GreenHouse Project: Think global, vote local

For Embargoed Release: 6:00 am ET, Friday, October 25, 2018

Media Contact: Mark Morgenstein, [email protected] (o) 303-573-5556 (c) 678-427-1671

DENVER — Environment America Action Fund’s GreenHouse Project is spending more than $1 million to help elect pro-environmental candidates to Congress this election cycle. To that end, the GreenHouse Project strategically selected 10 races where voters have a clear choice as to which candidate will best protect our environment and the Project is educating voters in those districts via direct mail, digital communications and phone calls. GreenHouse specifically targeted environmentally-motivated swing voters for these communications.

For example:

• In California’s 49th congressional district, the GreenHouse Project is supporting Mike Levin. Mike is an attorney and clean energy leader in Southern California, where he currently serves on the board of the Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego. He’s calling for an immediate end to taxpayer-funded subsidies for fossil fuel industries and a revenue-neutral carbon tax. Mike is running against Diane Harkey, who has repeatedly supported offshore drilling expansion.

• In North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, the GreenHouse Project is supporting Marine Corps veteran Capt. Dan McCready (Ret.). A clean energy entrepreneur, Dan is the co-founder of a company that finances construction of solar power farms. He is calling for a fully-funded Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is speaking boldly about the district’s contaminated water issues. He’s running against Mark Harris, who has called for subsidizing fossil fuel development and fast-tracking drilling permits.

• In New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district, the GreenHouse Project is supporting Xochitl Torres Small. A clean water activist and environmental attorney, Xochitl prioritizes the protection of public lands and parks, water conservation, and combating climate change. She’s running in New Mexico’s 2nd District, which includes Las Cruces and parts of Albuquerque. Xochitl is running against Yvette Herrell, a current state representative and real estate investor who opposed environmental proposals while in the state legislature.  

“Protecting the environment is the challenge of our time. We need to act now, as climate change brings about increasingly destructive weather and fires, and the administration rolls back clean air and water laws that were passed with broad bipartisan support,” said Ed Johnson, treasurer of the Environment America Action Fund. “Unless we vote in representatives who will provide a strong counterweight to the current administration’s agenda, anti-environmental interests will be emboldened to dismantle even more protections and set us back for decades.”

The recent United Nations’ climate report made it clear that we still have the opportunity to protect the environment, but we need to make good public policy decisions. To keep up with the speed of climate change, we need to elect candidates with the courage to act without equivocation on environmental issues.

“By a wide margin, the American people reject the Trump administration’s anti-environmental policies,” said David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, part of Environment America’s national network. “Never before have so many congressional races exposed a clear contrast for voters who care about the environment. We believe that voters will hold anti-environment incumbents accountable for their dismal voting records and help elect new environmental champions to the House. Furthermore, if we are successful in November, we can motivate more pro-environment voters to head to the polls in 2020.”  

The Environment America Action Fund GreenHouse Districts

The GreenHouse Project is targeting districts where we see a real contrast between the candidates on environmental values. We can rely on the candidates supported by the GreenHouse project to champion environmental issues in Congress, while their opponents have records of weakening environmental protections, favoring polluters or even denying the reality of climate change.

Here are the 10 candidates we are supporting:

• Mike Levin, CA-49 

• Lauren Baer, FL-18

• Sean Casten, IL-06

• Dean Phillips, MN-03

• Dan McCready, NC-09

• Andy Kim NJ-03

• Xochitl Torres Small, NM-02

• Anthony Brindisi, NY-22

• Susan Wild, PA-07

• Kim Schrier, WA-08 

We are investing more than $1 million into direct mail, digital communication and phone calls to educate and mobilize environmentally-minded voters in these 10 districts, to ensure that a friend of the environment wins each race in November. Environment America Action Fund has endorsed candidates in 41 congressional races across 16 states, made a $10 million donation to the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund and the LCV 527 Political Engagement Fund, and is running an independent expenditure program in Pennsylvania to re-elect Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, as well as a slate of state-level candidates.

Environment America Action Fund works to protect our environment by supporting candidates for public office who champion clean air, clean water, wilderness preservation, and strong action to address global warming.  The Environment America Action Fund is a part of the Environment America family of organizations.

Environment America is the national federation of statewide, citizen-based advocacy organizations working for a cleaner, greener, healthier future.

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