"We Want People To Not Just Get By, But Get Ahead," Harris Takes The Lead, Trump Is Profoundly Unfit and Deeply Unwell

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Happy Friday all, and a happy Friday it is! Got a few things for you today:

Harris Takes The Lead/My CNN Hit This Morning - In a new video and post I do a deep dive on the 2024 election, the success of the Biden-Harris Presidency and why I would much rather be us than them with 34 days to go before early in- person voting begins.

I talked about the election, our economic agenda and how unfit and unwell Trump is how CNN this morning. Do note how small, desperate and batshit crazy my Republican counterpart sounded - for they got nothing right now, and know they are losing this election. Enjoy.

We got a good poll out of Montana yesterday:

Shepard Fairey, the artist who made the iconic Obama “Hope” image in 2008 has released his 2024 Kamala Harris “Forward” art. It is wonderful:

A big big thank you to all who participated in our Thursday night postcarding and phonebanking event for Will Rollins last night. These events are a lot of fun and we get a huge amount of work done. I will have more on this over the weekend but I am really pleased with how these are evolving and encourage all to come join us for a few Thursdays this fall.

The Vice President Starts To Lay Out Her Economic Agenda - Later this morning in North Carolina the Vice President will be giving her first policy speech of the campaign, this one on the economy. Here’s a portion of the what the campaign released earlier today:

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing several proposals for her first 100 days in office to bring down costs for American families. The steps announced today will cut taxes for the middle class, reduce grocery costs, take on price gouging, lower the costs of owning and renting a home, continue to bring down the costs of prescription drugs, and relieve medical debt for millions of Americans. These bold actions will address some of the sharpest pain points American families are confronting and bolster their financial security.

These proposals are just one part of the Vice President’s economic plan, which also includes protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare; bringing together labor, small businesses, and major corporations to invest in America, create jobs, and deliver for Americans; lowering costs of education, child care, and long-term care; empowering workers and their right to come together to bargain for higher wages; creating a stable business environment with consistent and transparent rules; encouraging innovative technologies while protecting consumers; and so much more. Vice President Harris has made clear that building up the middle class will be a defining goal of her presidency. She will deliver for Americans who are demanding a new way forward towards a future that lifts up all Americans so that they can not just get by, but get ahead.

While we will be diving into the details of the Vice President’s new plan in the coming days, I found the emphasis on reducing housing costs and rents to be very welcome:

Calling for the Construction of 3 Million New Housing Units To End the Housing Supply Shortage in the Next Four Years. There’s a serious housing shortage across America, and it’s driving prices up. Vice President Harris will work in partnership with industry to build the housing we need, both to rent and to buy, and to take down barriers that stand in the way of building new housing, including at the state and local levels. This will make rents and mortgages cheaper.

First-Ever Tax Incentive for Building Starter Homes. A Harris-Walz Administration will propose the first-ever tax incentive for homebuilders who build starter homes sold to first-time homebuyers—alleviating the shortage of houses on the market for aspiring homeowners. This would complement the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit that encourages investment in homes that would otherwise be too costly or difficult to develop or rehabilitate.

A Historic Expansion of the Existing Tax Incentive for Businesses That Build Rental Housing that is Affordable.

A New Federal Fund To Spur Innovative Housing Construction. A Harris-Walz Administration will propose a new $40 billion innovation fund—doubling down on the $20 billion Biden-Harris Administration’s proposed innovation fund. Like that proposal, it would empower local governments to fund local solutions to build housing. It would also go further to support innovative methods of construction financing, and empower developers and homebuilders to design and build rental and housing solutions that are affordable—with one condition: they must show they will deliver results. This fund will support the expansion of innovative local efforts, like those in Wake County, North Carolina where they are using American Rescue Plan funds to build or preserve 2,400 affordable housing units including a 100-unit development coming online at Kings Ridge and a 176-unit affordable housing development at Tyron Station. Vice President Harris will also take action to make certain federal lands eligible to be repurposed for new housing developments that families can afford.

Cut Red Tape and Needless Bureaucracy. These plans will build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to cut red tape and enable more home building to bring down housing costs—which have advanced record levels of new home construction. Pushing this forward also means streamlining permitting processes and reviews, including for transit-oriented and conversion development, so builders can get homes on the market sooner and bring down costs.

At 1pm ET today I will be doing a live showing of my presentation, “With Democrats, Things Get Better.” It is a meditation on the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party, and how when we are in power, things get better for the American people. It is a great weekend compliment to the rollout of the Vice President’s “get ahead” economic agenda. You can register here or catch the recording when it is released tomorrow. Here’s the money graph from the presentation:

Working From Joy, Supporting Our Hopium-backed Candidates and State Parties, Voting On Day 1 - On Saturday I offered an in-depth post on the strategy behind our candidate and state party endorsements, including our Presidential battleground “check” and “checkmate” strategy. 34 days to go before early voting starts and we just need to leave it all out there on the playing field everyone!

• Harris-Walz!!!!!! - $851,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Merch | The Harris-Walz YouTube Channel - Let’s keep working it people!

• Winning The House - $842,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. Watch our recent discussion with Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Come to our next Hopium Winning The House Thursday for Will Rollins (CA-41) - register here. Watch our interviews of Janelle Bynum (OR-5), George Whitesides (CA-27), Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) Will Rollins (CA-41), Laura Gillen (NY-04), Rudy Salas (CA-22), Josh Riley (NY-19) and Tony Vargas (NE-02) - great candidates all!

• North Carolina - $378,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton

• Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $326,000 raised, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego

• Nebraska/Blue Dot - $144,000 raised, $150,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb

Here’s Nebraska Democratic State Party Chair Jane Kleeb thanking the Hopium community for our huge investment in the blue dot and Tony Vargas:

Here are ways you can do even more:

• Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in three states on September 20th - just 34 days away!

• Help grow the Hopium community. Use this link to encourage others sign others up to be a Hopium subscriber during our Democratic Convention subscriptions sale (10% off through August 22nd!). You can gift a subscription to a friend or student here and get group rates too. If you have changed credit cards or moved you can you update your payment information or check your renewal status follow these instructions from Substack. Let’s keep our community growing the Hopium flowing!

• Watch my With Dems presentation on the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party, this six minute video on the incredible stakes in this election.

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - S