The Sweep: What Stacey Abrams’ Fundraising Tells Us About Her Campaign

Programing note: If you’d like to vary up your media diet, check out the Dispatch Book Club. This month, we’re reading The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul, which is a fascinating read on all the ways we learn and solve problems using gestures, social relationships, and even the physical spaces we work. I’m going to be interviewing her on a podcast just for Dispatch members that will be released at the end of the month. Come here to leave comments and engage with other Dispatch members along the way. 

Remember, National Poll Numbers Don’t Matter

With the availability of so many national polling numbers—generic congressional ballot, presidential approval, issue polling—it can be easy to forget that none of them matter. If all of the support for Democrats is concentrated in high-population, far-left states like California and New York, then the national numbers will look deceptively positive. Lo and behold: 

“Morning Consult Political Intelligence survey data gathered during the second quarter of 2022 shows voters in 44 states are more likely to disapprove than approve of Biden’s job performance, up from 40 states in the first quarter,” writes Eli Yokley, “​​Roughly 2 in 5 voters approve of his job performance in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”

Stand By for Trump Announcement

“The former president is now eyeing a September announcement, according to two Trump advisers,” wrote Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post last week, “One confidant put the odds at ‘70-30 he announces before the midterms.’”