"Opportunity" - New Harris Ad, The Party Of Putin, Hopium Winning The House Thursdays Resume This Week!

Early Voting Starts in 26 Days Everyone. Join Us In Committing To Vote on Day 1!

Happy Saturday all. Early in person voting starts in 26 days. We just had an incredible Convention, and Trump just got endorsed by a guy with worms in his brain.

The Harris campaign released a new ad last night which is now running widely in the battlegrounds. It’s called “Opportunity.” Please watch and share widely though your networks:

Here is some text the campaign released along with the ad:

As the daughter of a working mother who grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, Vice President Harris believes that when the middle class is strong, America is strong.

The campaign’s latest ad continues the argument for an opportunity economy that she outlined last week in her economic speech in North Carolina and reaffirmed in her convention address last night.

The Vice President is fighting to turn the page on the past and build a future where everyone has a chance to get ahead – whether that be getting a good job, buying a home, or starting a business — and where costs come down.

Her plans will cut taxes for the middle class, reduce grocery costs and take on corporate price gouging, lower the costs of owning and renting a home, and bring down health care costs.

It stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who is running to help billionaires and big corporations at working families’ expense. His extreme Project 2025 agenda will jack up prices, weaken the middle class, and cut Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act while giving another handout to his billionaire friends and giant corporations.

As we’ve been discussing, with inflation beaten and interest rate cuts coming, so much more is possible now for the American people. As the Vice President says, “we need to be thinking about the future” and the opportunity it brings for all of us. So much more is possible now.

Abortion Rights Will Be On The Ballot This November In 10 States - So we now know people will be voting on abortion ballot initiatives in ten states this fall. They are:

Arizona • Colorado • Florida • Maryland • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New York • South Dakota

For more on this important development read this comprehensive overview from Grace Panetta in 19th News, and remember folks, we are not going back. We are going forward!!!!!!

The Party Of Putin, A Party Of Traitors - With Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump yesterday we now have three of the most pro-Putin politicians in America coming together to offer an agenda that would do enormous harm to the global economy which has made us prosperous, our Western alliances which has kept us safe and our democracy which has made us free. I think this endorsement is likely to hurt Trump more than it helps for it reinforces how “unserious” he is, and what a rollicking freak show the GOP has become. But we will see.

Over the past several months Democrats have done a good job at hitting the rapist, fraudster, felon pieces of my rapist, fraudster, traitor, felon frame. On Thursday night, they went hard after the traitor piece, and it was necessary and glorious.

No one did it better than Adam Kinzinger. His speech was one of the most important of the Convention, and perhaps one of the most important in modern times. Watch it again, and spend time with his arguments and words. They are powerful and welcome.

When I wrote my Get To 55 memo last March I hoped that we could grow our coalition this cycle by welcoming former and neverTrump Republicans into what Kinzinger calls this “awkward” arrangement. This is something Bill Kristol and I discussed all the way back in the fall of 2022 in this chat I hosted. Well it is happening now. Wavering and former Republicans were clearly welcomed into our coalition this week, and let us hope that in the days ahead their numbers grow and we can even get leaders like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney to join them. In our own networks and we need to make room for these Republicans and former Republicans, invite them in, help them feel welcome and valued. We need them to ensure this election is the one we all want to have; and their courage and leadership for taking on their own party should be recognized and applauded.

Today Ukraine is celebrating its breaking from the Soviet Union and becoming once again a sovereign, independent nation 33 years ago. President Zelenskyy released this subtitled video marking this day and updating us on the war. On Twitter he wrote shared this in English:

Ukraine. Our land. Given by God. Kissed by the sun. Rocked by the winds. Tempered by fire. Defended by its sons and daughters. It cannot be mistaken for anything else. It can never be given away to anyone. Happy Independence Day of Ukraine!

Thursday Night Postcarding and Phonebanking for Josh Riley (NY-19) - We are back at it this Thursday at 730pm ET for a night of work for a great House candidate from New York, Josh Riley. You can register here, and note when doing so you can now select which breakout room you want to join. We have trainings for both activities live each evening, and for those who are more experienced you can a select a breakout room without training and just get to work. Visit here to learn more about ordering postcards for these events. Each week we will be reaching our to core Democratic voters and encouraging them to Vote on Day 1 and letting them know when early in person and mail/drop box voting begins in their states. We are now 26 days away from the first day of early voting in the Presidential election! It’s game time, everyone.

In the spirit of not letting up, “doing something” as Michelle Obama said and leaving it all on the playing field as Gov Walz has encouraged, I again make my pitch for the candidates and state parties we’ve been working for this year. Last Saturday I offered an in-depth post on the strategy behind our candidate and state party endorsements, including our Presidential battleground “check” and “checkmate” strategy. 26 days to go before early in voting begins everybody - time to get to work!

• Harris-Walz!!!!!! - $880,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Merch | The Harris-Walz YouTube Channel - Let’s make this a big week people!

• Winning The House - $892,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. Watch our recent discussion with Leader Hakeem Jeffries. To go deeper catch one of our interviews with our great candidates - Janelle Bynum (OR-5), George Whitesides (CA-27), Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) Will Rollins (CA-41), Laura Gillen (NY-04), Rudy Salas (CA-22), Josh Riley (NY-19), Tony Vargas (NE-02) and Adam Gray (CA-13).

• North Carolina - $403,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton

• Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $333,000 raised, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego

• Nebraska/Blue Dot - $150,000 raised, $150,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb

Here are ways you can do even more:

• Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in three states on September 20th - just 26 days away!

• Watch my With Dems presentation on the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party and this six minute video on the incredible stakes in this election.

• Help grow the Hopium community. Use this link to encourage others sign others up. You can gift a subscription to a friend or student here and get group rates too. If you have changed credit cards or moved you can you update your payment information or check your renewal status follow these instructions from Substack. Let’s keep our community growing the Hopium flowing!

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon