Simon Rosenberg is the longtime Democratic strategist who turned his attention to building a community of support for candidates, capacity building, and expanding the base. That effort is, of course, Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg, which has grown into a powerful force, exchanging ideas between candidates and the growing base, and bringing a new source of funding to races that need it.
From time to time, we talk on my radio show The Big Picture on WCPT820. Media technology is rapidly evolving, so this week we pre-taped by going live here on substack. I also now record these and other videos for you to see on Lincoln Square.
It’s a long, but great interview. Because of the Charlie Kirk murder and all the retributive threats that followed, we begin by talking about political violence. Simon breaks down the ideology that encourages it.
We spend time on political strategy and talk about moving from defense to offense- taking the contest to their turf, both rhetorically and geographically. Looking forward, demographic changes will give even more electoral college weight to states like Texas, and that means we have to register more people to change the voting population in that state. Of course, it’s not just Texas, and we talk about good work being done in places like North Carolina and Arizona as well.
We spend time on Democratic leadership. Simon would like to see the leadership in Washington better meet the moment we are in. I see a lot to admire in governors and state level electeds, who do seem to understand the fight we are in.
We are a great coalition. As Simon points out, that’s not a base and a swing vote. It is a large diverse group where everyone matters, and no-one can be taken for granted.
Listen all the way through, because at the end, Simon lays out his four pillars for success in the upcoming election cycle.
