are describing the political operation of every incumbent president that has ever sat in that chair running for reelection. Of course they don’t want a competitive primary… They’re already sitting in the White House and they wanna start running against the other party… They don’t wanna spend a bunch of their resources fighting off a battle from within.
Maybe that’s not healthy, but this is hardly something that started with the Biden Administration. And I don’t know who your favorite Democratic president is but whether it’s FDR, Barack Obama, or John F. Kennedy…or even Jimmy Carter… Not one of them didn’t have a robust political opposition within the party, and a robust political operation to try to stave off any threats from within the party to their renomination.
I don’t have a problem with you not liking this, but let’s stop acting like it’s a new phenomenon or some grand conspiracy that the current establishment Democratic Party is pulling. And also, I promise you that none of those DNCs in the past ever tried to open up individual dialogue with individual small donors… Rather, they use surveys, read comments, and yes read your letters and listen to the messages you leave, and try to gain an overall sense of where things are in the aggregate from the flood of voices that they get, and try to craft a platform and a strategy based on that.
They don’t always get it right, and never get it perfect. But the expectation that they’re gonna sit down and have an hour long conversation with just you and then make massive strategic changes based on that one conversation is just unreasonable… They’re trying to put together platforms, policies, messaging points, and arguments to reach millions of people.
You can feel how you want about them, but I am just not in a position where I can allow people in my view to talk about this like it’s the JFK assassination and that somebody clearly was standing on the grassy knoll, without pointing out a different perspective about it because I just don’t think it’s a conspiracy.
I’m truly and sincerely sorry that you feel sideways with the party… All of us have been very disappointed by a lot of things particularly in the last 10 years and frankly I was very disappointed by things that didn’t get accomplished in the Obama Administration, especially in the first two years. But none of that has made me give up on my party and then start saying things publicly that could weaken it relative to the dumpster fire, dangerous authoritarian movement that the Republican Party has become and were on track to become years before Trump even got into the damn debate with his vile questioning of Barack Obama citizenship.
Being critical of bad aspects of the party is not to weaken it. We need critical thought and conversatiin to stengthen it. Otherwise we mimic the blind loyalty of MAGA. Bad mistake.
Yes I did… But I had just watched a man deliver on more economic reforms with the thinnest congressional majority we’ve had since like the 1920s than any president in 60 years. I felt at the end of the day like it was a bigger risk to give up the advantage of incumbency when the alternative was Donald Trump. And I had been genuinely impressed by Biden‘s presidency.
History has proven me wrong… And I won’t sit here and bullshit you about that. But just like the situation with Ken Martin and the autopsy report, there were good logical and emotional reasons to support Joe Biden for reelection.
That’s why we have to have these discussions. Also, for what it’s worth, I see what Trump is dealing with as mental acuity problems. I didn’t really see that in Biden… What I saw in Biden was a guy with a stutter, and yes a guy who was very old. But I never felt like he didn’t know what he was talking about. And I’ve watched Joe Biden for 30 years, and he’s always been a guy who on the stump would accidentally say billion when he meant trillion.
What I failed at the time to recognize was that he would be given no grace for this because of his advanced age. That’s on me, but I felt strongly that the economy was improving, and I felt strongly that we had so much cannon fodder available to us to disqualify Trump, that we could beat him in a choice election. But the campaign and the super pack for reasons I will never understand, chose not to engage heavily with that.
I don’t know if it would’ve made the difference. But it might have. But the way they handled it allowed the election to be a referendum on Biden rather than a choice between Biden and Trump which put us in a terrible disadvantage making the age thing a premier issue, and making his low approval ratings a more potent factor.
Again, in retrospect, I really wish that the day after the midterms he had announced that he had done what he set out to do, and that the work must continue but he believed it was time to pass the torch to the next generation and that we would’ve had a big messy open primary… But that’s not what happened. And all I’m saying is, there were very good and defensible reasons to support him for reelection… And had we had the big messy primary and then lost to Trump anyway, we would all be having a big discussion about what a mistake it was to not have Biden run for reelection and enjoy the structural advantages of incumbency.
We have to do the best we can with what’s in front of us, and then course correct when things don’t go our way. Because none of us have a crystal ball, and I don’t think any of us should take the moments when we got it right and assume that our judgment will always be right… Because all of us are wrong plenty. It’s what we do about it when we make the wrong choice that matters, and that’s where we are right now.
I’m not telling you not to criticize the party ever again… I’m asking that you spend more time criticizing the Republicans right now, and then air out your grievances with the party again after we beat the Republicans and get our candidates seated. If we were on a basketball team together and we needed to make up a 12 point deficit with eight minutes left in the game, even if there were a bunch of people on the team who personally don’t like each other at all…which is not what’s happening here… I’m sure you’re a great guy… We would set all that shit aside and start working together to score and prevent the other team from scoring so we could make up the deficit and win the goddamn game.
You’re my brother… You want what’s best for America and so do I… I imagine what we want as far as public policy is concerned is at least 90% overlapping if not more… The Democratic Party is the team available to us to take power away from MAGA. Let’s get on with the work together. Much love and peace. ✌️ 🇺🇸
Yes, Biden was a good Presidengt, partly because he had a good staff, but he was losing his marbles. And that was being hidden from us, no matter Jill's emtional response. It is not about one oerson's feelings, it is about one if the most important jobs in the world. And guess what, the unstable, unethical 80 year old moron is a total failure. No news there.
OK, I’ve certainly spoken my peace with you, so I’m going to peace out of this conversation for now. You and I disagree about Biden losing his marbles… I think that’s a painfully superficial judgment of the situation, but I am not gonna spend all day trying to convince you otherwise. And most importantly, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Don't forget Lyndon Johnson, who saw the writing on the wall because of the Vietnam war. Just because we "always did things this way" is never a good argument in human affairs. One, including myself, needs to be a little less frightened in looking for better options. Also, I never expected an hour long sit down with a DNC official. Just don't send me thise idiot, biased polls and faje membership cards. How about high level DNC members get on substack and exchange ideas, like we are doing. And pkease stop with the "grow up" gaslighting. I have a different view than you, and that is all.
When did I tell you personally to grow up? That was in a broader comment that I made before I even engaged on your comment. And it wasn’t about this. I have a big problem with recruiting candidates the way the DSA folks are, and not because I think that they are inherently bad people. There’s a lot of people here ready to throw Graham Platner into the deep into the pool with an anvil tied around his ankle, and I’m not. I’ve made enough mistakes in my life that if I ran a political campaign, the Republicans would turn me into mincemeat in the eyes of the electric, in spite of the fact that those mistake mistakes and overcoming them are the thing I’m most proud of and what I think makes me a good person. But it would be really hard to convey in an ad campaign. So when they don’t properly vet candidates and properly prepare them for what’s gonna happen when the Republican attack machine comes after them, and this only applies to the people that they’re recruiting in battleground states… There’s not gonna be a significant Republican Challenger and some of the New York seats, but in Maine, a place where $10 million goes a hell of a long way in a media by, Susan Collins it’s gonna beat him with a Louisville slugger all day every day. He might survive it, that he was not properly prepared by the organization that recruited him for this, and they didn’t handle it the way a good candidate handles it where they get ahead of the story and release everything themselves first. I have a big problem with doing that in a year where the steaks are this high, not just for the impact it could have on all of us because if we lose the Senate by one vote, it will be because that insurgent organization wants to disrupt but doesn’t want to grow up enough to properly vet their candidates and play the game. And the angry activists who are supporting all of this disruption, a lot of which I agree with wholeheartedly, speak with a level of ignorance about how our system works that is sometimes breathtaking. And if you’re going to shout from the mountain tops about how corrupt the Democratic Party is and how badly we need to change everything, then I expect you to have at least read the fucking constitution and know something about how Bills actually become law. And then create a strategy that can actually affect that change. And frankly, there are a lot of people in the Democratic adjacent world who are making a lot of money right now by trashing the party and yelling out promises that they have no hope or strategy to actually deliver on. And I don’t mind articulating a vision, but they’re not educating their voters on why we actually struggle to turn those promises into durable law. They don’t educate them about what it takes to get something past in a bicameral system, they make their voters feel like senators represent the entire country rather than the state they come from, so nobody pays attention to the politics of the state that that person has to deal with, and try to build a broader political strategy that can help them make the right choice for the whole of the country without completely dooming their chances of winning reelection in their own state. The same is true with districts, and they don’t properly educate their people about the need to be in Power in executive and upper legislative chambers so that we can shape the judiciary overtime because none of these things matter if they all get struck down as unconstitutional by a radical court. So yeah, I think they need to grow up, and I think some of the activists who spout a lot of ignorant nonsense on social media need to grow up. That is not me gaslighting you personally, and I didn’t level that at you personally. I know this is an emotionally charged issue, so I’m not taking offense at you accusing me of that, but I just want that to be very clear… That phrase was used in a specific context and it was not aimed at you personally, and if you disagree with my sentiments on that, you’re entitled to, but this is one where I believe my position is very sound and very firm. And people who do not pay attention to these nuts and bolts and the boring blocking and tackling aspects of politics never get their high ideals turned into anything… Not even any version of it. I am thrilled by the success that Mamdani is having with his agenda so far, but he’s in a unique position where he is prophylactically surrounded by a deeply Center left electorate, and is empowered with a tremendous amount of executive authority that he’s using and wielding pretty creatively. But he has also very adroitly built relationships in Albany to help secure funding… But again, it’s in a place where he’s got more allies ideologically than not… This is not the same ball game when you’re dealing with the United States Congress which has a structural tilt towards Center right even though the overall population tilt a little bit Center left. I hope you understand me better now
I did the same thing! I support individual candidates and organizations that work to elect Democrats, like Field Team 6, but I quit giving to the party itself. The DCCC, DSCC, and DNC lost me in 2016.
I think we can all agree ( unless you are a Martin friend or have your postion because of him) that Ken Martin's stewardhsip of the DNC has been less than exemplary. I know there are a myriad number of reasons why this is the case, but how about a real change after the midterms to Ben Wikler? I believe many of Ken Martin's problems are of his own making and I am believer that Ben Wikler would be a vast improvement. This is not a challenge to the "We should not dump on ourselves message," it is constructive advice that sahould be considered as such. You cant just mouth words like "everything is better with us," we have to prove it to the voters and clearly we have not been doing a great job of that. Ben should be asked to return to our team in an official cpacity. The change alone would be helpful to our spirits, IMHO.
Susan, I say this with a lot of respect, but I do not understand where this is coming from other than a meme. I think he made a mistake in how he handled the autopsy report from 2024… His reasoning is actually pretty logical and defensible, but I think it was a mistake on a human nature level, which he took full ownership of. The fundraising stuff is really pissing me off though because there is an inaccurate and certainly incomplete narrative being pushed about why there is less money in the DNC now than people believe should be there… People have been giving money to outside groups all year because they’re so gut shot by our lost to Trump in 2024, and that money just hasn’t been percolating into the establishment Democratic system as much. That’s fine a lot of good work has been happening outside of the party infrastructure. But part of why we don’t have a lot of cash on hand at the DNC comparatively to the RNC is because he’s doing the most important thing with the money coming in that I’ve seen anyone in that position do in the last 25 years which is properly fund the state parties so that we have infrastructure to win all the way down the ballot because so much of the trouble that we’re in right now has been the result of a long-term strategy by the Republicans to consolidate power in state legislatures, governors mansions, and elected judicial positions at the state level. Not to mention the fact that they’ve been trying to load up our school boards with lunatics and our City Council’s with angry, incompetent buffoons that want to bring national ideology into a job that should be the most pragmatic and local issues centered in all of government. So no, I do not have a position that was given to me by Ken Martin, nor do I know the man personally and he’s not a friend… But you’re assertion that we all agree that he’s been less than exemplary is just frankly not true, and I think that we should all get a lot more careful about making these kinds of sweeping statements everywhere as if we understand the Democratic coalition universally better than everybody else. Simon literally showed us data that proves that the predominant message trending on social media discourse about the Democratic Party doesn’t match what rank and file Democrats actually think. I think we could all stand to have a little more humility about this
The DNC has raised tens of millions more in 2026 than it did in 2018. The difference is that they are spending it on state and other programs not hoarding it.
I hope that this indicates the DNC is starting to move in the right diection. However, I need much more of an indication tbat it listens to non-wealthy party members after the 2024 election fiasco. Not releasing a report critical of the party was not a great start by Martin. Many if us are not blind loyalists.
And I can tell y'all from my experience so far working with candidates in Wisconsin is that they are a LOT more interested in new/digital media this cycle (and even what I call "community media," in which supporters are treated the way Simon has been advocating for years--as partners, not ATM machines and work together online to help their candidates), which, if this is happening around the country, is likely to make whatever fundraising advantage they have a lot less dispositive than it looks, especially given that community media, in particular, is just not anywhere Republican culture is capable of going. I also believe what Ken [and Hopium!] are doing with state parties, and what Jane K is doing with rural voters, partisan voter reg, and other initiatives is more important, too. If the billionaires want to blow huge amounts of money on TV ads, let'em--even 80 year olds are becoming digital natives now.
Yestetday I saw a clip of Ezra Levin co-founder of Indivisible and he is all in with you too. He lays it out this way.
1. pick your primary candidates
2. Work as hard as you can to get them past the primary into the nomination.
3. When we reach the general, whether your candidates won or lost, you work as hard as you can for the blue team, no matter the stripe, to defeat the GOP. Our democracy depends on it. These 4 months require our unity, even if it means holding your tongue about certain players.
4. Once the new congress is seated, assuming we have power, the debate to improve the party can begin again.
I'm all in and I hope you will join in supporting the team, no matter the stripe. Whether you want to criticize Platner, or Martin, or Schumer or Chevalier, put it aside for now, because its a distraction in the moment we need to be strongest.
Lets go kick MAGAs a** by as wide a margin as possible.
Susan, a few things: 1) Chair Martin was elected to a four year term. If he steps down or is removed there would be an open election. Ben might not run for he ran once and lost. Others might get in. There is no process to just make Ben Chair. That would be wildly un-democratic. 2) These kinds of conversations are fine - after the election in my view. It's a distraction now. We have to fight with the army we have not the one we wish we had now. Our general election field is largely set. The polls are encouraging. And all need now to shift into battle mode.....
I know you agree that the grassroots community can be a bigger contributor to the cause. Ken has shown no interest at least with the groups I am familiar with. No less than ten people from his staff have contacted me re: him appearing on It Needs to Be Said or writing an article for the Grassroots Connector over the course of two years.Nothing has materialized and I came to understand my efforts were going nowhere. If nothing else, maybe you could encourage him to take better advantage of what is being offered to him. I know Ben would have done so and I do think not incorporating the grassroots to our fullest potential has a
myriad number of consequences. I recommend that everyone read Ben's new book. He just spoke to one of the Grassroots conglomerates I am involved with ( ( Markers For Democracy, Downtown Nasty Women and Team Min -- we didn't have to beg) and all I can say is he gets it. I hope he is welcome back on the team in some official capacity. We can certainly use his talents. And please, nobody respond Ken is busy. He has blown us off since his name was suggested for Party Chair. We in the grassroots will continue to work 24/7 ( not for pay of any sort) but things could be so much better if our skills were actually leveraged. I think the wins in Virginia and Calif demonstrated that.
Last fall, when Aftyn Behn ran for Congress in TN-7 (deep red rural area) , Ken Martin came out and canvassed for her. I am pretty impressed with him. We don't see the head of the RNC canvassing. I don't even know who the head of the RNC is. Is it Trump's daughter in law? Ken Martin is reachable and energetic.
That’s a fair criticism. The only thing I want you to consider is that there were reasons to not release that report besides trying to protect the party from criticism. I agree with you, he made the wrong choice. Sometimes a choice that is very defensible on paper is just the wrong choice when you feel it out through how it’s gonna land emotionally with people.
So, here are the things that I think it’s only fair to at least keep as part of your perspective on that choice… Doesn’t mean you should change your opinion on what the choice should’ve been, just as I still believe it was the wrong choice.
But, it was in sketch form and needed to be written up professionally before presenting to a large audience. In the form that it was in, rough with a lot of different contributions from a lot of different people… It was a terrible read, and it would’ve looked extremely unprofessional to just release what was there, and it would’ve taken about six weeks with a whole committee of people… Not the full DNC, but they would’ve had to appoint a committee whose job it was to take all of that information and turn it into a presentable report for the broader public.
At the moment that that was happening Trump was trying to vaporize the civil service via Elon Musk and his sham government agency, DOGE, and the entire strategy behind what they were doing was to absolutely overwhelm us with an onslot of executive action like we’ve never seen before, most of it illegal, most of it had to be reversed to some degree months later, but they wanted us to be thrown completely off-balance.
So, Ken felt at the time, and even though I disagree with the decision, I do find it to be a defensible logic… he couldn’t afford to take eight people off of the job of attacking Trump, and talking to members of Congress and trying to help us strategize how the hell we fight back against this before it’s too late, so that they can freshen up this autopsy report. Instead he felt he needed all hands on deck doing two things and two things only… Attacking Trump, and preparing us to win every single special election that came up possible, and eviscerate them by the widest margins we possibly could in the November election of 2025 in New Jersey, Virginia, and everywhere else that had one.
I think in that moment where he was being hit with 10 fire hoses at the same time, this choice felt logically correct, but it was emotionally incorrect for the party and he failed in his job to recognize the need to deal with our collective psychological blow after the 2024 election.
All leaders make mistakes and this was a big one. But just because someone makes a mistake doesn’t mean that the intention behind it was automatically nefarious. Ken has been pursuing a strategy to fix a problem that’s been following us around for over two decades that we’ve been paying a steeper and steeper price for, and it has not been met with much praise or gratitude by a lot of people… But mark my words, a big part of why we are as competitive as we are in all the places that we are currently competitive is due to his investments in the state parties.
We would’ve had a great opportunity to be competitive in a lot of places because of the unpopularity of Trump, but the candidate recruitment, the shared voter databases, the coordinated campaigns, the joint fundraising efforts, and the agility that comes from having infrastructure and resources really close to the voters that matter in those districts and states… From county recorders and sheriffs, to city councilman and county commissioners, to mayors and state legislators, to governors and statewide officers like states Attorneys General and Secretaries of State, to elected judicial seats which an alarming number of states have that we haven’t been focusing on at all, to the House of Representatives and the Senate, and next year and the year after that the electoral college… These state parties matter. So I just think it’s important that we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater on Ken.
He made a big mistake, and I will join you in giving him that criticism, but I applaud him for owning it fully, and his justification for the decision that he made, while in my view does not exonerate the choice as being a mistake, is understandable enough to me to give him some grace in lieu of the other very important things that he’s doing.
Come on, I don’t even think he was awake for 40 hours a week 😂
The people’s party!
I do agree. I am tired of hearing the Democrats be dumped on when they have be doing event they could.
Thank you for saying this, Simon.
Thanks, Simon! I could not agree more with your point. It's time to be proud Democrats.
I listened to Mayor Mamdani's speech today and found it inspiring. Worth a listen if folks have time.
I'm working on postcards to Ohio voters today.
Stay cool and hydrated everyone!
I live in Ohio. Please lmk where I can get these postcards.
Hi, I've been writing with Postcards to Swing States. Here's a link: https://turnoutpac.org/postcards/
You can pick Ohio or one of several other states.
Thanks much!
I sure love your messages and leadership Simon. I appreciate Hopium SO much!! And you walk your talk. And help us walk it too. Beyond helpful, our community keeps me sane and helps me participate as best I can.
Is it okay to share a new song, written by my friend, for our country’s birthday? We need the arts in this time too, right?
An original work by Boulder County songwriter Wendy A. Watkins.
🇺🇸 New release for America's 250th: "American Dream" — The Thawing
Vocals are her own voice, shaped with AI assistance — all under her full creative direction.
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5X4euE26BMK1birJCGsOWb?si=KIphw4lNRSm2c9NunL5vrA
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THank you so much. What an uplift!
I so agree. Simon - we are staying focused on the midterms - calling it our NORTH STAR. It is that serious ... In these midterms, democracy is my North Star. Just as sailors used the North Star to navigate through dark and uncertain waters, a commitment to protecting our free and fair elections is the fixed point guiding every strategy, vote, and action I take right now. And - can you please tell the top elected leaders to stop - STOP with the attacks on Democratic Socialists - it is so distracting and unhelpful right now. So people may stop talking about "sucking" if truly the top leaders LEAD and stop this nonsense. Voters are picking DSA candidates because they are talking about what people want. That's all.
I love this. The midterms are our northstar!
Absolutely spot on, Simon, we have an election to win and traitors to our country to deal with and from this day on we have to focus on pulling the rug from under their corrupt feet. “This We Must Do If America Is To Long Endure”, Judge J. Michael Luttig, is worth reading.
Mayor Mamdani making me proud to be a New Yorker
https://share.google/kiVOBxKxuwpYw6z5I
Great speech and worth a listen by anyone on this thread whether they are a New Yorker or not. Thanks for sharing!
What a wonderful speech; he made me cry. Have you seen the video of him jumping into the pool on opening day?
Thanks, Simon, I am with you. We will win through motivation and enthusiasm.
I am also confused by negative discourse within the party and members of this group. There are Democratic candidates I love and some I don’t. There are things I want changed - for instance, Democrats speaking strongly and clearly and proudly of what we stand for instead of letting Republicans make us believe we have to stay quiet about our beliefs-and things I love. But surely we have learned from Republicans how disruptive, hurtful, and unAmerican it is to bash and speak harshly to each other. Let’s be adults and have conversations, not arguments. We can model the type of daily discord we want in our lives by utilizing it in this space. I’m a proud Democrat and I’m not ashamed of our values and goals and candidates. I feel so lucky to have Talarico as my candidate for Senate and Gina Hinojosa as candidate for Governor. I want to be loud and proud; are you with me?
YES!
Darla - as a Midwesterner who lived in Dallas for 31 years, NOTHING would please me more than to see some Dem wins in Texas!! I am rooting for you all and donating to candidates. I moved to TX in May 1989 when Ann Richards was beating Claytie Williams for Governor. What a joy she was to watch, huh? I really believe 2026 is the year some sanity returns to Texas electeds.
Well written, Simon. Let’s stop being our own worst enemy as a party.
As a Michigan voter I’m very interested to see how our Senate primary pans out. There is a lot of momentum with Abdul (I use his first name not out of disrespect, but because that is how he brands himself as a candidate) and I’m curious to see how that will pan out in August. (I also hate how late the primary is.) It’s a tough primary because I think he, McMorrow, and Stevens are all strong candidates working from a place of virtue. They all have the strength to win in November, and many local voters I know haven’t made up their minds yet. Regardless, based on the messaging I’ve seen I think the winning candidate will rally behind the party because they know what’s at stake here.
I want to add some additional support to bringing strength/weakness and democracy/civil liberties into the debate. Because the antidote to the inertia that everybody is so upset about where it seems like our party can’t get the big reforms across the finish line, is to make sure that when we have a resounding victory in an election, it isn’t just based on those kitchen table issues, but rather it’s based on arguments that we make about big structural reforms.
In order to apply the pressure necessary to overcome Senate rules, and inspire some of our more endangered incumbents from difficult places to win to join us in these bold steps, they have to believe it’s good politics to do it.
I’m a huge believer in massive campaign finance reform, but the idea that suddenly a Democratic Senator from a state like Louisiana, if we were to win a seat there, suddenly is going to pull the lever and vote yes for Medicare for All just because we overturn Citizens United is laughable.
That person is gonna have to believe that it’s not just the right thing to do for their constituents, but that it’s also the right thing to do for their continued political success because they have a hell of a lot more than one issue they’re trying to get something accomplished on, which requires longevity in the seat.
Some of it is ego, some of its narcissism sometimes, but sometimes a lot more of it is that they have one issue that they really care about that they wanna make a huge impact on and they’re gonna have to be in the Senate for two or three terms to get the seniority necessary to be on the right committee and in a position of leadership to be able to actually write a reform bill for that issue, and they can’t blow their whole career up over one vote and compromise that.
I think it’s good that the activist class is outraged by the number of things that have broad consensus with the American people that have not been turned into law… But we also need to grow up and understand how our system works and start playing the game that can actually beat it. We’re all on the same team, let’s go kick the other team’s asses…because they richly deserve it. 💪💪💪🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Well said!
Thank you, Simon, for writing what needs to be said. Proud Democrat here.
To be cleaf, the Democrats do not suck, but much of thd parry heierarchy does suck. It is a party that does not listen to its footsoldiers and hires way too many consultants. It is NOT the people's parfy. I quit the party after the powers that bd decided that Biden was going to be the nominee a second time. I canvassed and supported Biden in 2000. Hoever, time changes people, and it was clear that he was too old for the job. I had been a Dem since 1971 and quit in 2024. I still vote Dem and give to individual candidates. But natiinal Drm organizations (DNC, DCCC etc.) do not get a dime from me. Nor do I work under the direction of the Party. They do not listen. All they want are small donor shdep.
Respectfully, voters decided Biden was gonna be the nominee again. Yes it’s true there wasn’t a significant primary challenge against him, but that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have. But, there was not a universal sense among the primary voter base that he should get out. Those of you who were correct about that have rewritten history on this, but a lot of of us wanted Biden to run again because first of all, he was the greatest success legislatively that we’ve had in the office since Lyndon Johnson, and second of all he had had the best midterm and nearly a century of a sitting incumbent outside of George Bush like literally right after 911 in wartime… And thirdly, there was a pretty clear trend that incumbency was about the biggest advantage you could hope for in an election, and we didn’t wanna blow that up. But there was not a secret conspiracy to make Biden the nominee more than there is in any year where we have a sitting incumbent president. Somebody could have done what Ted Kennedy tried to do in 1980, but no serious candidate tried. And the voters re-nominated Biden. In hindsight I certainly wish they had made a different choice, but there’s a pretty defensible position for everybody who wanted him to run again that made a hell of a lot of sense at the time. So, I’m not trying to get get into a shouting match with you at all, but I just fundamentally reject your premise that somehow the powers that be decided he was gonna be the nominee. He didn’t have universal support amongst the party but for you to suggest that there wasn’t a very strong faction of support that was at least 50% or more of the primary voters is just flatly wrong.
Wasn't it clear to you that the party leadership did not want compettion in the primary? Thd party leadership did not allow serious competition. Post debate behavior by the core Biden handlers. Anyway, I just got riered of being lied to and used as free labor by the leadership. You should try communicating with the DNC and gettung anything more than a cannex response. The average party mmber has no say. After I sent prepaid.envelopes from the DNC with requests for discussion, they simply stopped asking me for money.
I believe Pres Biden had a '50%' of the primary vote as you suggest in your final sentence as polls in 2023 indicated (Yougov/CBS Apr 2023). However, independent voters also get a vote in the general election.
Yes that’s true, but Biden‘s renominate was not decided by independents… every presidential cycle builds a strategy to win the nomination from the base, and win the general from the undecideds…. Just because you’re not pulling well with independent voters doesn’t mean that you can’t secure their votes in the general if you properly disqualify your opponent. They definitely failed to do that, and they might have failed no matter what. But people who refuse to affiliate with the Democratic Party have a lot of opinions about everything the Democratic Party should do, and I don’t understand why they don’t just register as Democrats and then have a greater impact on the process. Pretty hard to change an institution from outside of it.
You are describing the political operation of every incumbent president that has ever sat in that chair running for reelection. Of course they don’t want a competitive primary… They’re already sitting in the White House and they wanna start running against the other party… They don’t wanna spend a bunch of their resources fighting off a battle from within.
Maybe that’s not healthy, but this is hardly something that started with the Biden Administration. And I don’t know who your favorite Democratic president is but whether it’s FDR, Barack Obama, or John F. Kennedy…or even Jimmy Carter… Not one of them didn’t have a robust political opposition within the party, and a robust political operation to try to stave off any threats from within the party to their renomination.
I don’t have a problem with you not liking this, but let’s stop acting like it’s a new phenomenon or some grand conspiracy that the current establishment Democratic Party is pulling. And also, I promise you that none of those DNCs in the past ever tried to open up individual dialogue with individual small donors… Rather, they use surveys, read comments, and yes read your letters and listen to the messages you leave, and try to gain an overall sense of where things are in the aggregate from the flood of voices that they get, and try to craft a platform and a strategy based on that.
They don’t always get it right, and never get it perfect. But the expectation that they’re gonna sit down and have an hour long conversation with just you and then make massive strategic changes based on that one conversation is just unreasonable… They’re trying to put together platforms, policies, messaging points, and arguments to reach millions of people.
You can feel how you want about them, but I am just not in a position where I can allow people in my view to talk about this like it’s the JFK assassination and that somebody clearly was standing on the grassy knoll, without pointing out a different perspective about it because I just don’t think it’s a conspiracy.
I’m truly and sincerely sorry that you feel sideways with the party… All of us have been very disappointed by a lot of things particularly in the last 10 years and frankly I was very disappointed by things that didn’t get accomplished in the Obama Administration, especially in the first two years. But none of that has made me give up on my party and then start saying things publicly that could weaken it relative to the dumpster fire, dangerous authoritarian movement that the Republican Party has become and were on track to become years before Trump even got into the damn debate with his vile questioning of Barack Obama citizenship.
Being critical of bad aspects of the party is not to weaken it. We need critical thought and conversatiin to stengthen it. Otherwise we mimic the blind loyalty of MAGA. Bad mistake.
Did you take age and mental acuity into your analyis. I think that we have learned now that these "trump" incumbancy.
Yes I did… But I had just watched a man deliver on more economic reforms with the thinnest congressional majority we’ve had since like the 1920s than any president in 60 years. I felt at the end of the day like it was a bigger risk to give up the advantage of incumbency when the alternative was Donald Trump. And I had been genuinely impressed by Biden‘s presidency.
History has proven me wrong… And I won’t sit here and bullshit you about that. But just like the situation with Ken Martin and the autopsy report, there were good logical and emotional reasons to support Joe Biden for reelection.
That’s why we have to have these discussions. Also, for what it’s worth, I see what Trump is dealing with as mental acuity problems. I didn’t really see that in Biden… What I saw in Biden was a guy with a stutter, and yes a guy who was very old. But I never felt like he didn’t know what he was talking about. And I’ve watched Joe Biden for 30 years, and he’s always been a guy who on the stump would accidentally say billion when he meant trillion.
What I failed at the time to recognize was that he would be given no grace for this because of his advanced age. That’s on me, but I felt strongly that the economy was improving, and I felt strongly that we had so much cannon fodder available to us to disqualify Trump, that we could beat him in a choice election. But the campaign and the super pack for reasons I will never understand, chose not to engage heavily with that.
I don’t know if it would’ve made the difference. But it might have. But the way they handled it allowed the election to be a referendum on Biden rather than a choice between Biden and Trump which put us in a terrible disadvantage making the age thing a premier issue, and making his low approval ratings a more potent factor.
Again, in retrospect, I really wish that the day after the midterms he had announced that he had done what he set out to do, and that the work must continue but he believed it was time to pass the torch to the next generation and that we would’ve had a big messy open primary… But that’s not what happened. And all I’m saying is, there were very good and defensible reasons to support him for reelection… And had we had the big messy primary and then lost to Trump anyway, we would all be having a big discussion about what a mistake it was to not have Biden run for reelection and enjoy the structural advantages of incumbency.
We have to do the best we can with what’s in front of us, and then course correct when things don’t go our way. Because none of us have a crystal ball, and I don’t think any of us should take the moments when we got it right and assume that our judgment will always be right… Because all of us are wrong plenty. It’s what we do about it when we make the wrong choice that matters, and that’s where we are right now.
I’m not telling you not to criticize the party ever again… I’m asking that you spend more time criticizing the Republicans right now, and then air out your grievances with the party again after we beat the Republicans and get our candidates seated. If we were on a basketball team together and we needed to make up a 12 point deficit with eight minutes left in the game, even if there were a bunch of people on the team who personally don’t like each other at all…which is not what’s happening here… I’m sure you’re a great guy… We would set all that shit aside and start working together to score and prevent the other team from scoring so we could make up the deficit and win the goddamn game.
You’re my brother… You want what’s best for America and so do I… I imagine what we want as far as public policy is concerned is at least 90% overlapping if not more… The Democratic Party is the team available to us to take power away from MAGA. Let’s get on with the work together. Much love and peace. ✌️ 🇺🇸
Yes, Biden was a good Presidengt, partly because he had a good staff, but he was losing his marbles. And that was being hidden from us, no matter Jill's emtional response. It is not about one oerson's feelings, it is about one if the most important jobs in the world. And guess what, the unstable, unethical 80 year old moron is a total failure. No news there.
OK, I’ve certainly spoken my peace with you, so I’m going to peace out of this conversation for now. You and I disagree about Biden losing his marbles… I think that’s a painfully superficial judgment of the situation, but I am not gonna spend all day trying to convince you otherwise. And most importantly, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Don't forget Lyndon Johnson, who saw the writing on the wall because of the Vietnam war. Just because we "always did things this way" is never a good argument in human affairs. One, including myself, needs to be a little less frightened in looking for better options. Also, I never expected an hour long sit down with a DNC official. Just don't send me thise idiot, biased polls and faje membership cards. How about high level DNC members get on substack and exchange ideas, like we are doing. And pkease stop with the "grow up" gaslighting. I have a different view than you, and that is all.
When did I tell you personally to grow up? That was in a broader comment that I made before I even engaged on your comment. And it wasn’t about this. I have a big problem with recruiting candidates the way the DSA folks are, and not because I think that they are inherently bad people. There’s a lot of people here ready to throw Graham Platner into the deep into the pool with an anvil tied around his ankle, and I’m not. I’ve made enough mistakes in my life that if I ran a political campaign, the Republicans would turn me into mincemeat in the eyes of the electric, in spite of the fact that those mistake mistakes and overcoming them are the thing I’m most proud of and what I think makes me a good person. But it would be really hard to convey in an ad campaign. So when they don’t properly vet candidates and properly prepare them for what’s gonna happen when the Republican attack machine comes after them, and this only applies to the people that they’re recruiting in battleground states… There’s not gonna be a significant Republican Challenger and some of the New York seats, but in Maine, a place where $10 million goes a hell of a long way in a media by, Susan Collins it’s gonna beat him with a Louisville slugger all day every day. He might survive it, that he was not properly prepared by the organization that recruited him for this, and they didn’t handle it the way a good candidate handles it where they get ahead of the story and release everything themselves first. I have a big problem with doing that in a year where the steaks are this high, not just for the impact it could have on all of us because if we lose the Senate by one vote, it will be because that insurgent organization wants to disrupt but doesn’t want to grow up enough to properly vet their candidates and play the game. And the angry activists who are supporting all of this disruption, a lot of which I agree with wholeheartedly, speak with a level of ignorance about how our system works that is sometimes breathtaking. And if you’re going to shout from the mountain tops about how corrupt the Democratic Party is and how badly we need to change everything, then I expect you to have at least read the fucking constitution and know something about how Bills actually become law. And then create a strategy that can actually affect that change. And frankly, there are a lot of people in the Democratic adjacent world who are making a lot of money right now by trashing the party and yelling out promises that they have no hope or strategy to actually deliver on. And I don’t mind articulating a vision, but they’re not educating their voters on why we actually struggle to turn those promises into durable law. They don’t educate them about what it takes to get something past in a bicameral system, they make their voters feel like senators represent the entire country rather than the state they come from, so nobody pays attention to the politics of the state that that person has to deal with, and try to build a broader political strategy that can help them make the right choice for the whole of the country without completely dooming their chances of winning reelection in their own state. The same is true with districts, and they don’t properly educate their people about the need to be in Power in executive and upper legislative chambers so that we can shape the judiciary overtime because none of these things matter if they all get struck down as unconstitutional by a radical court. So yeah, I think they need to grow up, and I think some of the activists who spout a lot of ignorant nonsense on social media need to grow up. That is not me gaslighting you personally, and I didn’t level that at you personally. I know this is an emotionally charged issue, so I’m not taking offense at you accusing me of that, but I just want that to be very clear… That phrase was used in a specific context and it was not aimed at you personally, and if you disagree with my sentiments on that, you’re entitled to, but this is one where I believe my position is very sound and very firm. And people who do not pay attention to these nuts and bolts and the boring blocking and tackling aspects of politics never get their high ideals turned into anything… Not even any version of it. I am thrilled by the success that Mamdani is having with his agenda so far, but he’s in a unique position where he is prophylactically surrounded by a deeply Center left electorate, and is empowered with a tremendous amount of executive authority that he’s using and wielding pretty creatively. But he has also very adroitly built relationships in Albany to help secure funding… But again, it’s in a place where he’s got more allies ideologically than not… This is not the same ball game when you’re dealing with the United States Congress which has a structural tilt towards Center right even though the overall population tilt a little bit Center left. I hope you understand me better now
I did the same thing! I support individual candidates and organizations that work to elect Democrats, like Field Team 6, but I quit giving to the party itself. The DCCC, DSCC, and DNC lost me in 2016.
I think we can all agree ( unless you are a Martin friend or have your postion because of him) that Ken Martin's stewardhsip of the DNC has been less than exemplary. I know there are a myriad number of reasons why this is the case, but how about a real change after the midterms to Ben Wikler? I believe many of Ken Martin's problems are of his own making and I am believer that Ben Wikler would be a vast improvement. This is not a challenge to the "We should not dump on ourselves message," it is constructive advice that sahould be considered as such. You cant just mouth words like "everything is better with us," we have to prove it to the voters and clearly we have not been doing a great job of that. Ben should be asked to return to our team in an official cpacity. The change alone would be helpful to our spirits, IMHO.
Susan, I say this with a lot of respect, but I do not understand where this is coming from other than a meme. I think he made a mistake in how he handled the autopsy report from 2024… His reasoning is actually pretty logical and defensible, but I think it was a mistake on a human nature level, which he took full ownership of. The fundraising stuff is really pissing me off though because there is an inaccurate and certainly incomplete narrative being pushed about why there is less money in the DNC now than people believe should be there… People have been giving money to outside groups all year because they’re so gut shot by our lost to Trump in 2024, and that money just hasn’t been percolating into the establishment Democratic system as much. That’s fine a lot of good work has been happening outside of the party infrastructure. But part of why we don’t have a lot of cash on hand at the DNC comparatively to the RNC is because he’s doing the most important thing with the money coming in that I’ve seen anyone in that position do in the last 25 years which is properly fund the state parties so that we have infrastructure to win all the way down the ballot because so much of the trouble that we’re in right now has been the result of a long-term strategy by the Republicans to consolidate power in state legislatures, governors mansions, and elected judicial positions at the state level. Not to mention the fact that they’ve been trying to load up our school boards with lunatics and our City Council’s with angry, incompetent buffoons that want to bring national ideology into a job that should be the most pragmatic and local issues centered in all of government. So no, I do not have a position that was given to me by Ken Martin, nor do I know the man personally and he’s not a friend… But you’re assertion that we all agree that he’s been less than exemplary is just frankly not true, and I think that we should all get a lot more careful about making these kinds of sweeping statements everywhere as if we understand the Democratic coalition universally better than everybody else. Simon literally showed us data that proves that the predominant message trending on social media discourse about the Democratic Party doesn’t match what rank and file Democrats actually think. I think we could all stand to have a little more humility about this
Thr reason the DNC does not have money is that it desoarately needs to change its attitude and behavoir FULL STOP
The DNC has raised tens of millions more in 2026 than it did in 2018. The difference is that they are spending it on state and other programs not hoarding it.
My point exactly… The prevailing talking points that are being elevated about this are not congruent with the whole story of what’s been happening
I hope that this indicates the DNC is starting to move in the right diection. However, I need much more of an indication tbat it listens to non-wealthy party members after the 2024 election fiasco. Not releasing a report critical of the party was not a great start by Martin. Many if us are not blind loyalists.
And I can tell y'all from my experience so far working with candidates in Wisconsin is that they are a LOT more interested in new/digital media this cycle (and even what I call "community media," in which supporters are treated the way Simon has been advocating for years--as partners, not ATM machines and work together online to help their candidates), which, if this is happening around the country, is likely to make whatever fundraising advantage they have a lot less dispositive than it looks, especially given that community media, in particular, is just not anywhere Republican culture is capable of going. I also believe what Ken [and Hopium!] are doing with state parties, and what Jane K is doing with rural voters, partisan voter reg, and other initiatives is more important, too. If the billionaires want to blow huge amounts of money on TV ads, let'em--even 80 year olds are becoming digital natives now.
Simon, I'm all in.
Yestetday I saw a clip of Ezra Levin co-founder of Indivisible and he is all in with you too. He lays it out this way.
1. pick your primary candidates
2. Work as hard as you can to get them past the primary into the nomination.
3. When we reach the general, whether your candidates won or lost, you work as hard as you can for the blue team, no matter the stripe, to defeat the GOP. Our democracy depends on it. These 4 months require our unity, even if it means holding your tongue about certain players.
4. Once the new congress is seated, assuming we have power, the debate to improve the party can begin again.
I'm all in and I hope you will join in supporting the team, no matter the stripe. Whether you want to criticize Platner, or Martin, or Schumer or Chevalier, put it aside for now, because its a distraction in the moment we need to be strongest.
Lets go kick MAGAs a** by as wide a margin as possible.
This is not what I am saying. Far too much time and money is being spent on taking out incumbent Democrats which does nothing to help us beat MAGA.
Love this comment, Piano Man Steve!
Susan, a few things: 1) Chair Martin was elected to a four year term. If he steps down or is removed there would be an open election. Ben might not run for he ran once and lost. Others might get in. There is no process to just make Ben Chair. That would be wildly un-democratic. 2) These kinds of conversations are fine - after the election in my view. It's a distraction now. We have to fight with the army we have not the one we wish we had now. Our general election field is largely set. The polls are encouraging. And all need now to shift into battle mode.....
I love the kernel of your comment: we have to fight with what we have, not what we wish we had. That's it right there.
I agree! And one can’t assume that we would all concur with this poster’s choice or someone else’s.
I know you agree that the grassroots community can be a bigger contributor to the cause. Ken has shown no interest at least with the groups I am familiar with. No less than ten people from his staff have contacted me re: him appearing on It Needs to Be Said or writing an article for the Grassroots Connector over the course of two years.Nothing has materialized and I came to understand my efforts were going nowhere. If nothing else, maybe you could encourage him to take better advantage of what is being offered to him. I know Ben would have done so and I do think not incorporating the grassroots to our fullest potential has a
myriad number of consequences. I recommend that everyone read Ben's new book. He just spoke to one of the Grassroots conglomerates I am involved with ( ( Markers For Democracy, Downtown Nasty Women and Team Min -- we didn't have to beg) and all I can say is he gets it. I hope he is welcome back on the team in some official capacity. We can certainly use his talents. And please, nobody respond Ken is busy. He has blown us off since his name was suggested for Party Chair. We in the grassroots will continue to work 24/7 ( not for pay of any sort) but things could be so much better if our skills were actually leveraged. I think the wins in Virginia and Calif demonstrated that.
Last fall, when Aftyn Behn ran for Congress in TN-7 (deep red rural area) , Ken Martin came out and canvassed for her. I am pretty impressed with him. We don't see the head of the RNC canvassing. I don't even know who the head of the RNC is. Is it Trump's daughter in law? Ken Martin is reachable and energetic.
That’s a fair criticism. The only thing I want you to consider is that there were reasons to not release that report besides trying to protect the party from criticism. I agree with you, he made the wrong choice. Sometimes a choice that is very defensible on paper is just the wrong choice when you feel it out through how it’s gonna land emotionally with people.
So, here are the things that I think it’s only fair to at least keep as part of your perspective on that choice… Doesn’t mean you should change your opinion on what the choice should’ve been, just as I still believe it was the wrong choice.
But, it was in sketch form and needed to be written up professionally before presenting to a large audience. In the form that it was in, rough with a lot of different contributions from a lot of different people… It was a terrible read, and it would’ve looked extremely unprofessional to just release what was there, and it would’ve taken about six weeks with a whole committee of people… Not the full DNC, but they would’ve had to appoint a committee whose job it was to take all of that information and turn it into a presentable report for the broader public.
At the moment that that was happening Trump was trying to vaporize the civil service via Elon Musk and his sham government agency, DOGE, and the entire strategy behind what they were doing was to absolutely overwhelm us with an onslot of executive action like we’ve never seen before, most of it illegal, most of it had to be reversed to some degree months later, but they wanted us to be thrown completely off-balance.
So, Ken felt at the time, and even though I disagree with the decision, I do find it to be a defensible logic… he couldn’t afford to take eight people off of the job of attacking Trump, and talking to members of Congress and trying to help us strategize how the hell we fight back against this before it’s too late, so that they can freshen up this autopsy report. Instead he felt he needed all hands on deck doing two things and two things only… Attacking Trump, and preparing us to win every single special election that came up possible, and eviscerate them by the widest margins we possibly could in the November election of 2025 in New Jersey, Virginia, and everywhere else that had one.
I think in that moment where he was being hit with 10 fire hoses at the same time, this choice felt logically correct, but it was emotionally incorrect for the party and he failed in his job to recognize the need to deal with our collective psychological blow after the 2024 election.
All leaders make mistakes and this was a big one. But just because someone makes a mistake doesn’t mean that the intention behind it was automatically nefarious. Ken has been pursuing a strategy to fix a problem that’s been following us around for over two decades that we’ve been paying a steeper and steeper price for, and it has not been met with much praise or gratitude by a lot of people… But mark my words, a big part of why we are as competitive as we are in all the places that we are currently competitive is due to his investments in the state parties.
We would’ve had a great opportunity to be competitive in a lot of places because of the unpopularity of Trump, but the candidate recruitment, the shared voter databases, the coordinated campaigns, the joint fundraising efforts, and the agility that comes from having infrastructure and resources really close to the voters that matter in those districts and states… From county recorders and sheriffs, to city councilman and county commissioners, to mayors and state legislators, to governors and statewide officers like states Attorneys General and Secretaries of State, to elected judicial seats which an alarming number of states have that we haven’t been focusing on at all, to the House of Representatives and the Senate, and next year and the year after that the electoral college… These state parties matter. So I just think it’s important that we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater on Ken.
He made a big mistake, and I will join you in giving him that criticism, but I applaud him for owning it fully, and his justification for the decision that he made, while in my view does not exonerate the choice as being a mistake, is understandable enough to me to give him some grace in lieu of the other very important things that he’s doing.