Winning In An Evolving Battlefield, A New Politics Of Virtue, Tuesday Is A Big Filing Deadline - Let's Help Our Candidates Close Strong
Heather Cox Richardson will be here Monday, Marc Elias Wednesday
Morning all. Happy Saturday. We are a week away from the 250th Anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. On Monday the inspiring historian Heather Cox Richardson will be joining us live at 2pm ET to reflect on our Founding and offer her thoughts on where our pro-democracy movement goes from here. Click here to join us live on Monday and feel free invite friends and colleagues. Excited for this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remarkably, it’s a bit of light news day today. Yes, Trump’s failed war keeps failing. But perhaps we can have a quiet and reflective weekend as we prepare for July 4th and get to spend a little time enjoying summer and watching the World Cup…..
In that spirit got a few things for your weekend reading, viewing, and listening pleasure….
First up two comprehensive discussions we had this week about the elections on Tuesday, Trump’s physical and political decline, and more…..
My weekly talk and written analysis, Trump Is Weakened, Diminished, And Growing More Unhinged And Desperate By The Day
My in depth look at what happened in Tuesday’s election with Katie Phang over the Contrarian, Big Night For Mamdani, House Dems Get Important Wins in NY-17 & UT-1
Evolving Battlefield/Fighting Their Ongoing Fuckery - As we discussed yesterday we had big wins in the Courts this week that blocked some of Trump’s more dangerous efforts to hijack the election this fall. This morning we are getting a reminder of how maniacal Trump’s efforts are to prevent us from winning this November and taking power in January. Here’s the NYT this morning in an article called Bill Pulte Picks G.O.P. Election Operative for Spy Agency Job:
Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, has installed as his chief of staff a woman who worked on election-related issues for the Republican National Committee, according to former U.S. officials.
Christina Norton, the former R.N.C. official, has also served as Bill Pulte’s chief of staff at the federal housing agency he leads. But much of her recent work for the G.O.P. has centered on election issues, including efforts to monitor voting sites during the 2024 presidential election.
Mr. Pulte’s decision to put Ms. Norton in the powerful post is likely to further fuel concerns among Democrats, intelligence officials and state and local election administrators that he intends to focus on hunting for evidence of election fraud at the behest of President Trump.
Mr. Trump has said Mr. Pulte is expected to work on election security matters, prompting fears by some officials that he could try to influence the midterm elections. Other officials expect him to declassify documents related to issues that have preoccupied Mr. Trump, including the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
While at the R.N.C., Ms. Norton oversaw a poll watcher program that included conservative conspiracy theorists, including Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the false “Pizzagate” stories about child abuse at a restaurant in Washington.
In a statement, Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said the mission of Mr. Pulte’s office was to counter foreign threats and not to “import election denialism into the intelligence community.”
“If reports are true that Bill Pulte, whose installation as acting D.N.I. already raises serious legal questions, is bringing a former senior R.N.C. official who cavorted with election deniers and conspiracy theories into O.D.N.I. as his chief of staff, Americans have every reason to fear that this administration is once again eroding the wall between our intelligence agencies and domestic elections,” Mr. Warner said in a statement.
Marc Elias is dropping by on Wednesday for a recorded conversation about where we are now, and how he sees all this evolving in the months ahead. For weekend reading and in depth discussions head to our new Winning In An Evolving Battlefield page. Here at Hopium we will be fighting their illicit efforts in two primary ways: 1) win the election by as big a margin as possible 2) help lead “Vote Early” efforts in our communities across the US.
Supporting Our Remarkable Candidates, Winning The Midterms, Closing Out The 2nd Quarter Strong - Job one for us here at Hopium is supporting our top candidates and battleground state parties so we can win the mid-terms and take power away from Trump and the Republicans in January. My recommendation to you this weekend is to watch a few of our interviews with our top candidates and state party chairs. Take their temperature. Hear from them what they are seeing, how they think they can win for they are on the front lines of this battle. Our library of interviews is an incredible resource for people wanting to meet those courageous leaders who are out there fighting to put us back into power. I promise that spending an hour this weekend with a few of these folks will lift your spirits and help you better visualize victory this November.
You can find all of our interviews and podcasts on the Hopium site under the Podcast tab, and on our YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify channels. too.
One of my big takeaways from getting to spend time with almost every battleground candidate these past few months is that I’ve come to believe we are seeing a new politics of virtue emerge on our side, and a new politics of misery on theirs.
The next big candidate fundraising filing deadline is this Tuesday at midnight. The strength of our candidates across the country will be evaluated in part by how much money they raise this quarter. So if you have some money laying around for our candidates please contribute by Tuesday evening. This is the last big filing deadline of this election cycle - let’s close strong everyone!
Now, My Friends, It’s Time Get To Work!!!!!!!!!!
Some Things To Call Congress About This Week
Yes to making American oligarchs pay for Trump’s failed Iran war - not every day Americans
Yes to the Ukraine Support Act, get it passed through the Senate and to the President’s desk
No to the ballroom, the Arch, the gilded statues, the slush fund, the corruption, self-enrichment……
Hell no to Todd Blanche as Attorney General, and yes to very tough questioning of the new DNI nominee, Jay Clayton
Hell hell no to the new OMB regs that will destroy government-funded science in America. Join the new Stand Up For Science campaign to Stop Vought. Save Science today.
Help Make Hopium Stronger, Bigger, Better
A big thank you to everyone who has become a paid subscriber in recent days. We’ve signed up 187 new people, strong progress towards our goal of 500 by July 4th. Take 10% off a paid annual Hopium subscription today and help make our Independence Day membership sale and drive a success. Follow the link for group and gift subscriptions too!
Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map
(Please be patient as we overhaul and update this section)
Supporting Battleground Candidates For The House and Senate
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign - $798,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new ambitious, audacious even, q2 goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed 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 win, the House will flip, no matter redistricting madness the Rs execute in the coming days. So eyes on the prize here everyone!
Winning The House - The Second Wave Fund - $111,500 raised, $250,000 goal - We’ve launched a second House fund, one targeting candidates who’ve recently emerged from primaries or have to run in new districts. Our initial crew is Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Denise Powell (NE-02), and Bobby Pulido (TX-15).
A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these seven, 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 all of seven of these intrepid leaders here. We are off to a great start here everyone!
Josh Turek For Iowa Senate - $21,200 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer | Watch my wonderful new interview with Josh Turek
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $106,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Mary Peltola as she fights to turn Alaska blue
James Talarico For Texas - $92,100 raised, $250,000 - Donate | Learn more from my inspiring interview with Rep. Talarico as he fights to turn Texas blue
Graham Platner For Maine Senate - $3,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer
Jon Ossoff For GA Senate - $190,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Senator Ossoff
Roy Cooper For NC Senate - $124,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my new discussion with Gov. Cooper
Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Expansion States
Winning Iowa - $8,100 raised, $100,000 goal - We’ve also set up a new Winning Iowa campaign that splits a contribution three ways - to Turek, to Gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party and its great chair, Rita Hart | Watch my new interview with our great gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand
Winning Ohio - $163,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party | Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $602,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new stretch goal) - 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 | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up! and use the link to make contributions to any of the state parties directly | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five critical battlegrounds.
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 all across this great country to win, together! - Simon
Did y’all know that FDR talked about a Second Bill of Rights in a SOTU address? (I didn’t, and thanks to the Contrarian). “In his address, Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognise and should now implement a "second bill of rights". Roosevelt argued that the "political rights" guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness". His remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" to guarantee these specific rights:
* Employment (right to work)[notes 1]
* An adequate income for food, shelter, and recreation
* Farmers' rights to a fair income
* Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
* Decent housing
* Adequate medical care
* Social security
* Education
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights
Simon's weekly call recap yesterday and discussion about liberty made me think of this excellent NYT op-ed from 3 years back about the end of Roe and the hypocrisy of the republican "pro life" stance. French outlines how republicans aren't even libertarian, they instead are libertines, where libertinism “says my desires are more important than your rights…which means that libertines are terrible ambassadors for any cause that requires self-sacrifice," as he says.
Trump himself embodies libertinism while rejecting the values of self-sacrifice and the development of character, which were once traditional conservative values meant to preserve the status quo. Instead, libertinism is “happy to inflict its will on others if it achieves what it wants," as the article says. For French, the Covid pandemic revealed the hypocrisy of the Republican Party’s libertine turn, demanding that women exercise self-control, while insisting on total freedom for themselves. As he notes in the article,
"I don’t think the pro-life movement has fully reckoned with the political and cultural fallout from the libertine right-wing response to the Covid pandemic. Here was a movement that was loudly telling women that they had to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, with all the physical transformations, risks and financial uncertainties that come with pregnancy and childbirth, at the same time that millions of its members were also loudly refusing the minor inconveniences of masking and the low risks of vaccination."
All republicanism is these days is, "I get to do what I want, when I want, and you can't do anything about it...and if you hold me accountable, I'm being unfairly restricted."
https://archive.ph/XEBnH