Friend,

Last night, the GOP debate was the predictable barrage of lies and focus group-tested MAGA soundbites. It was just a reminder of how far gone they all are and how far we need to keep these people from any position of real power. 

And Trump wasn’t even on the stage. 

Today, the man who is actually going to be the nominee is about to be fingerprinted, photographed, and searched like a common criminal. All of his so-called opponents on the debate stage signed a pledge to support him. Most of them were really just trying to audition for his cabinet.

That’s this race in a nutshell. It doesn’t matter which one of the candidates last night yelled “woke” the loudest, they’re all in the bag for the most lawless man in American history.

We can’t expect anyone to beat Trump in the primary. They’re all sycophants and the only way to get them out of public life is to beat them at the ballot box and beat them big.

But the reality right now is that we have a lot more work to do to make that happen. Think about the extremist drivel we saw come out of every candidate last night. And think about what’s happening in Fulton County today. 

The former President is about to be formally arrested for attempting to overthrow a democratic election. Read that sentence again and really feel the moral weight of that statement. 

But Trump has successfully normalized all of this. He’s normalized his criminality and he’s normalized the depravity of his policy positions. That’s why he’s barnstorming the GOP primary and that’s why polling matchups against President Biden are still razor thin. 

We shouldn’t be in a situation where we have to fight to beat a man who will end up in a prison cell if he doesn’t take the White House. But that’s the position we’re in. 

The media are going to anoint someone the “winner” of the debate. Someone is going to get normalized in the next few days. (It will not be Ron DeSantis, by the way.) Anyone indulging themselves in the fantasy that it’s anyone but Trump is deluding themselves and a danger to our democracy.

The stakes in our current political moment are high. And we need to make sure we rise up and meet it. Are you with us?

We led the pro-democracy fight in 2020 and 2022. We know how to beat Trump and we’re going to do it again. We’re not worried. We’re motivated to beat Trump and his MAGA party for good. 

-Reed, Rick, Stuart, and Joe