“Having doubts? You are not alone. LeavingMAGA.org.”

The title of today’s edition is the motto of LeavingMAGA.org, the organization dedicated to “creating a safe, non-judgmental community for those who leave MAGA, as well as for those who are having doubts about, or remorse over, their devotion to Trump and MAGA.”

On Tuesday, I interviewed the founder of Leaving MAGA, Rich Logis. The video of the interview is at the bottom of this article.

Many readers ask me for advice on interacting with family members, in-laws, friends, and coworkers who are devoted to Trump and MAGA. Some say they are trying to persuade their loved ones and friends to recognize the truth about the MAGA movement. Others write in despair to say that they have given up, accepting that MAGA has permanently damaged their relationships.

If you are struggling with these issues, I strongly recommend watching my interview of Rich Logis.

Rich was a devoted Trump supporter who went “all in” for MAGA. He drafted “call scripts” for the Trump campaign that were widely used by Trump volunteers. He donated, posted, created podcasts, and did everything he could to support Trump. But when Richard DeSantis attacked the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccine, Rich began his year-long journey of separating from MAGA. The critical step in Rich’s departure from MAGA was “diversifying his sources of information.”

When Rich finally departed MAGA, he published an apology to his family, friends, and Trump supporters whom he had influenced.

Rich’s apology unleashed a flood of responses from other Trump supporters who were struggling to leave MAGA. What started as a personal apology quickly became a movement to help doubting Trump supporters leave MAGA.

Rich’s journey of leaving MAGA and his remarkable redemption are an inspiration. If you have a friend or loved one who is having doubts, refer them to LeavingMAGA.org. Indeed, directing a MAGA supporter to the supportive environment at Leaving MAGA may avoid the difficult personal dynamics of admitting doubts to a close family member or friend with whom the Trump supporter had clashed in the past.

As Rich notes, you can support LeavingMAGA by volunteering or donating at the website, LeavingMAGA.org. (The organization is a 501(c)(3)(c)(4) nonprofit.) The organization is looking for leaders who can help with outreach and support. Rich’s personal journey is chronicled in his book, One Betrayal Too Many. The organization hosts a weekly support group on Zoom (every Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. EST)

Also, you can check out LeavingMAGA’s Substack newsletter, Leaving MAGA’s Substack

Finally, if you are a member of a Bridge Brigade or standout group, consider promoting the LeavingMAGA.org website and its welcoming message: “Having doubts? You are not alone. LeavingMaga.org.”

The Civics Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to registering graduating high school seniors to vote. When 18-year-olds register, they vote at a rate similar to the rest of the electorate. The trick is getting them to register. In general, registration rates for 18-year-olds are substantially lower than the rest of the electorate.

But the Civics Center reports encouraging news. There are more 18-year-olds registered to vote in 2026 than in 2022—an encouraging sign for anyone concerned about the future of our democracy. See The Civics Center, Great news: more 18-year-olds are registered to vote in the 2026 midterms compared to 2022! If we keep this up we can add hundreds of thousands more by November.

Per Laura Brill, founder and executive director of the Civics Center,

This week I have great news: Our new research shows that many more 18-year-old Americans are registered to vote in this year’s midterm elections than at this point in 2022. Many states have seen a significant increase in youth registration since the last midterm year . . .

With the midterms on the horizon, we have an immediate possibility to significantly raise the registration rate for 18-year-olds but we need to act before we hit state registration deadlines, which begin in early October, weeks before Election Day.

The data shows what’s possible: in 2022, 30 states showed a greater than 5-percentage point increase between summer and Election Day, with Maine, Michigan, Kansas, and Georgia each showing gains of more than 15 percentage points.

The mission of the Civics Center is to sponsor student-led registration drives in every high school in the country. Although students lead the registration drives, they need adults to support and supervise them. If you are a teacher, administrator, coach, nurse, parent, grandparent, or other adult connected to a high school, please consider volunteering to help your local high school increase its voter registration rate.

And to be clear, the Civics Center is nonpartisan. It is committed to the proposition that our democracy is stronger when more people register and vote—especially young people, who represent the future of our country.

But . . . in general, most younger voters tend to register or identify as Independents and Democrats. In 2024, the strongest support for Kamala Harris came from the 18-to 29-year-old cohort. See CIRCLE at Tufts, The Youth Vote in 2024.

Tuesday was the primary election day in Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin. As I write, the highest-profile race in Wisconsin—the Democratic primary for governor—is too close to call. With 94% of the vote counted, the candidates, Francesca Hong and David Crowley, are separated by about 750 votes.

The race was touted as another “test” of the strength of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) movement. Instead, the race was another test of the accuracy of polling.

Polls consistently showed Francesca Hong leading by double digits, a trend that caused several Democratic candidates to drop out of the primary. As with the unexpectedly close race between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens in Michigan, the polls were off by at least 10% in Wisconsin.

For the second time in two weeks, pollsters failed to capture the mood of the electorate. In a comical defense of the polls by a commentator on MSNow, a political consultant said something like, “The polls were right, but the voters changed their minds.” Uh, aren’t polls supposed to capture what is on voters’ minds?

But I digress. The point is that the old polling models do not include an adjudicated insurrectionist president whose approval rating is the lowest of any president heading into a midterm since Harry Truman in 1946. (Nixon didn’t make it to the midterms, resigning in August.) Nor can they adjust for the fact that the president is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser who is using the presidency as a piggy bank while plunging the US into a pointless and ruinous war as he raises tariffs that punish consumers. There are just too many confounding variables heading into the 2026 midterms.

As always, polls are helpful tools for professionals advising candidates and can serve as sanity checks for an anxious electorate when considered over time and in aggregate. Still, the polls in Wisconsin were wrong in the aggregate.

Something is happening among voters that the polls are not capturing. When I expressed the same sentiment last week, a reader posted the following in the Comment section: Run. Through. The. Tape.

In other words, like a sprinter approaching the finish line, we must not slow down either because we believe we are in the lead or because we believe we are trailing. The race isn’t over until it’s over, and the margin of effort is determined only after every step is counted.

We are living in a time when corrupt betting markets are used as proxies for polling. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by disinformation that can be easily manipulated by billionaires and foreign actors.

Most importantly, polls are not elections, and we have agency over the future. We cannot control it, but we can influence it—but only if we run through the tape.

Talk to you tomorrow!

The estimated distance to the Cocoon Nebula ranges from 2,500 to 6,000 light-years from Earth. It is about 15 light-years across. The nebula is a star nursery and is a complicated object—a combined emission, reflection, and dark nebula.

Send photos to rbhubbell@gmail.com. Include a caption with the date, location, organization, and a brief comment (if any).

Happy Hour Visibility Brigade was out on our bridge over Route 128/I-95 in Lexington, MA today (August 11).  

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Petaluma, CA stages a “Signs of Action” demonstration on alternate Tuesdays.  The idea is to hold up one idea of something people can do to promote change. 

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Seaside Oregon. The Seaside crew always shows up ready to do their part to defend Democracy!

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Rise and Resit New York, NY Disbar Blanch action

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Another glorious day on the bridge with lots of rewarding honks. We’re starting our get-out-the-vote campaign. Providence RI

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My dear comrade Betsy Malcolm has been sending you photos from Rise and Resist’s weekly Immigration Vigil at NYC’s ICE HQ at 26 Federal Plaza. Deep thanks for sharing those in your newsletter.

We also hold a weekly protest at Rupert Murdoch’s Death Star -- Fox HQ.

Here are photos from today’s (8/11/2026) protest at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox headquarters in midtown Manhattan (we never call it Fox News!). We must break right-wing propaganda’s grip on Americans. (Listening to LeavingMaga.org members makes this clear!) Rise and Resist has been protesting at Fox every Tuesday (”Truth Tuesdays”) for FIVE YEARS. Our fifth anniversary is next week - Aug. 18. Anyone can start a Fox protest at their local Fox affiliate - FoxTakedown.com can help!

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Reader Bob Morgan: Here’s another that I’ve been thinking about for a while . . .

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Rise and Resist demands that the NYS Appellate Court initiate disbarment proceedings against Todd Blanche.

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Pasadena, CA 8/11/26

No surprise that Blanche got through. Tillis and Cornyn are cowards.

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Celebrating 6 months of taking a stand together on Tuesday mornings. (Take A Stand Tuesdays - Cary, NC)

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August 9th Good Trouble Assembly. We gather 3 times a week in Traverse City Michigan. Find us at https://www.traverseindivisible.org/good-trouble Up North for a visit? We have loaner signs.

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From our recent Hilton Head Island INDIVISIBLE 🏝️ event on 8/7/26

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Protestors in Berkeley Springs, WV, have gathered from 2:00-3:00 every day but 1 since January 5, 2026. We’ve protested when the heat index was 111 degrees, when the wind chill was 7 degrees, when air quality was less than optimal, and yes, in the pouring rain.

On August 10, we called it quits at 2:40 when lightning strikes were uncomfortably close.