Breathing an Election-Related Sign of Relief

Some climate changes reflections and recaps on the Election week that was

Whew, last week was a roller coaster. I started last week as a big ball of pre-election nerves, then by mid-week I was a cautiously optimistic screen refresher seeing all those senate seats inch toward blue, and then it ended with the thank-goodness-our-democracy-didn’t-fail relief. It feels like a whole new week for those reasons. And of course, it’s a matter of staving off the worst of the potential climate deniers, so there’s much to do going forward. 

With that, I felt like I’d give a kind of election re-cap through a climate lens pulled together from a few resources the helped give some perspective on what occurred last week and what that means for us moving forward.

State-level climate change wins (and losses)

Proving that state and local governments can make an impact on climate change, there were some major wins (and and a couple losses) across the country. Here’s a rundown captured more in-depth in this Vox story:

• Democrat Tina Kotek won the gubernatorial election here in Oregon. This one’s personal and had me feeling all the anxiety well into Wednesday until Oregon Public Radio and the Oregonian called the race for Kotek. This was a really close race (didn’t help there was a third-party spoiler, but still, the Republican got a whole lot of votes). With Kotek at the helm, though, this means that Oregon’s ambitious Climate Action Plan–with a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2035–is intact and will move forward.

• Now that Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, and Massachusetts democrats took control of the state legislatures making it a lot easier to advance climate change laws. This is particularly important for Minnesota and Michigan where they’re poised to make aggressive commitments to greenhouse gas emissions (Minnesota) and help overhaul the auto industry (Michigan).

• Wisconsin, Montana, and North Carolina fended off Republican veto-proof supermajorities. This is a case of preventing the worst case scenarios where Republicans could reverse climate policies.

• New York State passed a $4.2 million bond to go to climate change projects.

• Further down the ballot in Texas, Harris County Judge, Democrat Lena Hidalgo was re-elected. She has a history of expanding the county’s pollution and air monitors. This is a race that proves how important down-ballot races are!

• With the big win in Michigan–particularly of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and AG Dana Nessel–it’s much more likely to bring the end to Enbridge Line 5, a crude oil and natural gas pipeline built in 1953.

The two losses were California’s ballot initiative to tax the ultra-wealthy to help fund electric vehicles and Kansas and Arizona’s election of anti-climate state treasurers (boo to those losses!). I highly recommend giving a read on the background on all of these at Vox and there’s more at this CBS News story as well.

According to Robinson Meyer’s story in The Atlantic, these democratic wins above can be transformational for climate policy moving forward: 

“Democrats’ surprisingly strong showing in the midterm elections will prove to be a landmark in the history of how the country has handled global warming. It will help ensure that the IRA can transform American industry and boost renewables, electric vehicles, and other sources of zero-carbon energy. There will still be bumps on the road to implementing the law, of course. And Biden’s policy may yet prove insufficient to the task of reducing carbon pollution. But the game has changed nonetheless. American climate policy will never be the same.”

While the US’s commitments on climate have been small in the past, the fact that Democrats can win on climate might actually bring out more aggressive action that can actually make a dent in our climate situation. 

Young voters are a powerful voting block on climate change

In the immediate aftermath of the election, there was one consistent message: young people are increasingly driving the election conversation. Gen Z voters (born after 1996), in particular, overwhelmingly voted for Democrats and even elected their first member to Congress, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25 year-old community organizer from Florida’s 10th Congressional District (see Inside Climate News). 

And these voters are asking for progressive policies! Samantha Chery reported  in this Washington Post on what candidates are saying of Gen Z voters”: “Gen Zers are most motivated by candidates who plan to address climate change, gun violence, reproductive rights, racial justice and LGBTQ rights, activists and candidates say.” And in this, they’re more likely to support Democratic candidates. 

That said, Gen Z isn’t necessarily trusting of the powers-that-be, even the ones they voted for. In a 2021 Next 100 survey, both Gen Zers and Millennials don’t trust the government provides what they need to thrive. This is especially true for low-income people and people of color. 

What this means on the election/politics-front is that Democrats should keep these sentiments in mind when thinking of climate change policy. Climate justice and reparations can and should be central to climate change platforms. And hopefully this great midterm showing by young people can help move the conversation forward in a progressive and justice-oriented way.

Take a momentary sigh of relief

Now that we’ve caught our breath, it feels necessary to take a moment, feel grateful, and breathe a sigh of relief. We can, at the very least, continue forward to helping to save the planet and our people on it.

And once we’ve caught our breath, it’s time to continue forward.