McConnell and Graham Pass From The Scene, Maine Dems Keep Moving Forward, In Defense Of Vetting

Good luck to Argentina, England, France, and Spain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings all. Remarkably, it appears that Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell - two of the primary architects of our descent into illiberalism- have seen their time in Washington come to an end within a few weeks of one another.

My understanding is that the Governor of South Carolina will now appoint a temporary replacement, a GOP primary will be held, and then on to the General Election in November. We have a very capable candidate running for the US Senate in South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews. If this process allows her to become a competitive candidate we will take a serious look at rallying behind her. Trump won South Carolina by 18 points in 2024, so this is a bigger Republican lean than any of the other states we are currently investing in. But Rs could nominate a bad candidate, and this race could become competitive. We will keep our eye on it!

Here’s the only article I will share today about the impact Graham and McConnell had on America. It’s from the great Anne Applebaum: (gift link):

Here is what Lindsay Graham Tweeted in 2016, a ost that remains up on Twitter and never been deleted:

Maine Dems Keep Moving The Process Forward: Here’s the latest video update from MDP Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson:

You can learn more about the process here, and I encourage all Hopium community members in Maine to get involved and help us pick the very best nominee to take on Susan Collins!

I again want to thank the inspiring members of this community. We’ve now raised $53,000 for the Maine Democratic Party to help them get through this incredibly challenging set of events. Between our new fund and our OG Audacious Expansion Fund we’ve now raised almost $180,000 for the Maine Democrats, a big sum for a party in such a small state. Great work everyone!

In Defense Of Vetting - Party committees have one job - to win elections and to win majorities. To do so they work hard each cycle to recruit the very best candidates to run, the ones most likely to win. We’ve seen that in the work the Senate Democrats have done this year to give us a shot at winning the Senate, as they worked hard to get Sherrod Brown, Roy Cooper, and Mary Peltola to run. All three have led in recent polling in very hard to win states.

Part of how we determine what a “good candidate” is through vetting them. Party committee staff and outside research firms get feedback from state and local political and community leaders, look at their electoral track record (yes party committees favor candidates who’ve shown they can win, particularly in tough races), and go through public and financial records, social media posts, past votes and speeches, work history etc to determine whether there are vulnerabilities that be can be exploited by a ruthless and well funded right win campaign and information ecosystem. The idea behind this is simple - the party committee wants to win (that is their only job) and if we are going to ask folks to rally around our candidates we must have confidence in them and their ability to survive the attacks that are going to come. This process is heavily informed by Senators, House Members, and staff who have won competitive battleground races in recent years, and know what it takes to win in hard places.

As we are human these efforts to find the very best candidates and vet them are never perfect. Sometimes there are disagreements in the family about who might be best. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes promising candidates underperform, or lie in the vetting process. But, my friends, there two things that are very clear now:

• You’ve met the many candidates the House and Senate Party Committees are backing and any objective and fair assessment is that both have done a very good job at putting talented, admirable people who fit their states and districts out there this cycle. That this cycle Democrats have done a good job at candidate recruitment and vetting. Period.

• Not taking this process of vetting seriously is reckless, dangerous, and extraordinarily naive.

Here at Hopium we vet our candidates in two ways: 1) we take the recommendations of the Party Committees very seriously, and seldom endorse candidates they have not vetted and rallied behind 2) we do due diligence by talking to people in the state or city who’ve won competitive races. The only candidate that we’ve endorsed since our founding who has blown up and not made it through to the general election is Graham Platner, and as all of you know I was very, very reticent about getting behind such an obviously flawed candidate, particularly in a year where character and virtue have come to matter so much.

What has become true this year is there are powerful actors in our politics who just simply aren’t taking the vetting process seriously enough, and are rallying behind and promoting objectively high risk candidates. We saw this with Platner. We’ve seen it with Darializa Avila Chevalier, who has seen a series of just bat shit crazy and extreme social media posts get uncovered (some just before the primary, some after). We’ve now seen it with a candidate running in MI-7, William Lawrence, who had just an unbelievably wild set of comments get unearthed yesterday (if these exist, there will be more):

Politico has a new story running this morning about this dynamic:

Here are some excerpts (I encourage everyone to read it):

Progressive Democratic candidates have one thing to say to their establishment amid a wave of primary victories poised to dramatically alter the ideological makeup of their party: Enough with the old posts.

Attacks that dredge up calls to defund the police, full-throated embraces of identity politics and more, born from the leftward lurch Democrats took during President Donald Trump’s first term, won’t be what voters are thinking about come November, they say.

……….

Bill Neidhardt, a Democratic strategist at the progressive consulting firm Middle Seat, said that while it’s not like “there’s never room to apologize,” a candidate refusing to entertain attacks on their progressive past can work remarkably well among voters itching for an outsider candidate.

“Whenever I see an incumbent focusing on tweets and not about the economy, I feel like my campaign is in the place where I want it to be,” said Neidhardt,

I’m sorry but as Graham Platner just showed us that last comment and this idea that crazy and bad stuff people have said and done in the past doesn’t matter is fucking insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It needs to be noted there is a vast difference between what is likely to happen with these unvetted candidates in a primary among Democrats versus what happens in a battleground race against Republicans. Democratic voters are far more likely to be forgiving of pass indiscretions, and other Democratic candidate campaigns may be less willing to go there and make this stuff central to the primary discourse. But that is simply not true in battleground districts or states against Republicans - as anyone who has actually been involved in campaigns against Republicans would know. Much of this nascent, DSA-aligned, Bernie descended political world that has emerged in recent months is full of staffers and consultants well versed in winning Democratic primaries. Beating Republicans requires a completely different set of experiences and understandings, including taking the process of vetting a candidate very seriously.

Not taking vetting seriously not only risks us losing races we can and should win, as we’ve learned with Platner, it can do damage to the entire Democratic brand and cost us dearly in terms of time and money. Not taking vetting seriously is risky under any circumstances, but in this election, where have this critical opportunity to flip both the House and Senate and grievously wound MAGA, WTF are we doing here, people?

So, Yes, My Friends, It’s Time To Get To Work!!!!

Winning The House

Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign - $967,600 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed 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 - $170,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one targeting candidates who’ve recently emerged from primaries or running in new districts. Our initial crew is Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Denise Powell (NE-02), and Bobby Pulido (TX-15).

A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these seven, 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 all of seven of these intrepid leaders here. We are off to a great start here everyone!

Winning The Senate

Our New Winning The Senate Fund - $481,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our five candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), and Josh Turek (IA). The $481,000 figure is what we’ve raised for these five so far, as you see will below (and a very modest amount for Platner is included in this total).

You can also contribute to their individual campaigns or our expansion state bundles here:

Roy Cooper For NC Senate - $134,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my new discussion with Gov. Cooper

Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $116,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Mary Peltola as she fights to turn Alaska blue

James Talarico For Texas - $102,500 raised, $250,000 - Donate | Learn more from my inspiring interview with Rep. Talarico as he fights to turn Texas blue

Josh Turek For Iowa Senate - $34,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer | Watch my wonderful new interview with Josh Turek

Jon Ossoff For GA Senate - $202,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Senator Ossoff

Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Expansion States

These funds split donations three ways among our candidates for the Senate and Governor, and the State Democratic Party.

Winning Iowa - $16,200 raised, $250,000 goal - We’ve also set up a new Winning Iowa campaign that splits a contribution three ways - to Josh Turek for Senate, to our gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party and its great chair, Rita Hart

Winning Maine - $53,000 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Right now this fund is only supporting the Maine Democratic Party but will expand in coming days to include both our gubernatorial candidate, Hannah Pingree, and our eventual Senate nominee too. Thanks to all of you who have rallied for the Maine Dems in the past few days - it’s a big deal!

Winning Ohio - $174,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party | Donate today and help turn this critical 2026 battleground blue

Our Audacious Expansion Fund - $624,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - 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!

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Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections all across this great country to win, together! - Simon