Voters Respond To Biden Accomplishments, Winning Virginia, Ongoing GOP Betrayal
Welcome New Subscribers/Thanks For All The Hard Work in VA!
Friends, got a few things today:
Voters Respond Positively When Informed About Biden Accomplishments - Part of the reason I’m optimistic about 2024 is that we know from polling and research that voters don’t know much what Biden has done, and when they are informed (what campaigns do) his approval jumps. Our friends at Navigator just released some new research looking at this dynamic, which includes these two key charts:
You can see the biggest jumps come from independents and Democratic leaning voters of color, some of the universes we need to shore up right now to get to 55 next year. Remember - it is early, we don’t have a primary election happening, the Biden campaign hasn’t really turned on yet, and it is not suprising our coalition hasn’t come back together yet. Given our strong performances across the US in 2022 and 2023, I am confident that if we keep working hard we can pull our coalition back together next year, keep winning indies and wandering Republicans and win this thing.
This research is a reminder that the work we have to do in the next year is doable work, it is things we can do. Joe Biden is a good President, the country is better off. We can sell that. How you sell Trump after what he’s done is much harder to see. All of this is at the core of why I would much rather be us than them as we head in 2024. We can do this people!
Winning Virginia - Our campaign to win Virginia continues, and hoping all of you will take on action on the behalf of the six candidates we are rallying around - donate, canvass, phone and text, write postcards. Whatever you can do, please do more. We had a good weekend in the early vote but still have a lot of work to do to make sure we win this thing over the next two weeks.
Want to thank all of you who have donated (and realize not everyone can). We’ve raised more than $80,000 so far for the six candidates, and about $2,000 for the Virginia Young Dems (off an appear from last week). I’m really proud of how our community has rallied, what some of you have described as the Hopium cavalry coming to Virginia!
Upcoming Events/New Event Recordings/Pods
Tue, Oct 24th, 830pm EST - Simon joins California Indivisibles For “A Hope-Filled Political Update” - Learn More, RSVP
Wed, Oct 25th, 9pm EST - Blue CD2 New Mexico - Simon joins Reed Galen and Field Team 6 - Learn More, Donate/RSVP
Thurs, Oct 26th, 7pm EST - Monthly Get Together with Hopium Chronicles Paid Subscribers. Paid Subscribers can RSVP here. Video will be available for paid subscribers after our discussion/hangout if you can’t make it live.
Also available now are our newly released With Democrats, Things Get Better; my recent talk with Tom Bonier; and a terrific new in-depth look at the political moment with Kimberley Johnson’s Start Me Up pod (audio only/recorded Thursday). Enjoy all.
Postcards For Virginia - got this video from Katharine Hesmer this morning. So great to see! Thanks everyone for what they are doing to help us win Virginia!
A Roundup of Recent Posts
Why We Need To Win (To Protect the World FDR and Dems Imagined and Built)
Unprecedented GOP Betrayal Continues - So in a time of dramatic and escalating tension around the world, the Republicans continue to:
Keep the US House of Representatives off-line
Block hundreds of Pentagon appointees, weakening our military
Block over 60 State Department appointments. Those held up include 38 Ambassadorships and the Ambassadors to Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon
Block critical cybersecurity legislation, and even shutting down a DHS program called Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)
Fight additional aid to Ukraine, once again appease Putin
Excuse the Trump theft and wanton dissemination of America’s secrets, which is almost certainly the most significant national security breach in US history
Elevate and rally around insurrectionists who tried to end American democracy (all 9 GOP candidates for Speaker supported the overturn of the 2020 election)
I don’t know why there isn’t more noise and outrage around this ongoing unprecedented and dangerous betrayal of the United States. The President needs these tools to protect the country and our allies. Let’s be loud about this ongoing betrayal in the days ahead…..
We have received some welcome news on this front over the past week as four conspirators in the GOP’s party-wide effort to overturn an election and end American democracy have now pled guilty. And in a conspiracy like this when people start pleading guilty and cooperating with the prosecution it makes it far more likely that everyone who participated in this conspiracy - from Trump to Lindsay Graham to RNC Chair Romney McDaniel - will be prosecuted and convicted.
A Powerful Scene from Israel - Here is video of the one of two Israeli hostages returned on Monday, 85 year old Yocheved Lifshitz, shaking her captor’s hand and saying “Shalom” - meaning both goodbye and peace. “Peace” - at that moment. Remarkable, inspiring thing to see.
Keep working hard all - Simon
I finished writing 200 postcards for Virginia and am writing some more with Seniors Taking Action for a School Board race. It keeps me sane and focussed amidst the chaos.
Who is still writing postcards to Virginia voters? Postcards to voters is no longer doing it. Are there programs targeting the candidates that Simon likes? I would like to do a few more before the end of the month.