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An Encouraging Win In Iowa, National Security Moms, Some Thoughts On Trump's Occupation Of The Capital Of The United States of America

Watch my new interview with Iowa Dem Chair Rita Hart talking about our opportunities in Iowa this cycle

Simon Rosenberg

Aug 27

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Morning all. We had a big win in Iowa last night. Here is how The Downballot played it:

Iowa Democrat Catelin Drey won a major upset on Tuesday night, flipping a deep-red seat in the state Senate and breaking the GOP's supermajority in the chamber.
Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch by a wide 55-45 margin in a district Donald Trump carried by 11 points last year.
It's the second conservative district that Iowa Republicans have lost in the legislature this year, and the results will further buoy Democratic hopes for similar victories in contests for governor and the U.S. Senate in 2026.
The most immediate impact will be felt right away. Drey's defeat of Republican Christopher Prosch, following a shock win by Democrat Mike Zimmer in January, chisels the GOP's advantage in the Iowa Senate down to 33-17.
Crucially, that means Gov. Kim Reynolds will no longer be able to rely solely on the support of fellow Republicans to confirm her picks for judgeships and state cabinet posts, since nominees must be confirmed by two-thirds of the Senate.
But the outcome may say even more about the broader political environment in Iowa. In three prior special elections in the Hawkeye State this year (including Zimmer's), Democrats have run far ahead of last year's presidential results.

This win continues the encouraging trend of very strong Dem performances in special and local elections this year. For more on our opportunities in Iowa this cycle watch my new interview with Iowa Dem Chair Rita Hart. And here’s the latest Generic Ballot average from Strength In Numbers. While we have a lot of work to do we continue to be in a stronger position than them electorally.

National Security Moms - The NY Times’ Michelle Cottle has a new, terrific long-form article on Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin and the rise of waht she calls National Security Moms (gift link).

Some Thoughts On Trump’s Occupation Of The Capital Of The United States Of America - Encouraging developments in the fight against Trump’s lawless occupation of the Capital from The NYT this morning:

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday were unable to secure a felony assault indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of Washington this month, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington was the second time in recent days that it was unable to persuade grand jurors to bring an indictment in a felony assault case against a federal agent. And it amounted to a sharp rebuke by ordinary citizens against the team of prosecutors who are dealing with the fallout from President Trump’s move to send National Guard troops and federal agents into the city on patrol.
The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to the apartment of the man, Sean C. Dunn, to arrest him.
…….
It is extremely unusual for prosecutors to come out of a grand jury without obtaining an indictment because they are in control of the information that grand jurors hear about a case and defendants are not allowed to have their lawyers in the room as evidence is presented.
But Mr. Trump’s decision to flood the streets of Washington with federal agents and military personnel who are generally not trained in conducting routine police stops has resulted in a flurry of defendants being charged with federal crimes that would typically be handled at the local court level, if they were filed at all.
It has also led to an increasing number of embarrassments for federal prosecutors, who have had to dismiss weak cases or reduce the charges that defendants were facing in recent days.
On Monday, for instance, prosecutors refiled a felony assault charge as a misdemeanor in the case of a woman who was accused of injuring an F.B.I. agent during a protest last month against immigration officials at the local jail in Washington.
The charges were reduced against the woman, Sidney Lori Reid, after prosecutors failed not just once but three times to obtain an indictment in the case.
That same day, at the request of prosecutors, a federal magistrate judge dismissed all charges against a man who was arrested at a Trader Joe’s grocery store last week for what the police said was possession of two handguns in his bag.
At a hearing, the magistrate judge, Zia M. Faruqui, lambasted prosecutors for having charged the man, Torez Riley, in an apparent violation of his constitutional rights.
“Lawlessness cannot come from the government,” Judge Faruqui said, according to HuffPost. “We’re pushing the boundaries here.”

I am going to explore the Trump occupation and takeover of the Capital of the United States of America more in depth in a future essay but I want to put this out there today - we should all be far more worried about what is happening here, and no one should be taking the ridiculous bait that this is about crime and public safety.

If Trump wanted to help DC he would rescind his tariffs, restore his health care cuts, give DC the $1 billion he stole from us earlier this year, hire back the many thousands of people they forced out of government and take the military off our streets. None of this is about crime. It is about subjugating the Capital of the world’s greatest democracy, a global signal of his commitment to authoritarianism and abandonment of both the US Constitutional order and the US-led global liberal order built after WWII.

I have always believed that at some point Trump would come for DC itself for it is the world’s most powerful monument to democracy, for freedom, for e pluribus unum and overcoming racism and slavery. For Trump’s rancid remaking of America into a something other than a democracy to succeed he was going to eventually have to do something about this living, inspirational monument. He has already attacked arguably it’s most important symbol - the Capitol, the people’s house. He is changing the small r republican character of the White House into something imperial. The Smithsonian is being purified, those references to DEI and slavery expunged. How long before he comes for the FDR, Lincoln, and MLK Memorials? Or move the court to Mar-a-Lago for the winter, turning it into something like Versailles? Or start arresting Congressional Dems who challenge him?

DC, as a living, breathing monument to freedom and democracy, is a big problem for Trump. And increasingly unchecked and unhinged, I think he is exploring ways to make it less of a threat to the new post-democratic regime he is trying to forge.

I am not sure people are reading what Trump is doing in DC properly. This isn’t about the city of Washington, or crime or public safety. It is a highly symbolic signal of his intent to subdue American democracy itself to his whims, and turn America the free into an authoritarian police state. Images of a lawless, unjustified, military occupation of The Mall and our Monuments to democracy and freedom have been broadcast to the entire world. Washington the capital of freedom has fallen is the message he is trying to convey to the world - to the great delight of Russia and China and other authoritarian regimes of course. One of us is now in charge here.

Read this account from journalist James Fallows. Empty monuments, empty streets, an abandoned capital city.

Listen to this clip from his insane cabinet meeting yesterday. A man calling himself an “American President” says “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I am the President of the United States.” Simply these are the words of dictators, authoritarians, tyrants, anything, anything other than a “President” of the United States of America.

As I wrote yesterday August has been terrible month for our democracy and Congressional Dems need to come back next week ready to fight for our freedoms as Americans have throughout our history.

For more on Trump’s maniacal effort to build an oppressive police state watch my new, compelling interview with the The New Republic’s Greg Sargent.

As I am traveling today from Santa Fe back home to newly occupied DC Hopium will be a bit thinner than usual. If you are looking for more got some great stuff for you:

My recommendations to Congressional Dems for how to fight Trump when they return to DC next week. Bottom line - we need to keep finding a higher gear
Thoughts on how we should be approaching this cycle as one of opportunity and expansion and be relentlessly focused on learning how to win in red states and red places. This analysis includes a proposal for national Dems to launch a rural research initiative to see if we can take advantage of Trump’s pummeling of farm economies across the US
A presentation and discussion on why Dems need to take partisan voter registration seriously again, and what you can do to help. This post also includes my Top 7 Takeaways From The 2024 Election
A wonderful discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner on how to bring our Resolutions Project to your community
New talks with our NC Senate Candidate Roy Cooper, Rep. Jaime Raskin, and TX Dem Chair Kendall Scudder

now…..

Let’s get to work everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our “Must Win/Everyone In” Races

Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $55k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Rep. Sherrill
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $172k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $27,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton. We hit our $25,000 Labor Day goal Monday - great work everyone!
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $51k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $184k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents

Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.

Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing three actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - While it is recess we need to be loud this week, very, very loud. Make the case for our our emerging four part agenda, and demand they 1) Stand with Ukraine and work to block Trump’s selling out of the West to Putin 2) Roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs 3) Block the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC 4) End the war on science, higher education and the public health of the American people, and demand the removal of Bobby Kennedy (aka “the quack) from the leadership of HHS.

2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on get a resolution passed in your own community.

Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 64 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 20 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?

Our newly updated Resolutions Project page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order.

Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!

As we get ready for what is going to be a very intense fall of politics a reminder from Robert Frost - that “the best way out is through” - Simon

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