Updates

Over the past few years, more and more voters have cited “action on climate” as a reason for voting the way they do. But lots of voters who are registered, and even those who do vote in presidential elections – don’t turn out for midterms.

The Environmental Voter Project has spent years identifying and mobilizing environment-first voters. Their recent research found nearly 1 million environmentalists who voted in the 2020 presidential election but have never voted in a midterm election. Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project, joins Host Steve Curwood to talk about why these so-called environmental drop-off voters could be decisive in the 2022 midterms if they show up at the polls.

When engineering geologist Betsy Mathieson, 66, thought about her retirement, she imagined putting her scientific expertise to use by volunteering for an environmentalist organization like the Sierra Club. But when the U.S. elected climate change denier Donald Trump president in 2016, she decided to retire early to volunteer on increasing voter turnout.

A new report from the Environmental Voter Project claims to have identified a hidden voting bloc in nine states: low-propensity environmental voters.

After the trauma of the 2020 election cycle, the American people would be forgiven for seeking a brief break from politics. We lived through a bitter presidential campaign, two runoff elections in Georgia to determine control of the U.S. Senate, and an armed insurrection at the Capitol, all amidst a global pandemic. It should come as no surprise that this has left voters, volunteers and donors with a serious case of election fatigue.

Nathaniel Stinnett launched the Environmental Voter Project in 2015 to resolve a simple but enormously important contradiction. Polls found a vast majority of Americans understood climate change and wanted the government to act. And while millions of those people were registered to vote, many never cast ballots.

The Environmental Voter Project (EVP) has announced that it will be expanding its voter outreach programs into five new states: Alaska, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and New York. With this addition, the EVP will now operate in 17 states to identify inactive environmentalists and equip them with the tools to become lifelong voters.

At Citizens’ Climate Lobby, we often say the solution to climate change is democracy. Well, the first step to engage with our democracy is voting. Research shows, however, that many who are concerned about the state of our climate don’t even take that initial step. In fact, tens of millions of people who identify as environmentalists have been no-shows at the polls on election day.

Voters most likely to rank the environment as their top priority are young, Black or Latino, and they were key voters in the two recent senatorial wins in Georgia that gave the majority to Democrats.

In this second of two special bonus episodes to Season One of the Mother Earth Podcast, we sit down for a timely conversation with Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project.