Happy Monday all, and a happy Monday it is! We started the week off by hearing from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries this morning who came by to thank the Hopium community and to update us on the campaign to flip the House this November. A recording of our spirited discussion is above. I started off with an overview of our far more encouraging electoral landscape, and then the Leader joined us at minute 14:30 and did what he does - fired us up, got us ready to out there and win this thing. I then took a few questions and ended with some thoughts about the stakes of this election and the importance of our work together.
It was great to hear from Leader Jeffries about our improving opportunity to flip the House and ensure President Kamala Harris has a governing partner next year. He is such an effective leader for Democrats - thoughtful, passionate, inspiring, loved by his colleagues. With our help he is going to make a great Speaker of the House next January.
Leader Jeffries came by in part to thank the Hopium community for all that we’ve done to support his top candidates in our Winning The House campaign. As of this morning this campaign has raised over $710,000 for our 12 endorsed candidates in just eight weeks The response has been remarkable, beyond anything I could have anticipated. Thank you all.
You can support this campaign by making a single donation which is shared by all 12 candidates, or by clicking here where you can find links to donate to and volunteer for the candidates individually as well as interviews I’ve done with six of our candidates so far.
As Leader Jeffries mentioned over the past week we’ve not just seen a huge surge of money and volunteers into Vice President Harris’ campaign, but into all Democratic party committees and campaigns across the country. We have enormous momentum now. It is a vastly improved electoral landscape, and our campaigns and party committees are much stronger today than a week ago. They all have more money and more volunteers, and will be able to far more aggressively take our case to the American people in these final 100 days. As a party we are now on offense and playing to win. It’s an exciting time all. I talked about this new, bluer election in the opening of the video above. We can do this people!
As way of ratcheting up the volunteer efforts for our candidates I’m excited to announce a new Thursday night Hopium-led live call and postcarding effort to reach strong Democratic voters in these critical swing seats. Along with our partners, the DCCC, Markers for Democracy and Postcards4VA, the Hopium community will gather every Thursday for the rest of the election from 730pm to 9pm ET and work these districts, together. We kick off our campaign this Thursday by targeting OR-5 on behalf of our great candidate there Janelle Bynum. You can sign up on this mobilize link, where you will get a link to the Thursday Zoom. Each Thursday night you will have your choice of breakout rooms - phonebank to friendly Dems or write them up to 10 postcards. Both rooms will have people who can train you in either activity and help you throughout the evening. If you are new to either activity or want to hone your skills, I encourage you to join us. It’s going to be a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To learn more about Janelle Bynum watch my recent interview with her here. She is an impressive and experienced candidate, and with our help can flip OR-5 blue.
Postcard Writers - You can use any colorful, upbeat postcard you want. If you would like to purchase postcards, we have special VOTE DAY 1 cards available through the Markers for Democracy Postcard ProShop, click here. You will need to set up an account in order to use this store. Please note that it could take a week for your order to arrive.
I am very excited about this new collaborative effort to do even more to Win the House this year. The idea for this new effort came from the Hopium community itself. Many have written to me saying it would be great if we could work together as a community for these candidates - and here we are. Sign up, invite friends, family and colleagues to come join you. Let’s go win the House, together, and give President Harris the legislative partner she needs to advance her agenda next year!
Please join me in thanking Hopium community superstars Susan Wagner and Robbin Warner for putting this Thursday night collaboration together. No way this could have come together without them. I get to write this post but they’ve done all the work. Thank you Susan and Robbin!
Here are some other ways you can support our Hopium backed candidates and state parties, and a reminder that Vice President Harris will be filing a July fundraising report so if you are thinking of giving do so before midnight Wednesday. Let’s make July the single biggest month of fundraising for any candidate in American political history:
Harris For President - $744, 000 raised today, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. The $744,000 raised is both Biden-Harris and the $147,000 we’ve already raised for Harris for President. Note the new campaign released its first Harris for President merch this week. Stuff looks good!
Winning The House - $660,000 raised today, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. We’ve also raised more then $54,000 into the individual House campaigns (you can either give to all 12 or each one individually)
North Carolina - $347,000 raised today, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton
Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $309,000 raised today, $350,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Watch my interview with Ruben Gallego
Nebraska/Blue Dot - $125,000 raised today, $150,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb
Here’s how you can do even more:
Volunteer for the Harris campaign - never been more important to volunteer!
Watch our Winning The House interviews with Janelle Bynum (OR-5), George Whitesides (CA-27), Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) Andrei Cherny (AZ-01) and Will Rollins (CA-41) and Laura Gillen (NY-04). Great candidates all!
Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in a few states on September 20th, less than 2 months away!
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 and my new video on why I am optimistic Vice President Harris can win.
Read a new interview with me in the NYTimes about our new election, and you can also find me talking about our new, bluer election in new video pods with Fred Wellman and Jessica Denson.
Finally, please help me spread Hopium and grow this plucky community. Use this link to sign others up to be a Hopium subscriber. Note that options for group and gift subscriptions are available to those who want to bring friends and colleagues into the Hopium community. Click on the group and gift tabs here to learn more. To update your payment information or check your renewal status follow these instructions from Substack. We are now over 96,000 strong - let’s keep the community growing and the Hopium flowing!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
Winning The House With Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New Thursday Night Hopium House Phonebanks and Postcarding