Protasiewicz Gets to 55% in Wisconsin
A little morning after "yes we can"
Friends, a very big win last night in Wisconsin. Am grateful to the many of you who helped do the work to make it possible. I’m also really pleased with how this new platform here at Hopium allowed us to beam into the election last week with our discussion with WI Dem Chair Ben Wikler, and then encourage one another to do shifts, keep writing postcards, keep donating - all that. This is not something I could have done at my old home, NDN, and I am excited about what we are building here, together.
A few notes this very happy morning:
We got to 55% in Wisconsin! - A core understanding here at Hopium is that the historic extremism and awfulness of MAGA, reinforced in recent days by DeSantis’ lurch to the right and the GOP’s rancid rallying behind their serial criminal frontrunner, gives us the opportunity to grow our coalition, expand our vote and get to 55% (up from Biden’s 51.4%) next year (here’s the original “Get to 55%” memo and a companion video).
Last night Judge Protasiewicz got that to magic number, 55%, in what may be the single most important battleground state in the county. Friends, much is possible for us this cycle if we keep working hard. In every way, every day, I would rather be us than them as we head into 2024. Particularly because we keep seeing the power of our newly muscular grassroots across the US, something which will be the fuel and energy to make it possible for us to go big next year - as we just did in Wisconsin.
As I write in a new essay, Not Obeying in Advance, it feels like we are the in the early stages of what could be a far more aggressive rejection of greater MAGA than we’ve seen to date. - an awakening perhaps. From Tel Aviv to Nashville to Disney in Florida and now across Wisconsin, good people are rising up to say “enough” to MAGA, this has just gone too far. Read this essay if you can and let me know what you think. I am hopeful about what I’m seeing.
On Trump - Bragg’s focusing on Trump’s cheating in the 2016 election, an election decided by 70,000 votes in 3 states, is something we will be coming back to over the next few days. Cheating in an election is a crime against our democracy itself; and if there ever was a “High Crime,” cheating in an election has to be at the very top of the list.
We cannot minimize what happened here - what Trump did with Stormy may have allowed him to win the Presidency. Why else would he have paid the money and gone to such great lengths to cover it up? Clearly, his actions indicate how important he viewed keeping this deeply illicit affair from the public in the closing days of the 2016 election, an election that turned out to be one of the closest in American history.
Reminder - Paid Subscriber Political Briefing and Hangout With Me Tomorrow 1pm EST - This is going to be fun get-together peeps! Much to celebrate this week. You can RSVP here, and paid subscribers who can’t make it will have access to a recording late Thursday afternoon.
For all subscribers, we have three open events on the books in the next few weeks, including a newly added discussion about the Israeli fight for democracy on Monday, April 17th. See here for our latest schedule of events - we have good stuff coming up.
Great work everyone! Keep working hard - Simon
October surprises matter. FBI Director Comey's late announcement of an additional investigation into Hillary's emails just 10 days before the election may have turned the tide to Trump, according to a 538 election analysis. A Trump October surprise may have negated that or swung it the other way.
It seems like his campaign contributions were minimal to get him elected. I never understood after the Access Hollywood tape was circulated that the religious right still voted for him. Perhaps they’re not so moral as they pretend to be.