This @perrybaconjr.bsky.social interview with @vanhollen.senate.gov was one of the #Persuasion2025 highlights. Don't miss the framing of the first question; that single question set the bullshit-free tone for the entire day.

“Voters were struggling with an affordability crisis but had given up hope a mayor could do anything about it. Zohran wasn’t scared of naming villains and proposing solutions.” Morris Katz #Persuasion2025

“Why is it so hard to acknowledge clear atrocities? AIPAC should have the same connotation as the NRA in Democratic politics. I think this is the very purposeful ignoring of humanity. But when you have money coming in, you don’t want to jeopardize that.” @katmabu.bsky.social #Persuasion2025

"There’s a concerted effort... to make sure that Democrats just focus on raising more corporate money, to engage in the failed strategy of then spending a ton of that money on mail and TV at the very last minute." Rep @gregcasar.bsky.social #Persuasion2025

"The thing Mamdani is doing, people think he cares about them. They’ll forgive him the other stuff. The reason they like Trump? They think Trump’s on their side... Democrats can say the right words but if they don't feel it, people don’t believe them.” @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social #Persuasion2025

"You say to voters, fire, fire, the house is on fire, this is a fascist threat. But then you refuse to go into the building with an extinguisher and pull them out, they are left either thinking you’re lying… or you don’t give a shit about them." @anatosaurus.bsky.social #Persuasion2025

Sen. Van Hollen on Kilmar Abrego Garcia: “There were a lot of pollsters and pundits who said I shouldn’t go because we shouldn’t talk about immigration... It’s a false choice to say we have to only talk about the price of eggs and we can’t talk about the assaults on our freedoms.” #Persuasion2025

This week's Charting the Way Forward covers initial impressions of the event and reactions so far, and just went up this morning. (we were slightly delayed due to travel schedules - apologies!) 📺 youtu.be/KgW3ESpGsN4 🍎 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Our inaugural #Persuasion2025 DC event has drawn praise and stirred up opinions across DC. We partnered with the ad testing platform Swayable and invited a spectrum of voices to join us for a day of new thinking and finding a path forward. A 🧵, and stay tuned for clips and session video.

Side note: every progressive conference should have these debates ie Anat v Sarah. Important Sarah’s begging the room: Stop talking about democracy, talk about America Don’t fight about centrism vs progressives. People don’t care. *Every single focus group just want Dems to be aggressive*

We’re looking at solutions and working to understand voters across the diverse pro-democracy coalition. We can’t keep fighting battles and losing the war. Thanks to @politico.com for this preliminary coverage of our meeting today.

“The cavalry isn’t coming. It’s here in this room.”- @lateefahsimon.bsky.social @waytowinus.bsky.social

Latinos are souring on Trump. Can Democrats win them back? @torygavito.bsky.social lays out the opportunity and the peril for Democrats with these essential voters chartingthewayforward.substack.com/p/latinos-ar...

Fun new Charting ep today with @heathergtv.bsky.social. If you are not familiar with Heather's work you're in luck. She's hilarious and brilliant. Her and Maddie get into what's worth fighting for - 🔉 open.spotify.com/episode/7wkq... 📺 youtu.be/tWNRZRjyf9A 🍎 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

"Trump’s decline in polling is SHOCKING–how far he’s fallen. Given the impression in the national media of how strong he is and manly he is & how much he controls everything. He’s lost the ability to persuade voters. The thing that’s happened is that his persuasion ability is gone." -Simon Rosenberg

Really enjoyed this timely and insightful conversation about the path forward with two dear friends... bsky.app/profile/wayt...

Really critical show for you all today with @simonwdc.bsky.social. We're at a moment of serious peril for this country. As the craziness ratchets up, our efforts have to also. An excellent ep to send to your less involved friends! 📺 youtu.be/bhMxRP1ugRw 🍎 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

I know we were told that Trump could use "crime" to restore his POWER, STRENGTH, and MANLINESS, but his job approval on crime is 42%-49% and -26 with independents. This data is consistent with many other polls these past few weeks.

Assume polling is going to be bouncy these next few weeks but in the Economist/YouGov weekly track Trump's job approval with adults went from -13 (41-54) last week to -18 this week (39-57). He's -50 with independents, 19-69.

We had @ronbrownstein.bsky.social on Charting The Way Forward this week—this guy never misses! Just a gusher of good intel about the emerging electorate, 2024/2026 & more. With @torygavito.bsky.social! Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m... YT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HEL...

Precisely the case in the US. Young men with economic anxiety on net actually voted Dem in 2024. Young men with bad views about women, feminism, and trans people voted for the right. www.ymrp.org/polling

I’ll take my chances

We're noticing another uptick in focus on voters who flipped from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024. This is an odd selective focus as they were roughly offset by the number of Trump to Harris voters, and there were roughly 3x as many skippers - Biden voters that sat out 2024. A 🧵 with research:

This is exactly why people are redefining "swing voters" as those who "cycle in and out of the electorate, casting a ballot in some elections but not others." It's less about those who flipped and more about those who skipped... or conversely showed up. edition.cnn.com/2025/08/24/p...

In truth, Trump is becoming toxic for Rs—the backlash next year could be astounding

NEW Charting the Way Forward with two absolutely fantastic organizers from NC and GA, connecting local and national struggles. If you have friends that think "the groups" are why Dems are struggling, please send them this one! 📺 youtu.be/61a0pwy-UsQ 🍎 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Inside the DC bubble, there's much fretting by Dem strategists and lots of pessimistic punditry from "savvy" media Then, there's what's happening outside that bubble: Two Midwest conservatives set to bow out ahead of tough reelection fights www.the-downballot.com/p/breaking-t...

ICE’s unchecked power has turned into lawless overreach—abductions by masked agents, denial of due process, secret police tactics. Democratic leaders can stop this, but only if we demand it: bit.ly/45Umbi3

you mean "we're all going to die" wasn't polling well?

Don’t mean to make everything about the Supreme Court, but: There’s an undecided petition AT THIS VERY MOMENT, sitting on the shadow docket, asking the nine to allow ICE to racially profile people who look Latino, speak Spanish, are day laborers, or else work in low-wage service jobs. This one:

Democrats are up 3.5 points in our average of U.S. House generic ballot polls. That would be enough to overcome the effects of additional partisan gerrymandering in red states www.gelliottmorris.com/p/data

NEW Charting the Way Forward: 🫧🧨 BUBBLE DYNAMITE 🫧🧨 with @joesudbay.bsky.social, on how reality is starting to break through to the various DC bubbles, and how we all can accelerate this process. YT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAC... Apple Pods: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

If you want to hear directly from the candidates running in difficult special elections, listen to Joe's show. He gives time of day to folks who get ignored by most outlets. "State of the States" is like an early detection system for compelling races.

Red-state Republicans who are eager to take on blue turf to ram through new mid-decade gerrymanders at Trump's behest *might* want to reconsider. Or maybe not! Up to them, really.

BREAKING: Catelin Drey just FLIPPED Iowa’s SD-01, breaking the GOP’s supermajority in the chamber! She’s ready to put working families back at the forefront of politics in Iowa after years of Republican policy failures.

a 20-point swing away from Trump’s party even as The Pundits have assured us that Trump is masterfully getting the political fights he wants.

"But after attorneys general and governors from about two dozen blue states sued in federal court and won an injunction, the balance flipped. Of the five states with the most canceled grants, four are led by Republicans: Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio"

WOW. HUGE PICK UP IN IOWA TONIGHT Breaks GOP supermajority in the Senate Congrats Catelin Drey!!!!

This is 🔥🔥🔥

The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...

I strongly encourage moderate organizations to primarily focus on language policing. I will be busy organizing all of your people, who are radiantly furious with Democrats and ready to clean house

MUST LISTEN ep here on reaching Gen Zers...

Insightful and encouraging podcast featuring pollster Caitlin Jury from Equiis discussing recent survey on Latinos, Trump, and the Economy. @waytowinus.bsky.social @torygavito.bsky.social 1/

Trump’s ICE just broke the law by refusing to allow me to conduct an oversight visit of a detention facility.

NEW: The Trump actions that are sparking the most backlash — with high concern and high opposition from voters — are: - Signing the One Big Beautiful Bill - Laying off Social Security Administration employees - Signing an order to eliminate the Department of Education

This.

Feb vs Aug approval breakdown by Pew Overall: -4 —> -22 some of the larger shifts Hispanic: -26 —> -43 Asian: -4 —> -35 18-29: -16 —> -33 30-49: -10 —> -31 No College: +8 —> -15 www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...

Our convo w/ the great Caitlin Jury about fresh @equislabs.bsky.social polling was really revelatory. Latino voters don't like what Trump is doing & they're definitely not sold on Republicans, but they're also not moving to Democrats. Yet. There's an opening—and there's work to do, folks. Join us!

Really great ep, right in the wheelhouse of what we are trying to do with our pod. Caitlin really is a rising star and this is potentially pretty relevant to redistricting. The last 6 elections have all been change elections, @mikepod.bsky.social has a slide of this somewhere. This one could be too.

Harry Enten: "This is an abject disaster for the president. Voters on Trump on inflation - look at where his net approval stands today on inflation. My goodness gracious! Into the gutter we do. H's 25 points underwater! ... the wrath the voters feel for Trump is transferring over to Republicans."