Friend,

We all saw the balloon last week. Yep, the latest high-tech tool in China’s reconnaissance tool kit came straight out of a countryside travel brochure.

President Biden handled the situation with his typical level-headedness and diplomatic ease. He listened to the intelligence and waited for the right time to shoot down the balloon so experts could investigate it for potentially sensitive materials, even waiting until it was over water to make sure no civilians would be injured.

Our President didn’t start WWIII. He didn’t go on a fear-mongering tweet-storm. 

But if you stuck your head into the MAGA-verse for 30 seconds, you heard something different. 

The balloon was a crisis and an indictment on the strength of the Biden presidency. Far-right message boards sprouted nonsensical conspiracies that wormed their way onto Fox News and Newsmax chyrons. 

Never mind the fact that three Chinese intelligence balloons showed up under Trump’s watch. Never mind the fact that Trump didn’t shoot down any of them (maybe he was worried about Ivanka’s shoe deal.)

The MAGA media will always keep its viewers locked into a bubble of lies and rage. It's how they make money, and it is how they prop up their authoritarian culture-war-crazed movement. 

A vocal, but small minority in our country will always remain trapped in the extremist bubble. But a far more sizable contingency of former Republican pro-democracy voters don’t buy the conspiracies, and they are looking for messages that will resonate with them. 

President Biden popped the balloon. Now, it’s our job to pop the MAGA bubble and reach those voters. 

There are 18 MAGA members of Congress right now whose constituents voted for President Biden. They are part of the cabal holding our economy hostage over debt-ceiling fearmongering, which you better believe will happen right after FOX figures out the balloon is so yesterday. 

Here’s what we learned in 2022: Voters aren’t looking for conspiracy theories about balloons. And they definitely don’t care about Hunter Biden’s laptop. They want to see results. Successes. Things that make their lives better.

We’re going into those districts and we’re delivering the pro-democracy truths that will resonate with those voters. 

And if we replicate the success we had in 17 targeted wins this past cycle, we'll unseat the GOP House majority and defeat Trump in 2024. 

That’s how you pop the MAGA balloon.

That’s the work we’re doing. That is the work we need your help to support. Donate to The Lincoln Project today and help us reach these voters. 

-Reed