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The 2020 Presidential election had a historic turnout, including young voters and voters of color, who are statistically more likely than other voters to list climate or the environment as their top priority when voting. Nathaniel Stinnett explains to Steve Curwood how turnout of environmentally-focused voters might influence Georgia's twin US Senate run-off elections January 5th.

Two big issues dominated the 2020 election: the economy and the coronavirus pandemic. But voters concerned about climate change still helped Joe Biden win the White House.

In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, voters prioritizing environmental issues may have tipped the scales of the election in favor of Joe Biden.

Since the election, a lot of ink has been spilled about youth voter turnout, which increased about 8 percent compared to 2016. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the climate movement. But not all climate-related get-out-the-vote efforts were focused on people under the age of 35

The cutting-edge Environmental Voter Project (EVP) has identified 382,844 environmentalists in Georgia who are very unlikely to vote in the Jan. 5th U.S. Senate runoff elections.

This election cycle, the climate crisis is on Americans’ minds. In an October poll from the New York Times and Siena College, 58% of people surveyed said they were “very concerned” or at least “somewhat concerned” about climate change, and potential voters in swing states expressed worry about its effects in their communities.

As Election Day nears, a majority of registered voters in the United States say climate change will be an important issue in making their choice for president. That’s according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted over the summer. It’s a sharp contrast to the 2016 race, when only 2% of likely voters listed climate or the environment as their top priority.

According to data from the nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project provided exclusively to Grist, 20 percent of early ballots cast in key battleground states like Arizona and North Carolina come from eco-conscious voters, those identified as likely to choose climate or the environment as a top priority.

In this episode of Political Climate, we examine whether environmental issues are mobilizing voters the way that analysts anticipated. Who are those voters, and do they wield significant influence?

Nathaniel Stinnett is a political advisor & Executive Director of the Environmental Voter Project. We discuss how the organization started, the stats on environmentalists who don't vote, how modern political campaigns work, how you can sign up to volunteer, why this election is so important for climate change, why it's crucial to be a voter regardless who you vote for & more.