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  • From the Desk of Al Franken

Elephant hats not included

The first ever GOP Midterm Convention starts today in Dallas. Get excited!

Since the RNC didn’t bother putting together a welcome packet for us, I made one myself. Consider this your official orientation to the GOP Midterm Convention.

REGISTRATION: Tickets start at $25,000 a head. Want to stand slightly closer to JD Vance? That’ll be $100,000. One Republican strategist told reporters the pricing is basically “yet another opportunity to shake down corporate America.” Coming from a Republican, that’s practically a five-star review.

YOUR WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE:

  • 3 PM – 5 PM: Sessions focused on the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Republicans passed last year (which adds trillions of dollars of debt and benefits billionaires) and mandatory voter ID through the SAVE Act.
  • 5 PM – 7 PM: Speeches from candidates in targeted races and, I kid you not, government accountability!
  • 8 PM: A speech from JD Vance
  • 9 PM: Trump’s first speech (he has two)!

BIG DAY ON THURSDAY:

  • 3 PM – 5 PM: Panels on education freedom (aka How To Dismantle the Department of Education) and stricter border enforcement (I guess 50,000 arrests by ICE last month wasn’t enough).
  • 5 PM – 7 PM: More candidate speeches and congressional ethics reforms. Again, this is real.
  • 7 PM – 8 PM: Corporate influence in public health agencies. Might be a red herring?  
  • 8 PM: Trump’s second speech to cover all the important information not in the first. And also, rant/brag nonsensically AND incoherently.

One Republican operative described the whole event to reporters, on the record, as a “shit show.” I’m not editorializing — that is an actual quote from an actual Republican, about their own party’s convention. I could write a better joke if someone paid me, but there is simply no market for it.

Look, the jokes really sort of write themselves. But somebody still has to do the unglamorous work of defeating these people in November — registering voters, backing the right candidates in the right races, and making sure Republicans spend more time explaining $100,000 convention tickets than passing an agenda that actually helps not in the 1%.

That’s what Midwest Values PAC does every day, convention or no convention.

Al

P.S. If any of you would like to attend the convention on our behalf and report back, we will reimburse you for the elephant hat. Not the $25,000 badge. Just the hat. And, no, not really.

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Somehow, it’s been 20 years since I started Midwest Values PAC to help Democrats win elections — from progressive organizations to state legislatures to Congress to the White House — who share the values I grew up with in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

Since 2006, Midwest Values PAC has invested more than $4 million in 341 candidates and organizations — and counting. 

Of course, none of this happens without you (or supporters like you) who care enough to pitch in.

As we mark our 20th anniversary, the work is more urgent than ever. This year, we have a big job: flip the House, take the Senate, and win up and down the ballot at the state and local level.

To mark our 20th year, we’ve set an ambitious goal: 26,000 contributions by Election Day 2026.

DONATE HERE

Thanks for being part of this fight, and for sticking with us for 20 years (or for just joining — welcome!).

Al

P.S. Over the years, okay, decades, we’ve helped Democrats win tough races all across the country by investing early, intelligently, and strategically. That’s how you flip seats. That’s how you protect democracy. And that’s how you stop the worst impulses of a president who never should have been president in the first place.

ANOTHER CHANCE TO DONATE