Happy Saturday all. Starting off today by sending good vibes and good wishes to those impacted by Helene. Communities have been hit hard and the rebuilding will be slow and hard. Let’s keep our fellow Americans in our thoughts in the coming days…..
On to business. Got a few things for you today:
A Big Closing Strong Episode - Excited to share with all of you this week’s Closing Strong, my new video series on the 2024 election with Tara McGowan and COURIER Newsroom. It features two terrific interviews from the frontlines - Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler. Tara and I also had a great discussion about the election that I think you will enjoy. You can catch our interview with Julie above, and check out the whole episode below:
The Vice President Goes On Offense On The Border and Immigration - The Vice President visited the US-Mexico border yesterday and gave a forceful speech about the border and immigration. I know many of you have weighed in how important you think it is that the VP lean into these issues, and she sure did last night. To go deeper you can find the full fact sheet released by the campaign here, and you can watch her full speech below. I strongly encourage everyone to watch this speech given how central these issues are to the campaign. Here is how the fact sheet opens:
Vice President Harris will secure the border, stop the scourge of fentanyl on our streets, and fix our broken immigration system by working with Democrats, Republicans, and independents. She will embrace commonsense approaches as well as new technologies and modern solutions.
She is uniquely positioned to meet this challenge. As Attorney General of a border state, she prosecuted transnational gangs that traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings. She broke up a heroin trafficking ring with ties to Mexican cartels, took down a gang working with the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle methamphetamine into the United States, and worked with the Attorney General of Mexico to prosecute more human traffickers. She also knows we need to reject the false choice between securing our border and creating a system of immigration that is orderly and humane. We can and must do both.
Donald Trump wants to sow chaos and disorder at the border. He prefers to run on the problem instead of fixing it. He blocked a bipartisan border security bill with the toughest reforms in decades, just to score political points. He did nothing to fix our immigration system in his four years as President, while ripping toddlers out of mothers’ arms and separating 5,000 migrant families at the border. Now, he is continuing to fan the flames of fear and division—saying immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and promising a “bloody” round-up of millions of immigrants who have lived and worked in America for years, tearing families apart.
The American people deserve a President who cares about fixing these problems, instead of playing political games. Vice President Harris is committed to serious solutions to secure our border, crack down on fentanyl, keep families together, and fix our broken immigration system.
Election, Polling Update - Got some new polls today from the NYT showing a few more battleground states close and competitive and good news in NE and OH:
A few notes here. 1) NYT polls have been running 3-4 points more R than many independent polls so no freak outs please. It is a close, competitive election my friends. We are winning but have not won yet. We have work to do. 2) A very good Sherrod Brown number, consistent with what I’ve been saying is the DC take on the race - he’s holding. 3) More good NE-2 blue dot numbers. This poll and the yesterday’s CNN poll of NE-2 have Tony Vargas leading, a reminder that House challengers who are ahead in late polls often win. So these Vargas numbers and the numbers we got in the CA and OR House races earlier this week are very encouraging (all polls via 538):
CNN NE-2 Harris 53%-42% Vargas 50%-44%
NYT NE-2 Harris 52%-43% Vargas 49%-46%
Here’s the encouraging House data we got earlier this week:
CA 13 - Gray 46% Duarte 45%
CA 22 - Salas 47% Valadao 44%
CA 27 - Whitesides 48% Garcia 46%
CA 41 - Rollins 47% Calvert 48%
CA 45 - Tran 48% Steel 46%
OR 05 - Bynum 47% Chavez-DeRemer 45%
To go deeper on the election watch the interviews with Julie and Ben, enjoy my discussion with Tara and catch my “I would much rather be us than them” post and video from yesterday. Here are a few more things for your weekend consideration:
Harris’s “not just get by but get ahead” economic speech and Stephanie Ruhle interview - both are well worth watching
More Reasons for Optimism - 4 new trends I am tracking that leave me optimistic about November
Trump Has Assaulted Women Now His Abortion Bans Are Killing Them - As bad as things are for the women of America today it will got far worse if Trump and Vance win
Watch My Talk On The Importance Of Voting On Day 1 And Winning It In October
Hard Work Is Good Work/Winning It In October - Monday is the last major filing deadline for campaigns across the country so these next few days really matter my friends. Whatever you got left in your pocket try to give it before the end of the month on Tuesday night. Money now is better than money in late October for all these races. Do what you can, and I will note that this community has really stepped up in recent days. We are moving a lot of money into these races and state parties - $50,000 to $60,000 a day - thank you all! Team Hopium just keeps stepping up!
Harris-Walz For President - $1,079,000 raised, $1.5m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Merch | The Harris-Walz YouTube Channel
Our Presidential Checkmate States - Learn more about our “checkmate” strategy, and support Ruben Gallego and these two front-line state parties:
North Carolina - $550,000 raised, $750,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton
Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $392,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego
Nebraska/Blue Dot - $202,000 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb. Nebraska has become very important to us this year - please consider donating today!
Winning The House - There are four ways to support our 15 Winning The House candidates:
Support All 15 With A Single Donation - $1,253,000 raised, $1,500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer, Learn More and Watch Interviews With Our Candidates
Support The 4 New House Candidates In Our Expanded Target List - $47,000 raised, $100,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More.
Donate Directly To A Candidate - You can donate to any of our 15 candidates directly here. Let’s do this people!
Sign up to postcard and call into these critical swing districts in our Hopium Winning The House Thursday series. Next Thursday we are working for Adam Gray (CA-13) starting at 715pm ET and ending at 9pm (note new start time - getting more work in). Register here. Each week in addition to the work we usually hear from the candidate we are working for and I close with a 10 minute update on the election. Join us - it’s where all cool kids are on Thursday nights!
Keeping The Senate Blue - By popular demand, we are now supporting Senators Tester and Brown in addition to Ruben Gallego:
Montana/Jon Tester - $60,000 raised, $100,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More
Ohio/Sherrod Brown - $39,000 raised, $100,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More
Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $392,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego
Ways you can do even more:
Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting has now begun across the country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Promote I Will Vote to help people check their registration status and register to vote. There are many weeks of voter registration left. Let’s keep making more Democrats!
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.
Grow and Strengthen The Hopium Community - 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. From now until Election Day a paid annual Hopium subscription is 10% off. If you have changed credit cards or moved you can update your payment information or check your renewal status by following these instructions from Substack. Let’s keep our community growing and the Hopium flowing! Paid subscribers help keep most of our content free for the 117,000 strong in our community down the home stretch!
Keep working hard all. For when we fight, we win! - Simon
VP Harris Goes on Offense On The Border, Closing Strong With Julie Rodriguez and Ben Wikler, All Hail The Blue Dot!