The Environmental Voter Project just released a poll of likely midterm voters across eight 2026 battleground states: Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.
The data relating to “climate hushing” is particularly revealing, showing that — by large margins — battleground state voters (a) want politicians to spend more time talking about climate change (not less), and (b) are more likely to vote for candidates who make transitioning away from fossil fuels a top priority if elected.
Key findings include:
- Candidates who prioritize transitioning away from fossil fuels are more likely to gain support, rather than lose it. Only 19% of battleground state voters would rule out voting for candidates who support transitioning away from fossil fuels. Crucially, among the remaining 81% of gettable voters, 7-in-10 say they would be more likely to vote for candidates who make transitioning away from fossil fuels a top priority once elected, whereas only 1-in-20 would be less likely to vote for such candidates.
- Voters don’t want “climate hushing.” By a 3-to-1 ratio across US Senate battleground states, likely voters said they wanted politicians to spend more time talking about climate change and pollution (59%), rather than less (17%). By comparison, 23% of midterm voters want politicians to speak less about immigration and the border, and 28% want to hear less about abortion.
- Midterm voters see climate change as Democrats’ biggest issue advantage. Across an average of eight battleground states, 46% of likely midterm voters think Democrats do a better job addressing climate change and pollution, as opposed to 21% who think Republicans perform better. This +25pt spread is Democrats’ biggest issue advantage, significantly larger than their next biggest advantage on health care issues (+17 pts). Independent voters are even more likely to see “climate change and pollution” as a Democratic issue advantage (50%-10%).
- Although climate change is still not a top-tier voter priority, significant numbers of Democrats and Independents do prioritize it as a top-3 issue. 23% of battleground state Democrats and 19% of Independents list “climate change and pollution” as a top-3 issue priority for elected leaders to focus on right now. This ranking places climate change 5th among the 11 priorities tested for Democrats and 6th for Independents.
- Majorities of both Independents and Republicans are open to voting for candidates who want to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. 3-in-4 Independent voters (76%) and 6-in-10 Republicans (59%) would consider voting for candidates who want to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy. Only 15% of Independents and 33% of Republicans would rule out voting for such candidates.
- The solar and wind power industries are very popular. Across eight US Senate battleground states, the solar power industry (70%-19%) and the wind power industry (64%-21%) enjoy extremely positive favorable/unfavorable ratings, especially when compared to the oil & gas industry (45%-46%). Even in the oil- and gas-producing states of Alaska and Texas, voters view clean energy industries much more favorably than the oil & gas industry.
- Independents and first-time midterm voters are breaking for Democratic US Senate candidates. 51% of Independents report they will vote for Democratic US Senate candidates in battleground states, with just 29% voting Republican and 21% undecided/third-party. Among voters who plan to vote in their first-ever midterm election this fall, 48% plan to vote for Democratic US Senate candidates, compared to 35% for Republicans and 17% undecided/third-party.
- Requiring data center developers to add clean energy to the grid might soften opposition. Although consistent majorities of voters oppose new data centers, two-thirds of battleground-state voters (64%) say they would be more likely to support local data center construction if the data center “added enough new clean energy to the local grid to cover its electricity use, potentially reducing residents’ electric bills.”