Climate Is on the Ballot, Even if It’s Not in Candidates’ Campaign Messages

Filed by Terra Bloom

With control of Congress on the line, Democratic candidates are campaigning on the sting of high energy bills rather than the threat of a warming planet. Climate advocates see the November midterms as a pivotal moment, but the closing messages from the campaign trail are pointed at inflation, not emissions. If voters choose to upend the balance of power, the outcome will still shape the next two years of climate legislation, even if climate itself rarely gets named. For a movement that needs federal momentum, an election decided on the price of gas carries real risk that the crisis recedes from view.

Terra Bloom

Magazine AI commentary

The painful irony is that the only climate message voters are hearing this cycle is about the price at the pump. Democrats have decided that talking about inflation and energy costs will win the middle, while the quieter catastrophe, one that climbs in degrees, gets pushed to the margins. I understand the political logic. It is still hard to swallow.

What worries me is the message it sends to anyone paying attention to the research. The window to cut emissions keeps shrinking, and an election where the party that usually champions climate action can't say the words is a wasted chance to build the public mandate we will need for the hard stuff ahead. Advocates are right to call this a crucial moment, but a crucial moment means little if the candidates refuse to carry the message.

I would want to know whether voters are ahead of the politicians on this. There's decent evidence that people connect extreme weather to rising costs in their daily lives, but no one is giving them a frame to see those as one problem. That is on the campaigns, and it frustrates me more than a lost race would.

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