Activists Ramp Up Pressure on Democrats to Re-Elevate Climate Issue Amid Summer Heat

The Climate Action Campaign and allied groups are staging protests in at least 20 states during Congress’s recess to push Democratic leaders to prioritize climate policy.

This summer’s severe weather—floods in Texas, heatwaves nationwide, and smoke from Canadian wildfires—has coincided with a noticeable retreat of climate discussion among many Democrats. In response, the Climate Action Campaign, together with groups like the Sierra Club, Third Act and local NAACP chapters, is launching a series of actions in over 20 states while Congress is on recess. Demonstrators plan to protest Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga in Michigan, meet with Democratic Rep. Adelita Shirley Grijalva in Arizona, and circulate petitions urging House leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate leader Chuck Schumer to foreground climate issues.

The effort is bolstered by recent University of California, Santa Barbara research indicating that climate talk does not hurt Democratic candidates and may even help them, as well as polls showing a majority of Americans, including many Republicans, perceive an increase in extreme weather. Bill McKibben and campaign director Margie Alt argue that the “climate-hushing” trend is tantamount to denial and that political leaders must act now.