Three Months Out Democrats Have A Legit Shot At Taking Both The House And Senate

Senate Republicans are attempting to institutionalize Trump's unprecedented corruption today - we need to hit the phones everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morning folks. Need to keep the calls to the Senate coming everyone. Three things to call on today:

• No to Todd Blanche, no to the unprecedented corruption, no to Trump’s ongoing attack on the rule of law

• Yes to the Russian Sanctions Bill that is likely to be voted on later this week, but no to the tariff authority it gives to Trump. We must sanction Russia, but we should not be giving Trump tariff authority that we know he will abuse

• Yes to the provision in the Continuing Resolution the Senate will vote on this week that limits the ability of Vought/OMB to take control of scientific grant making of the US government

As backdrop to the Senate debate over Blanche today and the ridiculous “deal” Cornyn and Tillis struck that institutionalizes Olympian levels of Trumpian corruption in recent days we’ve gotten news of even more shocking examples of Trump’s venality…..

1 - We’ve now learned that Trump was “de-banked” from Capital One in 2021 due to the bank’s concerns about money laundering and crimes Trump was committing:

Capital One bank has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from the Trump Organization over the closure of hundreds of bank accounts back in 2021, arguing in new papers that the shutdowns were the product of a monthslong anti-money-laundering review — not retaliation for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as the Trump family businesses have claimed.

In a motion to dismiss the case filed Friday in a Florida federal court, Capital One’s lawyers wrote that the bank’s own filings and the Trump businesses’ allegations “make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (’AML’) reasons.”

The bank said the decision followed "months of analysis and a careful review" by its financial-crimes team, which it said was staffed by employees with "decades of law enforcement experience."

2 - Last week the Wall Street Journal did a jawdropping story on the unprecedented pay-to-play/shakedown operation Trump runs from the White House that fuels his campaign coffers and other vanity projects (gift link). Some excerpts:

WASHINGTON—Almost every night in the White House, President Trump calls his fundraiser, Meredith O’Rourke, for an update.

Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much. He often asks her to make much larger financial requests than she was planning—for some donors the ask is $5 million, for others it is $50 million. And the president gives her names to call, often including people who have recently met with him, according to people with knowledge of the calls.

“This is very important to the president. He’s asked me to call you and ask you for this donation,” O’Rourke has relayed on phone calls with companies, persistently following up with them. In some calls, she has referred to Trump as the boss, saying “the boss wants this money.” In turn, Trump has called her the “princess of darkness” because she is such a “killer” with donors, according to people who have heard his comments.

…..Interviews with dozens of donors, executives, lobbyists, Trump advisers and others indicate a staggering fundraising and influence operation, with Trump at the center of it all. The president closely tracks who gives, aides said, repeatedly assigning O’Rourke with big asks that she has told others make her uncomfortable. Danielle Alvarez, an outside spokeswoman for Trump and O’Rourke, said it was “laughable” that O’Rourke had ever been uncomfortable with a request…..

…..O’Rourke isn’t a government employee, although she is often at Trump’s side in the White House and elsewhere. She sometimes sits in on meetings, including when Trump meets with corporate executives about issues that affect them. O’Rourke also travels with top officials on Air Force One. She often posts photos of herself with Trump, including in the Oval Office, on her social-media accounts and has referred to Trump as a mentor.

Let’s spend some time with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s righteous anger at the Senate hearing this morning for the level of betrayal we are witnessing today is breathtaking:

Keep making your calls everyone. We need to loud and proud, and angry, today. Loud, proud, and angry…….

Voters head to the polls today in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Virginia, Washington. Happy Election Day to all Hopium members in those states - good luck today!

So, three months before Election Day how is the Establishment Democratic Party’s election prospects looking? Let’s take a look…..

In the past few weeks Trump and the Rs have seen meaningful declines in their polling and Democrats have seen meaningful gains. The upper end of the generic ballot has now moved into blue wave territory, with Democrats now at their highest mark of the cycle in poll after poll from the past few weeks. In these eleven recently released polls our average lead is 8.9 points:

In poll after poll now Democrats are more trusted to handle the country’s most important issues. Here is data from the latest Fox News poll. Note that we even lead on immigration here, Trump’s strongest issue, and this is the first time we’ve lead on the economy in Fox News polling since 2006:

We currently have polling leads in enough states to flip the Senate, a remarkable achievement in a map as tough as this one. A new poll in Texas today has Talarico up 2 - the third poll in the past week showing him with modest leads.

Consistent with this encouraging polling data the latest forecast from Strength In Numbers/Fifty Plus One has us favored to win both the House and Senate:

With three months to go it is clear what we must do now - we just have to win as many of the 40-45 battleground House and Senate races as we can. As we say in our daily mantra:

There is nothing Trump and MAGA wants more than for us to be fighting with each other and not with him. We have one job now - elect as many of these wonderful candidates running for the House and Senate as we can. It’s where our focus must be. It’s a year of opportunity for us across the country. We must seize it, together.

That’s why you are going to be hearing from a lot of candidates in the coming days - for promoting them, helping all of them get elected, taking as much power away from MAGA as we can when they are weak and we are strong is Job One today and every day through Election Day. The Establishment Party has put us in the position to have the election we all have wanted to have, just as the Establishment Party has been winning elections of all kinds all across the country these past nineteen months. Now we have to seize the opportunity in front of us and go win this thing, together.

Other Things We Are Tracking

ICE has begun arresting newly expired TPS holders and releasing them back out into the community with ankle monitors and a restriction that they can only travel up to 70 miles from their home. Yes people who came to this country legally, were vetted and admitted in, who have families, and jobs, and kids in school and property can no longer work in the US, are being treated as criminals, and freedom of travel has been taken away.

Rebecca Solnit has a remarkable essay in the Guardian today, “We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate war zone.” An excerpt:

Far beyond the fires raging across Europe and North America, the smoke, dangerous to breathe, hangs in the air, dimming the view, changing the very color of sunlight into something grimly unsettling.

An estimated 20,000 are said to have died in the extreme heat in Europe earlier this year, and heat is climate change’s quiet killer, compared to the dramatic violence of death by fire or flood. In eastern Washington, 600 homes have just burned down, and in both Europe and North America, firefighters have died in the effort to contain the climate-fueled firestorms.

Once, across much of the the world’s temperate zones, we looked forward to summer as a time of delights, from summer’s bounty of fruits, long days, warmth, school holidays, activities like camping and swimming, travel and adventure. Now many of us dread it.

Summer was the sweet season celebrated in poetry and song, often pictured as a gentle goddess; now it is too often a threat and a misery. All this makes me think of Bill McKibben’s 2011 book Eaarth, a proposal that we can understand climate change as equivalent to moving to a more perilous, unwelcoming planet than the gentle, stable one we evolved over the 12,000 years since the last ice age.

People keep getting ill and dying from the Trump/RFK war on science:

The Dem AGs are stepping up again and challenging Trump’s third attempt to impose global tariffs. Grateful, grateful for their ongoing courage and leadership.

So, my friends, let’s make our calls, work on our vote early programs, and rally for our great candidates and party committees on the front lines of this grand battle against MAGA and for freedom and democracy, here and everywhere…..

Yes, It’s Time To Get To Work, Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winning The House and Senate In 2026

Special Fund To Rush Troy Jackson $100,000 By August 10th - Donate Today! | $77,300 raised, $50,000 original goal, $100,000 new stretch goal | Friends we hit our original $50,000 goal in the first 24 hours of this new campaign to get Troy Jackson the resources to staff up, build out his campaign, and beat Susan Collins. Amazing - thank you all!

We aren’t stopping here - this early money really matters, and I want to now try to get to $100,000 by Friday, August 7th. We can do this people, and be sure watch our new interview with Troy.

Our Winning The House Campaign - $1,044,100 raised, $1,250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate | Donate to all twelve of our initial wave of 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 (Newly Expanded) - $245,100 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from recent primaries and need a bit more help. Our newly expanded list now features Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Randy Villegas (CA-22), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).

A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these twelve, 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 those who’ve interviewed so far here. We are off to a great start here everyone!

Winning The Senate - $625,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our six candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Troy Jackson (ME), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), and Josh Turek (IA). Our working total includes what we’ve raised for these six so far through direct donations to their campaigns. You can watch our interviews with each of these great candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them directly here.

Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Battleground And Expansion States

Winning Georgia - $29,100 raised, $300,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a contribution three ways among Senator Jon Ossoff, gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Georgia Democratic Party

Winning Iowa - $31,400 raised, $300,000 goal - Donate | Our Winning Iowa fund splits a contribution three ways - to Josh Turek for Senate, to our gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party

Winning Maine - $79,600 raised, $75,000 goal - Donate | We set up this fund to help the Maine Dems get through our nominating process. With this community’s strong response we put up almost a third of the resources needed for what became a very successful process to pick a nominee. We had a big return on this investment - thank you all!

Winning Ohio - $185,100 raised, $300,000 goal - Donate | Our campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton-Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party and its terrific Chair, Kathleen Clyde

Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $642,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | 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!

A Few More Things To Do

Let’s work to make sure everyone you know is Voting Early this year. Learn more about how we can best protect our elections this November and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in January. Bring our Resolutions Project to your community. Fight for Hopium’s Agenda and let’s also embrace Leader Jeffries’ new agenda, “Fighting For An Affordable America.” Become a paid subscriber to Hopium to help us grow this community of proud, plucky patriots.

Many are asking about the news coming from the DNC these days. Strongly recommend that folks read Chair Ken Martin’s new memo, The DNC Is Building a Democratic Party That Can Win the Moment and Win the Future. While the DNC has done important things under his tenure, including the adoption of a new Presidential primary calendar, I think Chair Martin would be wise now to shake up his team and make big changes there. For things simply must get better at the DNC.

I’ve set up a new page to help us learn more about the Democratic Socialists Of America (DSA). Check it out and let me know what you think, offer other articles or resources you think I should include.

Please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.

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