Morning all. Here’s some news from Politico:
Democrats’ House campaign arm is expanding its targets even further into Trump country,
as the party grows increasingly bullish they will not just win, but win big next month.The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added six more candidates to its coveted “Red to Blue” list on Monday, districts President Donald Trump won by an average of
16 points or more in 2024, according to plans shared first with POLITICO.
The DCCC’s Red to Blue program, the program that works to flip Republican held seats, is now targeting 46 races across the country. As we are currently supporting 30 of those races here at Hopium we will be reviewing these new recommendations and perhaps expand our own target list as the family goes deeper and deeper into Republican held territory.
The six candidates added to Red to Blue:
**Arkansas’ 2nd District:**Democrat Chris Jones against GOP Rep. French Hill (Trump +15.5)**Colorado’s 3rd District:**Democrat Dwayne Romero against GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd (Trump +9.7)**Florida’s 27th District:**Democrat Eliott Rodriguez against GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (Trump +14.6).**New York’s 21st District:**Democrat Blake Gendebien against Republican Anthony Constantino (Trump +20.7)**Nevada’s 2nd District:**Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson against Republican David Flippo (Trump +13.9)**Tennessee’s 9th District:**Democrat Justin J. Pearson against Republican Brent Taylor (Trump +21.1)
Yesterday The NYT broke out the results for Governor in their new battleground polling that we reviewed on Saturday. This remarkable data is additional confirmation that 2026 has become a year of extraordinary opportunity for us to take power away from MAGA all across the country:
Another confirmation about how profoundly the battlefield has eroded for the Rs is that Trump is campaigning today in * Nebraska* for Senator Pete Ricketts. Trump won Nebraska by 20 points in 2024, and Ricketts won by 25 points just two years ago in a special election. Today Trump is defending a sitting US Senator, and former Governor, who won by 25 points just two years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In related news here’s the #2 story on The Guardian’s home page right now. Yes, this terrible, terrible people deserve to get their asses kicked this November:
The Early Early Vote Is Encouraging - With early in person voting kicking off this week in eight states - Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Wyoming - the early vote, and the election itself, is going to really kick into high gear this week. I will be working on how to best report on the early vote across the country each day - will be lots of data! - but let’s now review the kind of data that will be available to us through TargetEarly, our data source.
As I go to press this morning here’s what we know about the early vote across the country. It is encouraging but still very early:
As this data is coming from the national voter file itself we are going to be able to break out the underlying data demographically and geographically too. Here’s the national data broken out by race, for example (don’t read too much into this, yet - it’s still too early):
Here is what we are seeing in New Jersey:
And in Virginia:
A few other things we are following this am…..
The NYT has a wonderful new article, full of video - Mayors Are Filming Videos, Mamdani Style, With Varying Degrees of Cringe (gift link).
Trump’s failed war keeps failing (gift link):
The U.S. military has removed all of its bombers from Royal Air Force Fairford, a base that authorities in the United Kingdom called the target of a suspected terror plot.
The Pentagon confirmed the redeployment of the aircraft in a statement Sunday.
“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States,” the Pentagon statement said. It gave no further details.
A reminder that Trump got a crap jobs report on Friday, and has the worst jobs record of any American President since Hoover.
Brazil’s Presidential election is headed to a run off.
We will all be following the possible release of a dangerous virus from a Russian lab.
And now my friends, it is that time. Time to go…..
Three things you can do in addition to supporting our intrepid candidates and state parties:
Become an
Early Vote Championin your networks, communities, and organizations.Sign up to become a
Democracy Protectortoo. Our next training is this Wednesday, Oct 7th at 10pm ET.Email photos of your electoral work or physical act of voting to community@hopiumchronicles.com or via links on our daily chat. We want to start showcasing them here on Hopium.
**Our Winning The House - Stake In The Ground Fund **- Donate | $1,553,100 raised, $2,000,000 goal (new stretch goal) | Watch interviews with all twelve candidates |This is our #1 fund, updated now with new intel to include the twelve most competitive races where money and volunteers are most needed (largely due to the expense of the district, and understanding now where Republicans have decided to stand and fight).
Our * Stake In The Ground Fund* now includes Jamie Ager (NC-11), Rebecca Bennett (NJ-7), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Cait Conley (NY-17), Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Christina Hines (MI-10), Brian Poindexter (OH-7), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), and Randy Villegas (CA-22).
If we win these twelve races the House flips - period. So let’s get on with the flippin’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our Winning The Senate Fund - Donate | $1,312,100 raised, $1,500,000 goal | Watch interviews with all six Senate flippers | This fund splits a single donation to our six candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Troy Jackson (ME), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), and Josh Turek (IA).
These are the majority makers in the Senate this cycle, and we need with everything we got to win all six.
**Our New Growing Our House Majority Fund **- Donate | $599,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal | Watch interviews with all eighteen candidates | We’ve combined our Second and Third Waves Funds and added some candidates from our OG Winning The House Fund in a new fund we are calling Growing The House Majority. The idea is simple - we win the House with our first House fund. We grow our majority with this one.
This fund now splits a contribution evenly among 18 candidates - Bob Brooks (PA-07), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Lindsay James (IA-02), Jake Johnson (MN-01), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).
A reminder that the maximum that a donor can contribute to any Federal candidate for the general election is $3,500, however that money is donated.
Support The State Parties’ Election Protection Program - Donate | $96,200 raised, $100,000 new stretch goal | We’ve launched a new, targeted fundraising campaign to help get the new election protection program of the State Democratic Parties, one this community helped develop, off the ground.
Winning Alaska (New) - Donate | $10,700 raised, $150,000 goal | Our Winning Alaska campaign splits a contribution evenly among Mary Peltola for Senate, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor, and the Alaska Democratic Party and its great Chair, Eric Croft.
**Winning Georgia ***- *Donate | $45,100 raised, $150,000 goal | Our Winning Georgia campaign splits a contribution three ways among Senator Jon Ossoff, gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Georgia Democratic Party and it’s great Chair, Charlie Bailey.
Winning Iowa - Donate | $59,100 raised, $150,000 goal | Our Winning Iowa campaign splits a contribution three ways among Josh Turek for Senate, our gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party and it’s great Chair, Rita Hart.
**Winning Maine **- Donate | $93,100 raised, $150,000 goal | Our Winning Maine campaign splits a contribution evenly among Troy Jackson for Senate, Hannah Pingree for Governor, and the Maine Democratic Party and its battle-tested Chair, Charlie Dingman.
Winning North Carolina - Donate | $73,100 raised, $200,000 goal | Our Winning North Carolina campaign splits a contribution evenly among Roy Cooper for Senate, Anita Earls for the state Supreme Court, and the NC Democratic Party and it’s ass-kicking chair, Anderson Clayton.
Winning Ohio - Donate | $214,100 raised, $250,000 goal | Our Winning Ohio campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton-Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party and its terrific Chair, Kathleen Clyde.
Winning Wisconsin - Donate | $35,100 raised, $150,000 goal - Our Winning Wisconsin campaign splits contributions evenly among David Crowley for Governor and the Wisconsin Democratic Party (and its terrific Chair Devin Remiker) and it’s legislative victory fund. Our community has invested heavily in getting helping Wisconsin Democrats flip both state legislative chambers and finally get a trifecta. Now we must finish the job!
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - Donate | $689,100 raised, $750,000 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 | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five critical battlegrounds | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up!
Finally, self-report all the good trouble you are making each day in our paid subscriber chat below.
Keep working hard all. For we have a country to save, and elections to win all across the country, together! - Simon
