Despite Likely Setback for Climate Action With This Year’s Election, New Climate Champions Set to Enter Congress
The 2024 election will likely result in a major setback for climate action, with President-elect Donald Trump retaking the White House and Republicans taking back control of the Senate. Climate advocates in Congress now must work to ward off the worst attempts to weaken the country’s bedrock environmental laws and gut recently passed climate actions from the Biden administration.
Trump and the Republican Party won elections up and down the ballot by focusing on pocketbook issues, with promises to solve the economic woes many Americans face. Key to that was the promotion of fossil fuels to lower energy costs, with the Trump campaign promising to “drill, baby, drill,” on U.S. soil to boost the domestic production of oil and gas. The fossil fuel industry has heralded Trump’s victory, citing his promises to boost production and roll back recent environmental rules made since he last held office.
Though Democrats, the party that has taken the most action to address climate change and has not cast doubt on its legitimacy as an issue, lost control of the Senate and the fate of the House of Representatives is yet to be determined, climate advocacy groups said those in Congress who have made climate a top issue will be a critical backstop to the potential actions taken to roll back regulations.
“Members of Congress, even in the minority, have the power to push things and make things less bad, to use their bully pulpit to speak out and continue building public awareness” on climate issues, said Craig Auster, vice president of political affairs at the League of Conservation Voters.
Explore the latest news about what’s at stake for the climate during this election season.
Down the ballot, new environmental champions with histories of taking action to address the climate crisis were elected to the House and Senate. There’s a high school science teacher, state lawmakers who have consistently fought for climate action in their states and a former United Nations policy adviser on climate issues. Others, like an environmental attorney and professor, are still locked in tight races to enter Congress.
That work to raise awareness will continue in the coming years, even if significant legislation to address climate change is lacking.
The Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate law and the nation’s largest single investment in reducing climate-warming pollution, remains popular, and so far has resulted in thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars of investment. Climate advocates say defending that law—and making it clear that attacking it will not only hurt efforts to address climate change but also kill good-paying jobs—will be crucial.
“What these moments call out for is real leadership,” David Kieve, the president of EDF Action, the Environmental Defense Fund’s advocacy partner, told Inside Climate News in an interview. “What we’re going to see is there won’t be a vulnerability or a penalty for leaning in on and defending the good-paying clean energy jobs that are coming, and I think there will be a penalty to those that want to try to rip them away.”
If Democrats wrest control of the House it will be thanks in part to the work of climate advocacy groups like EDF Action, the League of Conservation Voters and 314 Action Fund, a political action committee that seeks to elect Democrats with a background in science to public office.
The latter group, named after the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi, was started by Shaughnessy Naughton, a chemist who waged an unsuccessful bid for a House seat in 2014. Naughton said she developed the organization in part as a response to President Donald Trump’s anti-science agenda after he was first elected in 2016.
“Traditionally, scientists have taken the approach that science is above politics, and therefore scientists shouldn’t be involved in politics,” Naughton said. “But what politicians have shown us is that they are unashamed to meddle in science, and the way to push back on that is to take a seat at the table and get elected.”
Since 2016, the group has supported more than 500 candidates for public offices ranging from school boards and county commissions to the U.S. Senate.
Below are some of the incoming members of Congress who have made climate change a top priority.
John Mannion (New York)
One candidate endorsed by 314 Action Fund is John Mannion, a former high school science teacher and state senator who flipped New York’s 22nd congressional district by defeating the Republican incumbent, Brandon Williams.
Mannion was also backed by the New York League of Conservation Voters, who said he would be a “champion for the environment.”
“We know Mannion will support renewable energy production, zero-emission transportation, and pollution reduction, because he’s done it before,” the League said in their endorsement of the candidate.
Luz Rivas (California)
Another candidate 314 endorsed was Luz Rivas, an engineer who will be the first Latina to represent California’s 29th congressional district, in the San Fernando Valley.
Rivas’s work in public service began in 2011 when she started DIY Girls, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping girls become interested in math and science. Rivas was elected to the California State Assembly in 2018 and chaired the Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee where she worked to mitigate the effects of extreme heat induced by climate change.
Mannion and Rivas, along with Kelly Morrison of Minnesota, are among five Democrats endorsed by 314 who were elected to the House this year. Two additional candidates could join them, depending on the outcome of their still undetermined races, according to Naughton.
“Even in a really challenging election, we’re able to unseat Republican incumbents,” Naughton said. “It’s not the full results that we wanted, as far as Trump being elected, but I think we just need to double down on our commitment to change and electing scientists and be prepared. We have elections in the midterms that are going to allow us to continue to build the ranks of scientists serving in the House.”
Laura Friedman (California)
Rivas isn’t the only new member of Congress from California championed by environmentalists and with a deep background working on climate issues.
Laura Friedman was elected to represent California’s deeply blue 30th congressional district, defeating Republican Alex Balekian.
Friedman, a state assemblymember and former mayor of Glendale, authored laws that banned the use of drinkable water for lawns in response to the state’s drought and implemented bans on the use of forever chemicals in the use of consumer products. She’s also sponsored legislation to phase out single-use plastics and build wildlife crossings.
“Laura Friedman has been one of the biggest climate champions in the California legislature,” said Auster, with the League of Conservation Voters.
Yassamin Ansari (Arizona)
One conversation changed Yassamin Ansari‘s career trajectory.
After graduating from college with a degree in international relations, she found herself on a fellowship working at the United Nations as a team member and advisor for former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the 2015 Paris Agreement. Before taking the fellowship, she remembers him selling her on the importance of the work.
“‘If you care about international security, if you care about these challenges of the future, then there is no more pressing issue to work on than the climate crisis because of the threat and multiple impacts that it has,’” Ansari said, recalling the conversation. “It was literally through one conversation that I went into climate work.”
Climate advocacy has remained central to Ansari, a Democrat who will represent Arizona’s 3rd district in the House, replacing Ruben Gallego, who is locked in a tight race to become the state’s next senator. Ansari easily defeated her Republican opponent, Jeffrey Zink, in the reliably blue district.
Ansari was vice mayor and, in 2021, the youngest person ever elected to the Phoenix City Council. Her work focused on climate and housing issues in the country’s hottest major city. The last two summers have been the hottest on record in Phoenix, with the high temperatures killing hundreds both years. At City Hall, Ansari chaired an ad-hoc electric vehicle subcommittee and helped pass plans to expand the city’s shade and heat mitigation efforts.
She told Inside Climate News on Election Day outside of a polling location in Phoenix that her three priorities when entering Congress would be retraining fossil fuel workers for the clean energy economy, affordable housing and water conservation—all big issues in Arizona that intersect with climate.
“It’s just a matter of how you talk about the issue, and recognizing that climate is a go-to economy issue, it’s a national security issue, it’s a public health issue, and really talking about it that way,” Ansari said.
Wesley Bell (Missouri)
Wesley Bell handidly beat his opponent, Andrew Jones, to become the latest representative for Missouri’s 1st congressional district after narrowly defeating Rep. Cori Bush in the Democratic primary.
Bush was one member of the progressive Democratic group known as “The Squad,” but Bell has also made environmental justice and climate action a top issue, earning the support of environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters.
“We cannot ignore the reality of climate change and its impact on our daily lives,” Bell wrote in a post on X in May. “We are taking steps in the right direction, but the clock keeps ticking.”
Bell is the son of a police officer and county civil servant. After attending law school at the University of Missouri, he became a public defender and a professor and program coordinator of the criminal justice and legal studies departments at St. Louis Community College on the Florissant Valley campus in Ferguson, Missouri. He got his start in politics as a city councilmember for Ferguson, and in 2018 he became the St. Louis County prosecutor after defeating long-time incumbent Robert McCulloch.
Kelly Morrison (Minnesota)
Dr. Kelly Morrison is an OB/GYN who will fill the seat of Rep. Dean Phillips and represent Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district. She was previously elected to the Minnesota House and then the Minnesota Senate, winning seats previously held by Republicans.
Her campaign was centered around protecting abortion access, but she’s no stranger to climate action, either. In the state legislature, she authored bills to provide funding for schools to install solar energy, expand electric vehicle infrastructure and create a comprehensive climate action plan for Minnesota, all of which became law.
“During my time serving in the Minnesota Legislature, I’ve sponsored many pieces of legislation that champion climate, environmental justice, and democracy issues,” she said in response to a League of Conservation Voters questionnaire. “As a physician, I view legislation through a public health lens, so climate action and environmental justice are priorities, have been at the forefront of my work, and will continue to be in Congress.”
Sarah Elfreth (Maryland)
Democrat Sarah Elfreth comfortably won Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District against her Republican opponent, Rob Steinberger. She fills the seat vacated by retiring Rep. John Sarbanes, who had a 97 percent lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard; at the state level, Elfreth has a 100 percent rating.
Elfreth was, in 2018, the youngest woman elected to the Maryland Senate and has been a fierce supporter of the environmental movement, passing legislation to protect communities from forever chemicals, protect wetlands and further the renewable energy transition.
She was also the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state legislative assembly representing Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia designed to coordinate policy between the states to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
“If people don’t feel optimistic about the future, they’ll vote for the people who feed into their worst fears,” she told Chesapeake Bay Magazine last year. “And then we aren’t going to see progress at all.”
Elissa Slotkin (Michigan)
After winning a razor-thin race over Republican Mike Rogers, Elissa Slotkin will take over the Senate seat occupied by longtime Senate stalwart Debbie Stabenow.
Slotkin has represented Michigan in the House since 2018 and has a strong track record of voting for clean energy and environmental measures, as well as pushing for green technology manufacturing in her home state.
“Mike Rogers was defeated because of clean energy and because of his failure to understand that manufacturing is back,” said Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, in a call with reporters this week. “Climate and clean energy are overwhelmingly popular with both Democrats and Republicans, and that did not change at all despite the tens of millions of dollars the oil and gas folks spent.”
Slotkin has earned a 98 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters, which spent nearly $2 million to get her elected. The LCV notes that the only reason Slotkin doesn’t have a full 100 percent score is because she missed a roll call vote due to a shooting in her home district.
A former defense and intelligence official in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, Slotkin is now the youngest Democratic woman in the Senate.
Shomari Figures (Alabama)
A court-ordered redistricting in south Alabama led to a second Democrat being elected to the House from the deeply red state.
Democrat Shomari Figures of Mobile defeated Republican challenger Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney from Montgomery, after a prolonged court battle over Alabama’s congressional districts. He will represent the state’s second congressional district.
Figures, 39, is an attorney who worked in the White House and Justice Department in the Obama and Biden administrations, including as deputy chief of staff to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The League of Conservation Voters hailed Figures as “just one of the climate champions who won up and down the ballot in Alabama.”
“Alabamans have a long history of fighting against voter suppression and environmental racism,” LCV President Gene Karpinski said in a news release. “They deserve a leader like Representative-elect Shomari Figures who will fight on their behalf to protect democracy and the safety of communities in Alabama and nationwide.”
Alabama’s district reshuffling sent AL-2 incumbent Barry Moore to AL-1, where he defeated incumbent Jerry Carl in the Republican primary. Carl currently has a 3 percent lifetime score in the LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard, and a 0 percent ranking for 2023.
Figures did not focus on climate in his campaign, but did say that he would support limited action to address climate change.
“Climate change is real,” Figures said in an October debate. “I think the people down in Florida can certainly vouch for it.
“These storms are becoming more frequent, they are becoming more powerful, they are causing more damage and our policies have to reflect the reality of that and the human contribution to climate change. And so, I think at the end of the day it’s important that we stand up for it and there’s a way to do it that is responsible, that is informed and that is narrowly tailored to address the concerns.”
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