Greetings everyone. We’ve often talked about how Job One this year was getting all our great candidates elected and flipping the House and Senate. As of today Hopium’s Job Two is to vote early and get everyone you know in your family, networks, communities, and organizations to join you. Starting today I hope you will self report in this chat what you are doing to help people vote early. If you have graphics from your campaigns share a link in the chat or send them to community@HopiumChronicles.com. Here’s a fun new Hopium-inspired graphic from Lynn Fellman, also known as Rebel Artist for Science:
I make the case for Voting Early in this Hopium page, but the bottom line is this - when Democrats vote early is makes it more likely we win and harder for them to cheat.
Here’s another reason to vote early, in person if possible, drop box next, and then mail as early as you can - because of the intentional battering of the USPS returned mail ballots are arriving later this year causing an increase of ballots not getting counted:
From the new NYT analysis (gift link):
The rate at which mail votes have been rejected for arriving late has ticked up in primaries this year and general elections last year in roughly a dozen states, prompting election officials to worry that the U.S. Postal Service is ill-equipped to deliver ballots in the fall midterms.
The states studied by The New York Times include some of the most critical battleground House and Senate seats where control of Congress will be determined, as well as key races for governor and secretary of state. The Times obtained data from California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington.
In Wisconsin, which hosts an open race for governor, a competitive House election plus contests for both chambers of the state legislature, lateness accounted for about 5,000 rejected mail ballots in the spring primary this year, or 78 percent of all tossed ballots. During the last spring election, in 2023, the figure was roughly 2,300, or 47 percent of all tossed votes.
The increase is particularly striking when comparing primaries in 2024 and this year. In Michigan’s primary earlier this month, more than 10,000 mail ballots were rejected for arriving after the state’s deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day. That is nearly double the number of ballots rejected in 2024. In Washington, the number of late-arriving mail ballots increased from about 16,000 to more than 20,000 in the same period.
The rise in rejected ballots comes at a time of immense upheaval at the Postal Service, where a budget crisis has prompted widespread complaints about delivery delays. The increase also comes as President Trump and his allies are trying to transform the 251-year-old agency into a central player in their quest to restrict mail voting and otherwise overhaul the nation’s elections.
We need to make voting early a national crusade this year. Everyone has a role to play. Let’s make the act of voting celebratory, joyous, defiant, a double fisted middle finger in the face of Trump’s rancid illiberalism. You want something better for America? Vote early. You want to make sure Democrats win? Vote early. Encourage influentials and electeds in your community to join your campaign. Encourage them to make videos to encourage their networks to join us. Let’s make this a bottom up wave of joyful patriots standing up to American and global authoritarianism by voting early and in unprecedented numbers. Imagine if the stories in the last few weeks of the elections are all about a swarm of humanity voting, doing their part, standing up for our rights and freedoms through voting……..these images, and these stories will create what we will call in the business permission structure and social pressure for more people to vote, creating a virtuous cycle of participation, where the a robust early vote creates even more voters, increasing our turnout, making it more likely win races across the country, which in turn creates even more……
Voting early just becomes the thing to do and everyone is talking about it and doing it…..
Can we do this people? Yes, we can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A few more things…..
**Pete Hegseth Has To Go. It Is Time Now **- Let’s look at the headlines just from a single site this morning, the homepage of the Washington Post:
A U.S. strike on Iran breaks a month-long lull, and Iran fires back(link)Pentagon secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles: Conservative veterans with large social media followings have been hired by the Defense Department and are amplifying Pete Hegseth’s culture-war fights (link)Hegseth’s purges are endangering national security: The Iran quagmire wouldn’t have happened under Trump’s first-term military leaders (link)And this explosive, must read one -
Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations: A recent classified assessment advised that prolonged large-scale operations in the Middle East risk weakening U.S. capabilities elsewhere (link)
Look at this collection of headlines from the NYT home page now. Failure, weakness, American humiliation as far as the eye can see…..
Simply, it is time for Pete to go.
What’s Happening In Venezuela Is Not OK - Thwarted and failing everywhere else our rapacious leader has decided make himself feel better by taking even more oil from his Latin play toy, Venezuela. From the Washington Post this am in a story called Venezuela vowed not to ‘hand over’ its oil. Trump aims to grab a windfall:
As Nicolás Maduro’s vice president in Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez once accused her political rival of planning to hand over the country’s riches — its vast oil reserves — to the United States.
“They are her owners,” Rodriguez said in 2024 of María Corina Machado, then the U.S.-backed opposition leader. “Her master gives her orders to do what? To hand over the oil, the gas, the gold … to hand over and trample on our historical dignity.”
Now, Rodríguez is the country’s interim leader, thanks to President Donald Trump. And on Friday, Trump announced what he called the “biggest oil deal in world history” — a pact that would give the U.S. a long-term controlling stake in nearly a quarter of Venezuela’s untapped oil reserves.
The deal calls for the U.S. to enter a joint venture with a private company, creating a new oil giant that the Trump administration said will hold 100-year contracts at the Venezuelan oil fields. It would become the second-largest private oil company by reserves in the world, after Saudi Aramco.
The deal cements the United States’ long-term dominance over Venezuela, which has become a neo-colony since the U.S. military’s capture of Maduro in January, when Trump vowed to “run” the country and exploit its oil wealth. The agreement now stands to lock in the United States as Venezuela’s primary oil partner for generations.
The agreement appears to contradict much of what Venezuela’s government has stood for since then-President Hugo Chávez proclaimed it a socialist state. For Venezuelans, it also creates a sense of history repeating itself, with a twist: A government long criticized for its opaque oil deals, and widespread corruption, is now entering a murky, long-term arrangement with a new protector, the United States.
……..But few details have been disclosed about the agreement, leaving Venezuelans with more questions than answers.
It remains unclear how much Venezuela will earn from the deal; how much it will cost U.S. taxpayers, given the need for expensive front-end investment; and how much will simply end up enriching the private company — and the controversial businessman, Alejandro Betancourt — at the center of it all.
How much stake do we think the Trump family gets in this new company, a company that would become “the second-largest private oil company by reserves in the world, after Saudi Aramco”?
**The Senate Russia Sanctions Bill Comes To The House - From Punchbowl: **
The powerful House Democrats who oppose the Senate-passed bill, along with the Democratic senators who led the charge against the measure, are out with a joint statement trying to call Trump’s bluff. They say Trump already has “broad, existing sanctions authorities” he can trigger to squeeze Russia.
The statement
goes on to say:“Congress does not need to greenlight new tariff authority for the President to impose those sanctions on Russia today. Delaying sanctions makes them less effective while the Kremlin continues to expand its schemes to procure foreign technology and funding. Ukrainians need our support now.”
Sens. Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.) andRon Wyden(D-Ore.) — the top Democrats on the Banking and Finance committees, respectively — led the statement. Both voted against the Senate bill.The statement is co-signed by three top House Democrats who long ago announced their opposition to the legislation over the tariff provisions: Rep.
Gregory Meeks(N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee; Rep.Richie Neal(Mass.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee; and Rep.Don Beyer(Va.).
I am grateful that these leaders are working to improve the Senate-passed bill by stripping out Trump’s tariff authority. We need more sanctions on Russia, but it is important to do it right. If have time today call your rep and say “yes to Russia sanctions, no to new tariff authority.”
Improving the Senate sanctions bill is something Ranking Member Meeks discussed with us when he dropped by a few weeks ago.
**Two Live Events Today: **
1230pm - I join Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) CEO Halie Sofer for a live discussion of the 2026 elections over at the
Jewish Dem Download.2pm - Bobby Pulido (TX-15), one of our very best candidates of the cycle joins us live on the
Hopium site.
And yes, my friends, it is that time……
Our daily mantra:
There is nothing Trump and MAGA wants more than for us to be fighting with each other and not with him. We have one job now - elect as many of these wonderful candidates running for the House and Senate as we can. It’s where our focus must be. It’s a year of opportunity for us across the country. We must seize it, together.
Make your plans to vote early, and ensure everyone you know is voting early too! It’s one of the most important things you can do this election season. Early voting starts in Virginia in 19 days!
**Our Winning The House Campaign **- Donate | $1,140,100 raised, $1,250,000 goal (new stretch goal) | Donate to all twelve of our initial wave of 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 courageous candidates win, the House will flip, even with Callais and their rancid mid-decade redistricting. So eyes on the prize here everyone!
Winning The Senate - $775,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new 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).
Our working total includes what we’ve raised for these six so far through direct donations to their campaigns. You can watch our interviews with each of these exciting candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them directly here.
**Winning The House - The Second Wave Fund **- Donate | $333,100 raised, $500,000 goal - We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from late, primaries and need a bit more help.
Our newly expanded list now features Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Randy Villegas (CA-22), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).
A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these twelve, 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 these great candidates here.
Winning The House - The Third Wave Fund - Donate | $24,700 raised, $500,000 goal | We’ve launched this new fund for candidates who have emerged even later from primaries and need a bit more help as we work to expand our map and go deeper into tough terrain. Our initial list - and it may grow - is Christina Hines (MI-10), Lindsay James (IA-02), Jake Johnson (MN-01), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), and Brian Poindexter (OH-7).
The “Winning” link in each state brings you to a page that includes interviews and more information about the opportunities we have in each state.
**Winning Georgia ***- *Donate | $34,900 raised, $250,000 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 | $36,700 raised, $250,000 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 | $83,700 raised, $250,000 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 Chair Charlie Dingman
Winning Ohio - [Donate…
