Launching Hopium's New Audacious Expansion Fund And A New Discussion With Nikki Fried, The Chair Of The Florida Democratic PartyGov. Walz kicked off his re-election bid in Minnesota yesterday/Looking forward to seeing folks in St. Paul this evening!Morning all. I am on my way to Minnesota right now to support the Minnesota Democratic Party (DFL) at an event this evening in St. Paul. I wanted to go to Minnesota to show my solidarity after the horrific assassinations and attempted assassinations of elected Democrats there in June. I am grateful to Hopium community member Tim Wegener for making it possible, and excited for our event tonight. If you are in Minnesota please join us, and others from around the country can support the event too by clicking on the link above. Yesterday the great governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, announced that he was running for a third term. Here is the wonderful video he released laying out his reasons why: Last night Xp Lee won the special election to fill Melissa Hortman’s seat in the Minnesota State House. Here is how CNN covered it this morning:
Looking forward to spending time with the good people of Minnesota this evening and lending my support to the one of the best state parties in the country in a time of extraordinary challenge. Launching Hopium’s New Audacious Expansion Fund - Over the next few weeks we will be updating our recommended candidate and party committee list as the cycle begins to take greater shape, new candidates have gotten in, and new opportunities arise. Our primary focus this fall is on ensuring that Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger win in NJ and VA, and that Yes On 50 passes in California. If you can please plan on spending some of your limited political capital and volunteer time on these three important projects in the coming weeks. They are all “must wins” and we just cannot take our eye of the ball here for one second. The first update to current set of electoral recommendations is a new campaign I’m calling Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund. This new effort invests early resources in five state Democratic Parties - Alaska, Iowa, Florida, Maine, and Texas - that are expansion opportunities for us next year and in the future. Simply, Democrats must learn how to win in more red states and red places if we are to retake Congress next year and build a better Electoral College map for us in the years ahead. This fund will split each donation five ways and put resources into state parties that have not traditionally received significant national investment. Early, odd year investment will make a big difference as these challenging states gear up for critical races for Governor, Senate and the US House next year. I am setting a ambitious goal - $250,000, $50,000 to each state party - by the end of 2025. Note that high net worth donors can give up to $50,000 to this fund - $10,000 for each state party. The earlier we get them this money the more valuable it will be. Hopium is already raising for Jon Ossoff in Georgia and Roy Cooper in North Carolina. We will be adding Sherrod Brown to our list soon. But we need to put more seats in play if we are to flip the Senate next year. This fund will help make things possible that would not be possible without early investment and prior to us having a primary winner we can all rally around. This is a higher risk set of investments than we have traditionally made here at Hopium. But with Trump failing and struggling more is possible for us now, and these kinds of early investments can help turn a long shot race into a competitive one in parts of the country where we simply must learn how to win. Here’s the logic for picking these five: Flipping The Senate in 2026 - To have a shot at flipping the Senate next year we will need to win at least two seats from four of our targeted states - Alaska, Iowa, Maine and Texas. As each state has to yet to settle on a Democratic nominee I’m recommending that we do not wait and go in now with early investments to help each state party prepare for the general election next year. This is the same approach we took with Arizona and North Carolina last cycle, with great success. Making FL and/or TX Competitive - As we’ve been discussing the movement of people from blue to red states means we lose Electoral College votes after the 2030 census and simply we will have to expand our map and update our understanding of what the Presidential battleground is. This means that by the 2032 Presidential campaign we will need to put more states in play and the two states next up are expensive and hard ones - Florida and Texas. It’s why I am calling this an “audacious” expansion fund. A New Opportunity With Hispanic/Latino Voters - As Senator Ruben Gallego discussed with us last week the war Trump and the GOP are waging against Hispanic/Latino families is giving us a new opportunity in the heavily Hispanic states of FL and TX. More may be possible now in both states than we would have believed a year ago. Check out the results of a new Bulwark backed focus group of Latino voters:
We kick off our new campaign today with a fresh interview with the Florida Democratic Party Chair, Nikki Fried. A recording and transcript can be found above. Chair Fried reviews the current political landscape in Florida, particularly what is shaping up to be a potentially competitive governor’s race there. A new poll released by David Jolly’s gubernatorial campaign has Jolly ahead of the likely GOP nominee 41-40. While it is early, and it appears Democrats may get another candidate in the race for governor, this poll - and other public polls taken earlier this year - suggests that Florida could have competitive state wide elections in 2026. Investing in the Florida Democratic Party now makes that more likely. Here’s the Florida Politics newsletter:
To learn more about our opportunities in these 5 expansion states watch my interviews with Iowa Chair Rita Hart and Texas Chair Kendall Scudder. We will have interviews from Alaska and Maine soon! For a reminder of how much Trump has stumbled this year - and why we should be viewing this cycle as one of opportunity - here’s my updated 2024 Trump coalition tracker pulled from the weekly Economist/YouGov poll: I am excited about this new project and look forward to going deeper into the logic and strategy with all of you in the weeks ahead. I look forward to talking about it with Hopium paid subscribers tomorrow night!!!!!!! Now, Let’s Get To Work Everyone!Support Our November, 2025 Candidates and Yes On 50
Support Our 2026 Candidates
Support Our Audacious Expansion Fund (2026-2032)
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. For more on Hopium’s approach to elections check out 1) the many important wins we had together last cycle 2) my big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections about what we need to do now 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community. Take Action, Express Your Love Of Country And Strengthen Our Democracy Through Good Works - We are prioritizing two actions today: 1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. Demand that your reps work to
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 how to get a resolution passed in your own community. Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 81 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 22 states + DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election? Last Tuesday night the town council of Corrales, New Mexico debated and passed a resolution of condemnation. A preview of the resolution can be found in this article from a local new site. In considering the resolution Councilor Bill Woldman said:
Keep up the great work proud, plucky patriots of the Hopium community!!!! 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. Great to see! Keep working hard all. We have a country to save and a future to secure for our kids and grandkids - Simon You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Launching Hopium's New Audacious Expansion Fund And A New Discussion With Nikki Fried, The Chair Of The Florida De…
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