Greetings all. Got a great one for you now…..
Leader Hakeem Jeffries stopped by this morning to update us on our progress in taking back the House, to review the House Democrats’ closing argument, and to thank the Hopium community for all that we’ve done these past few years. I will let the Leader speak for himself through our recorded conversation above and a full transcript of our talk below. It’s an uplifting discussion that I think captures the sense of promise and opportunity we all feel in the current moment….
My favorite part of our discussion is when we talk about all these amazing candidates we’ve met here at Hopium this cycle. The quality of these candidates, their character, proven track record of serving others, and diversity of backgrounds is what makes me most optimistic about winning this November and making Leader Jeffries the Speaker of the House. As he tells us:
We have an incredible group of next-generation candidates. And thank you, Simon, for all of your work in that regard — helping to support and elevate these patriotic Americans, whether they are combat veterans, a Marine drill sergeant, firefighters, police officers, a hostage negotiator, doctors and nurses and educators, even a Tejano music superstar in South Texas, as well as a smoke jumper in Montana. This is an incredible group of Americans who have life experiences that demonstrate their commitment to serving their communities, and who now recognize the challenges of the moment and are running to flip seats in the United States Congress that are currently red but will be blue after November.
Here’s is today’s FiftyPlusOne House forecast:
As the Leader and I discuss this community has really stepped up for House Democrats, raising $4 million for battleground House candidates in the past three years. We’ve raised $1.7m this cycle, and my goal is to get us to $2.5 by Election Day, besting our total from last cycle. In honor of the Leader dropping by today we’ve added a new Third Wave Fund made up of candidates who’ve emerged late from their primaries who can help us push deeper into tough terrain that is available to us now. Here are the six we are adding today:
Christina Hines (MI-10), Lindsay James (IA-2), Jake Johnson (MI-1), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-1), and Brian Poindexter (OH-7).
Which brings us to a total of thirty candidates in our three funds. Hope we can rally for our candidates today as a way of thanking Leader Jeffries for his tireless work on our behalf, and for having put us in a position where we may be able to - despite the right’s illicit redistricting, Callais, and enormous sums of oligarchical cash - flip the House this November and take power next January.
One final note. You will hear me discuss a new project I’m launching down here in Austin today with Jane Kleeb of the ASDC and the state parties across the country. It is designed to give the state parties more tools to help them protect our elections this fall, and ensure that Leader Jeffries becomes Speaker Jeffries in January. More on that in the coming days……
Now, my friends……
It’s Time To Go To Work For Leader Jeffries And Our Inspiring Candidates!!!!!!!!!!!
Our Winning The House Campaign - $1,070,100 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 - $275,100 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from late, 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.
Winning The House - The Third Wave Fund - Donate | $500,000 goal | We are launching this new fund today for candidates who have also emerged from late primaries and need a bit more help as we work to expand our map and go deeper into tough terrain. Our initial list - and it may grow - is Christina Hines (MI-10), Lindsay James (IA-02), Jake Johnson (MI-01), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), and Brian Poindexter (OH-7).
Enjoy this uplifting discussion with Leader Jeffries. Hit like so more will see it. Share it with friends and throughout your networks, and keep working hard all. For we have a country to save, and these thirty elections to win, together! - Simon
Transcript - Simon Rosenberg Interviews Leader Hakeem Jeffries
Simon Rosenberg:
Welcome, everyone. Simon Rosenberg, back with a really special Hopium Chronicles today. Joining me is Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Welcome, Leader. Thanks for being with us today.
Leader Hakeem Jeffries:
Good to be with you, Simon.
Simon Rosenberg:
So listen, it's been a raucous primary season. It's coming to an end. Just give us your sense of where you think the battlefield is right now for us. It certainly looks promising, today.
Leader Jeffries:
Certainly. We're inside of 100 days, and we've made clear to the country that we're fighting for an affordable America. We recognize, as House Democrats, that the cost of living in this country is way too high — life is far too expensive. There are too many people who are working hard, playing by the rules, who can't thrive and can barely survive. That should not be the case. The Trump economy has been a complete and total failure. And so as Democrats, we're committed to making life more affordable — to lowering the cost of groceries, gas, and housing, and certainly fighting to make health care affordable for every single American.
Simon Rosenberg:
Well, now that many of the primaries have come to a close, the forecasts from Nate Silver and from G. Elliott Morris are favoring us to win the House. How do you feel? You've been out campaigning, you talk to the candidates all the time. The interviews we've been doing with your candidates have made me very encouraged that we have a group of really competent, capable, and inspiring leaders running all across the country that seem poised to win.
Leader Jeffries:
We have an incredible group of next-generation candidates. And thank you, Simon, for all of your work in that regard — helping to support and elevate these patriotic Americans, whether they are combat veterans, a Marine drill sergeant, firefighters, police officers, a hostage negotiator, doctors and nurses and educators, even a Tejano music superstar in South Texas, as well as a smoke jumper in Montana. This is an incredible group of Americans who have life experiences that demonstrate their commitment to serving their communities, and who now recognize the challenges of the moment and are running to flip seats in the United States Congress that are currently red but will be blue after November.
Simon Rosenberg:
I love the way you described all that because my takeaway from the last few months — and I wrote about this today in Hopium — is that we're embracing the rainbow. We are embracing the pluralism in our party right now, the great diversity of our country in every way, and that we've come out of this much stronger, because of our embrace of pluralism and diversity, than we were even six or nine months ago. We feel like a strong party now — one that, in a change election, is changing itself, which is going to make us stronger. And I think that's what speaks to me so powerfully in this community is the incredible quality of the candidates we have this cycle.
Leader Jeffries:
Absolutely. This is similar to the Class of 2018, of course some of whom have gone on like Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, to become governors, winning decisive elections in the second Trump era in the off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia last November. These are the type of candidates who have the kind of life experiences that relate in a compelling way in a change election to the communities they seek to represent.
Because the system is broken right now. The career politicians in Washington, the MAGA Republicans, they've failed the country. In fact, they've broken trust with the country. They promised to lower costs on day one; costs haven't gone down, they've gone up. Donald Trump promised not to start wars in the Middle East, promised to stop endless wars, and then turned around and got us involved in this reckless war of choice. Donald Trump promised to release the Epstein files, and now the Department of Justice is engaged in a massive cover-up — Congress, led by Democrats, forced them to release about three million documents, and they're still hiding millions more. And of course it was Donald Trump who promised to love and cherish Medicaid, then turned around, as part of the "big, ugly bill," and enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
We believe there's real opportunity to actually keep the faith with the American people as we fight for an affordable America — and also to hold the crooks accountable people who've been robbing from the American people, unleashing unprecedented corruption, screwing over, shortchanging the American people. That's something that needs to be dealt with as well. Because, Simon, as you know — if you have people in high office, whether in Congress, the Supreme Court, or the administration, who are so focused on enriching themselves, their family, their friends, and their donors, then they're not focused on making life better for the American people. That's one of the reasons the economic situation, under complete Republican control of government, has been a disaster.
Simon Rosenberg:
So, when you gave your 100-day speech, which was terrific and which we covered extensively here, it had three parts to it, and you've covered them today, but just to reiterate – one is costs, getting costs down and creating opportunity for people; the second is affordable care; and the third piece, which was very exciting to our community is the accountability piece, the corruption piece, which I think was really important as part of your core narrative. You just went through it — can you speculate a little bit about what that might look like come January of next year, particularly given that Trump talked yesterday about rigging the elections and preventing a peaceful transfer of power? There's just so much noise now about whether he's really going to allow free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power next January.
Leader Jeffries:
Ultimately, this will fall to the American people to ensure we produce results up and down the ballot, all across the country, that are "too big to rig. We saw that, for instance, in Hungary with the defeat of Viktor Orbán. Now, we as Democrats, we have a responsibility to ensure that, prior to the election, we have the largest voter protection effort in the history of modern-day America. And that is our commitment. House Democrats are working with Senate Democrats, the Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, along with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works on flipping state legislative seats — all of us in partnership, coordinating with civil society.
That includes the good-government groups, organized labor, civil rights groups, civil liberties groups, democracy-protection groups, and the faith community. This effort has been underway for months now, led by Susan DelBene on the DCCC side, and Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which has responsibility for ensuring results are properly certified — so that when the American people give us the opportunity to govern in the majority, those results are actually brought to life on January 3rd of next year.
Simon Rosenberg:
Well, Leader Jeffries, I just want you to know — I'm down in Austin, Texas, at the state chairs' meeting, the last one before the election. We're announcing today — I'm going to be on stage with Jane Kleeb, president of the ASDC — that the state parties are also going to do their part, launching unprecedented voter protection and election protection efforts that we've raised money for and are fully funding. That's an exciting new thing — I've been working on this for a few months. We wanted to make sure the state parties were doing their part too, to support you and the large effort you've had underway. So you're going to have more troops on the field after this afternoon's announcement in Austin, because, as you know, voters are very concerned about this. They want to make sure their votes are counted and that democracy prevails.
And I'm just grateful for your incredible leadership in every way — recruiting great candidates, crafting a powerful message for us, making sure we have free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power. So I guess my final question is, do you feel good, Leader Jeffries? How do you feel right now?
Leader Jeffries:
Listen, down the stretch we come, and we're running through the finish line. I feel like we're in a strong position — the atmosphere and the environment continue to move in our direction. We've got a compelling message that we've been articulating to the American people, and, as you pointed out, great candidates. It's a great all-hands-on-deck effort that you've been a meaningful part of, and we're appreciative of that. It's going to take everyone.
But if you think about how this all started — January 20th, 2025 — and I'll never forget being in the Capitol during the inauguration, dealing with all these different figures – Newt Gingrich is around, Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk, this, that, and the other. It's like a supervillain convention unfolding before the eyes of the American people. And the goal was – we've got to have the heroes prevail, and the heroes in our story are always the American people. We're committed to ensuring the American people can succeed, work hard, play by the rules, live a comfortable, good life, an affordable life. And certainly, as part of that, we've got to win the elections.
I think we're strongly positioned to take back the House. Senate Democrats are in a surprisingly strong position, better than the pundits expected — that's a wonderful thing. And I think we're primed to win governorships all across the country. David Crowley, who had a stunning comeback and is uniting Wisconsin Democrats now, is in a strong position in a swing state. We also saw Rebecca Cooke emerge from her primary yesterday. Grew up on a dairy farm, small business entrepreneur, not-for-profit leader — again, a classic example of the kind of candidate who'll put us in a position to flip control of the House, so we can end this national nightmare and continue our country's march toward a more perfect union.
Simon Rosenberg:
Well, Leader Jeffries, our team has raised $4 million over the last three years for your battleground candidates. We're up to about $1.7 million so far this cycle. I hope we've got another million in us between now and Election Day — I'm going to be pushing our community really hard. We call ourselves "proud, plucky patriots" here at Hopium, and we're going to be with you and your candidates every step of the way until Election Day. So, grateful for your leadership, and for the time you've spent with us today.
Leader Jeffries:
Simon, I appreciate you. Onward to victory.
Simon Rosenberg:
So listen everybody, you heard it — on to victory. If you liked this discussion, please hit like so more people will see it, share it with everybody you've ever met, and remember, everybody, we have to keep working hard because we have a country to save, and elections to win all across the country, together. Thanks all.
Bio - Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives
Hakeem Jeffries represents the diverse Eighth Congressional District of New York and is serving his seventh term in the United States Congress.
Rep. Jeffries is the Democratic Leader, having been unanimously elected to that position by his colleagues in 2022 and 2024. In that capacity, he is the highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. He is also the former Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Whip of the Congressional Black Caucus and previously co-chaired the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.
In his role as Democratic Leader, Rep. Jeffries has led House Democrats through some of this decade’s most defining moments. Leader Jeffries successfully guides and supports committees and the Democratic Caucus in providing necessary oversight of the executive branch and standing up to Donald Trump, whether in fighting back against the administration’s failed promise to lower the high cost of living, protecting the healthcare of working and middle class Americans or pushing back against the chaos, cruelty and corruption being unleashed on the American people.
Learn more about Leader Jeffries by reading his extended bio here.
