The outcomes of the 2024 elections make it clear: state and local elections are more important than ever for climate.

2025 is a critical opportunity to continue momentum towards a fossil free future by supporting local electeds who will do the work no matter what Trump does to pander to Big Oil donors on the federal level.

We are getting ready to respond to Trump’s attacks on climate with widespread wins down the ballot. We’ll need your help to do so: donate today to elect climate leaders across the country.

This year we have our eyes on:

• The nearly 100 cities holding mayoral and city council elections this year to help decide how large metro regions will use funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (Biden’s historic climate bill), transition to renewable energy, build public transit, and so much more. 
• Port and utility regulators, including the Georgia Public Service Commission, Alaska’s rural electric cooperatives, and the Port of Seattle. These lesser known regulators make important decisions on how we transition to renewables and hold the fossil fuel industry accountable.
• Virginia, the first purple state to hold elections during Trump’s second term. Races in Virginia will provide an opportunity to flip a climate-undermining Republican gubernatorial seat and elect a Democratic trifecta in the state legislature to pass critical climate legislation.
• New Jersey, which will hold State Assembly elections for the first time without the undemocratic “county line” system after Senator-elect Andy Kim’s historic lawsuit. This blue state is a big opportunity to elect progressive climate leaders.

We will continue climate momentum despite federal inaction, because our collective future depends on it. Bold climate leaders are crucial to a fossil free, renewable future for all and, together, we can elect them all over the country. Donate today to elect our 2024 slate of climate champions!

• Virginia: The first state to hold state legislative elections since the November election, Virginia will be a litmus test for the Trump agenda and has the potential to elect a Democratic trifecta this November that can act to pass clean energy legislation, codify abortion access, regulate the state’s corrupt utility, and much more. The state holds its Assembly elections this year and while Democrats hold a slim margin in both chambers right now, they could expand that majority and take the Governor’s mansion this fall. Here are the climate champions we’re backing:
  • Elizabeth Guzman for HD 22: A social worker and public administrator, Guzman represented the 31st District in Virginia’s House for 6 years where she was the first Latina immigrant to serve in the General Assembly and champion for climate and environmental justice.
  • Nicole Cole for HD 66: Cole has a career of fighting for resources to improve the quality of education for students as the Spotsylvania County Public School Board vice chair. Environmental protection is core to her campaign – and, in particular, she’ll fight to ensure the state regulates the energy use of the rapidly increasing data centers in the state.
  • Kimberly Pope Adams for HD 82: An accountant and auditor, Pope Adams is running to bring accountability to the House of Delegates! In office, she’ll fight to tackle utility the state’s monopolies, fight back against the expansion of natural gas pipelines, and address environmental justice harms across the state. She lost by only 25 votes in her last run for the Assembly, and we’re making sure she crosses the finish line this time! 
  • Lily Franklin for HD 41: As a former teacher and Chief of Staff for progressive Delegate Sam Rasoul, Franklin has been instrumental in writing and advocating for legislation that preserves VA’s clean air and water from “forever chemicals” like PFAS, protects ratepayers from greedy utility monopolies, and halts unnecessary fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We’re so excited to help her cross the finish line and get into office herself!
  • Joshua Cole for House District 65: Cole is a champion for clean energy jobs in VA, the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and the struggle to regulate the state’s corrupt utility and its political donations. We’re working to ensure he can stay in office in this highly competitive Assembly seat to keep fighting for Virginia climate action!
  • Joshua Thomas for House District 21: In office, Thomas has carried more legislation to reform data center energy use than any other delegate, and will continue to champion clean energy and efforts to modernize the state’s grid.

• California
  • Paloma Aguirre for San Diego County Board of Supervisors District 1: Fighting for environmental justice has been Aguirre’s life’s work. Before serving as Mayor of Imperial Beach, she spent over a decade as a policy advocate at WILDCOAST where she fought to protect coastal ecosystems and combat pollution in frontline communities. She was inspired to run for Mayor in part to tackle the toxic pollution flowing from the Tijuana River and helped lead the fight to secure over $600 million in federal funding to tackle it. As Supervisor, she will push for full Superfund designation, invest in wildfire protection efforts in the county’s vulnerable areas, and ensure workers are incorporated in the energy transition.

• Georgia
  • Monique Sheffield for Cobb County District 4 – Sheffield is an incumbent Commissioner who has fought to enact and fund environmental justice initiatives in Cobb by restricting polluting industry to improve air quality, securing funding for new green spaces like a 100-mile trailhead project along the Chattahoochee River, and funding public transit.

• Illinois
  • John Laesch for Mayor of Aurora: A union carpenter and green builder, Laesch is running to flip Illinois’ second most populous city to Democratic control with plans to invest in making homes and businesses more energy efficient and reduce the city’s carbon footprint dramatically.

• Colorado
  • Maryah Lauer for Colorado Springs City Council District 3 –  An environmental justice organizer, Lauer is running with a twofold climate plan for her city that would 1) increase the amount of renewable energy generation through residential solar installations and retrofits and 2) invest in a better public transportation system that would reduce the amount of single user vehicles.
  • Randall Reitz for Grand Junction City Council District E: During his time on the City Council, Reitz has helped pass a number of policies to advance climate action like the city’s first Sustainability and Adaptation Plan, the hiring of its first Sustainability Manager, the passage of the city’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan, and the endorsement of the effort to create a Dolores Canyon National Monument.

• Missouri
  • Columbia: Home of one of the dirtiest municipal utilities in the country, two candidates are running to transition the city off coal and pivot to renewables!
    • Barbara Buffaloe for Columbia Mayor: As Columbia’s inaugural Sustainability Manager, Buffaloe has made protecting the environment a core value of her time as mayor. We’re working to reelect her so she can continue to supercharge the city’s climate plan and transition its energy use towards renewables.
    • Nick Foster for Ward 4 City Council: Foster has helped pass several major initiatives since joining the City Council like the pledge to move to 100% renewables by 2035, energy efficiency mandates in rental units, making energy efficiency upgrades more available for low-income households, and major upgrades to the city’s walkability and transit.

• Texas
  • San Antonio City Council – The City Council manages CPS Energy, the largest public utility in the country, and recently forced the closure of the Spruce Coal Power Plant. The candidates we’re endorsing are running to hold CPS accountable to an equitable and fast transition to clean energy, especially as the city makes new energy decisions in the wake of Spruce’s closure:
    • Teri Castillo for District 5 – An incumbent local organizer and historian, Castillo has helped to hold the city’s utility accountable and make significant investments in renewable energy through the city’s infrastructure. She’s running for reelection to pass stronger building standards that reduce the city’s emissions, address urban heat islands, and divert waste from landfills through a new deconstruction ordinance. 
    • Jalen McKee Rodriguez for District 2 – McKee Rodriguez is a former school teacher who fought to close the Spruce Coal Power Plant and has advocated against the elimination of green space. His district has been disproportionately impacted by environmental racism and, in response, he will continue to fight to acquire land to redevelop green space, tackle the urban heat island effect in his community, and fight back against overindustrialization. 
    • Ric Galvan for San Antonio City Council District 6: Galvan is a local organizer whose fought for change both in San Antonio and in the Texas state legislature. He’s running on a bold climate platform that would expand the city’s pedestrian and public transit options by fully funding its transit authority (like most other Texas cities do), by changing building incentives to reduce sprawl, and by encouraging renewable energy adoption by homeowner through the utility the city manages.
  • Arielle Dougherty for Ingleside City Council Place 5: Dougherty is a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division inspired to run by a passion for environmental conservation and engagement in her community. She’s running to be a voice for community health and interests in an area known for ever growing industrial activity. 
  • Dana Dworaczyk for Calhoun County ISD At-Large seat – An assistant principal, Dworaczyk has seen her county hand out tax abatements to new chemical and industrial plants without benefitting her school district or community. She believes Calhoun County ISD cannot continue to give tax abatements to companies who disregard their effects on the local environment and will fight against and new abatements without significant environmental pledges.
  • Janessa Castor for Brazosport ISD District 5 – Castor is running to ensure her school district stops voting to hand out tax abatements to corporations that destroy the environment and community resources.