Afternoon everyone. I am excited to announce the first round of endorsements in Republican held House seats we need to win to flip the House next year. We are starting with these four must win races:
Jo Mendoza AZ-06
Christina Bohannan IA-01
Paige Cognetti PA-08
Janelle Stelson PA-10
This week I will be sharing interviews with all four so you can get to know them better. First up is Christina Bohannan, our great candidate running in Iowa’s first district, in southeastern Iowa. A recording of our conversation is above. As in the 2024 cylce we’ve created a single ActBlue site that allows you to give all four candidates with one click or you will be able to support each individually (those links will be up soon). You can support Christina directly here.
Many in our community may remember that in the 2024 cycle we raised almost $2.5m for House challengers, an enormous sum in these highly competitive races, and won 7 of the 17 races we targeted. It was a significant achievement by this community of generous, proud, and plucky patriots in a tough year at the top of the ticket.
Several of the compelling candidates we supported last cycle are running again to get the job done this time around, including law professor, engineer and former Iowa State Representative Christina Bohannan. In a district Trump won by 8 points in 2024 Christina came within 799 votes of winning and was able to get 30,000 Iowans who voted for Trump to vote for her (amazing!) She is a very strong and candidate and it’s great she is giving it another go.
As we discuss in our interview the climate in Iowa this year is more favorable now. The national climate has shifted at least 7 points since last year. Our respected candidate for Governor, Rob Sand, is running a very competitive race. As Christina tells us Democrats on the ground are far more motivated to fight, and Trump’s misguided trade policies are doing enormous harm to farmers and everyone dependent on the farm economy in this agricultural powerhouse. Her opponent has voted for the Republican uglies - tariffs, health care cuts, higher energy costs - and is going to have a very hard time “defending the indefensible” in their election. And Christina is a far more experienced candidate now.
I strongly recommend watching this interview for Christina does a great explaining just how different this cycle feels right now on the ground, how much more favorable it is than last year. It is important folks hear this from one of our top candidates, for it affirms that more is possible for us now. That with hard work this can be a cycle of opportunity for us across the country, even in tough to win red states and red places like Iowa.
For more context on the opportunities in Iowa this year watch our recent interview with Iowa Democratic Chair Rita Hart. She provides a terrific overview of the 2026 electoral landscape in Iowa, and explains why she believes it can be a year of progress for us in this critical state. Iowa is one of the five states we are investing in through our Audacious Expansion Fund. Listening to these two interviews with give you a sense why we see so much opportunity in Iowa - including potentially in a US Senate race - next year.
Let’s Keep Working Hard Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winning The Midterms - Support Our 2026 Candidates
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $52k raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $95k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my inspiring interview with Senator Ossoff
Hopium Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $50,000 goal - Donate to all four of endorsed challengers with one click | more info coming soon
Hopium House 7 - Our Top House Incumbents Running For Re-election (2026) - $250,000 goal, $242k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer | Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents
Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps (2026-2032)
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $250,000 goal, $194,000 raised - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas | Donate to all five state parties in a single contribution | Watch my interviews with Alaska Chair Eric Croft, Florida Chair Nikki Fried, Iowa Chair Rita Hart and Texas Chair Kendall Scudder | Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties!
North Carolina and Ohio - Learn more about our 2026 opportunities in Ohio in this conversation with David Pepper, and in North Carolina in this new interview Anderson Clayton.
Defending America, Winning The Big Arguments With Trump - We have two recommended actions today:
1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our emerging four part agenda and for releasing the Epstein files:
Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world
Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE, restoring due process for immigrants across the country, vigorously defending the 1st Amendment, warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents, and ending the use of the military on our streets and the unlawful occupation of our cities
Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; support and co-sponsor Rep. Haley Stevens’ effort to Impeach and remove Robert Kennedy
Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia and China
Release the Epstein files
2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston. They offer practical advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community.
Remarkably, members of this community have passed or are advancing 85 (!!!!) resolution projects in 23 states + DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the end of the year?
Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder!
Keep working hard all, and remember Hopium is hope with a plan. We don’t just hope tomorrow will be better than today.
We do the work to make it so.
- Simon
