This Earth Day, electing local climate champions feels more pressing than ever. Global temperatures have surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius. The president is intent on bringing back coal, rolling back environmental protections, and silencing people who disagree with him. This year’s Earth Day theme centers around our collective power, and local elections are a critical way to ensure the bold climate leadership we need right now.

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.

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.

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!

• Georgia
  • Erick Allen for Cobb County Commission District 2: Allen is a former state representative who championed full Medicaid expansion, environmental justice, and a check on attempts to make voting more difficult for Georgia residents while in office. He’s running for county leadership to ensure a Democratic majority can continue to uphold the region’s climate and environmental progress.

• Louisiana
  • Shaunn Wyche for St. George City Council At-Large: A navy veteran and store manager, Wyche is running as a leader for environmental action and will prioritize investments in public transportation and ensuring infrastructure resiliency as the county deals with saltwater intrusion.
  • Marshall Simien for Lake Charles Mayor: Simien is a former city councilman whose helped advocate for environmental justice policies to help the city recover from hurricane damage, tackle waste pollution affecting marginalized communities, and redevelop waterfront infrastructure to ensure resiliency.

• Pennsylvania
  • Tara Zrinski for Northampton County Executive: Zrinski has been a leader in Northampton County both as the current Controller and as a former Commissioner where she’s championed environmental initiatives. Her aspirational goals are transitioning fleet vehicles to electric, improving infrastructure to get cars off of the road, making more types of mass transit available, and installing solar on warehouses. She’s also a former organizer with Food and Water Watch where she fought for clean water, sustainable agriculture, and climate justice. We’re excited to help elect her to county leadership to continue her track record of fighting for a livable climate!
  • Ed Gainey for Pittsburgh Mayor: As Pittsburgh’s mayor, Gainey has been a champion for the city’s climate and environmental justice plans and will fight for its first hazards mitigation plan in his second term to protect residents from continued flooding and mudslides as climate impacts worsen.

• Texas
  • Brian Beck for Denton City Council District 2: As an incumbent councillor and biology professor, Beck has brought science to the Council by advancing Denton’s Climate Action Plan, strengthening gas well management to reduce emissions, fought to expand solar, and fought to maintain Denton’s 100% renewable energy policy against utility pressure. We’re excited to help keep him in office to continue fighting for a sustainable and reliable grid.

• New Jersey: In a strongly Democratic-leaning state like Jersey, the primaries are where elections are often decided – which is why it’s meant so much that the state recently ended its unique use of the “county line” endorsement process. Under “the line”, party leaders were able to preferentially display their endorsements to voters on the ballot – skewing primary results towards preferred candidates and incumbents. Now that it’s gone, progressive climate leaders can run competitive primary campaigns to take on incumbents that have blocked critical efforts to pass Make Polluter Pay legislation, stronger energy transition timelines, and environmental justice bills. We’re backing:
  • Ravi Bhalla for Legislative District 32 – As Hoboken’s two-term Mayor, Bhalla has championed climate resilience and projects that promote sustainability. With the city administration, he created a net zero emissions 2030 plan as well as the most robust climate action plan of any municipality in the state. In the legislature, he’ll continue to fight for bold climate policies, including renewable energy investments and sustainable development that protect New Jersey’s future.
  • Katie Brennan for Legislative District 32 – Brennan is a community organizer who has ran campaigns that took on Governor Christie to save the state’s affordable housing protections, secured the biggest influx of funding for affordable homes in New Jersey history, and fought for fair housing policies and tenant protections across Hudson County. In the Assembly, she’ll fight for more green transit, push to stop the turnpike expansion, and advocate for state resources for climate resiliency and green infrastructure.
  • Loretta Rivers for Legislative District 17: Rivers is a nonprofit director who has helped lead Habitat for Humanity of Middlesex County and been elected to the Piscataway Board of Education. She’s committed to ensuring the state act more boldly on climate change, and move towards 100% clean energy.
  • Brian Everett Legislative District 4: Everett is an Assistant Dean at Rutgers University where he works to advise students and has served as a Delegate for his union, the AFT. If elected, he plans to lead on legislation that addresses air quality, water quality, and wildlife preservation like the state’s Pine Barrens – and helps build clean energy to reduce carbon emissions.
  • Vonetta Hawkins for Legislative District 4: Hawkins is a community organizer whose work has centered on removing barriers to homeownership for economically disadvantaged families. If elected, she’ll fight for legislation that expands clean energy, holds polluters accountable, and prioritizes overburdened communities.
  • Kevin Ryan for Legislative District 6: Ryan is a business intelligence and data science analyst who plans to lead on initiatives that will hold polluters accountable (especially in overburdened communities like Camden),  modernize the state grid, make green jobs central to the state’s economy, and ensure that every community—not just the wealthiest—benefits from clean air, water, and climate resilience.
  • Rebecca Holloway for Legislative District 6: Holloway is an activist and community organizer who is running with Kevin Ryan.

• 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:
  • John McAuliff for House District 30 – McAuliff has worked as Chief of Staff for Virginia Delegate David Reid where he helped write the Virginia Energy Plan which would transition the state to 100% clean energy by 2050. He’s running to protect farmland, push Virginia’s transition to clean energy, and push back on the spread of data centers in Northern Virginia.
  • Jessica Anderson for House District 71: Anderson is a former candidate, receptionist, runner, and mother who got her start in the public eye speaking about her views and family’s struggles on TikTok, where she now has over half-a-million followers! She’s running on climate to ensure Virginia moves to 100% clean energy to protect the planet for future generations. When she ran in 2023 for this seat, she lost by less than 2% – we’re making sure she crosses the finish line this time! 
  • Rae Cousins for House District 79: Since winning her seat in 2023 as part of our last Virginia slate, Rae Cousins has introduced the Extreme Weather Relief Act (landmark climate legislation to require fossil fuel polluters pay their share towards relief from extreme weather resulting from climate change), defended the state’s landmark Clean Economy Act, and advocated against new gas pipelines like the Mountain Valley Pipeline. She’s a core champion of environmental justice and climate action in Virginia, and we are so excited to endorse her this cycle. 
  • Adele McClure for House District 2: Since winning her seat in 2023 as part of our last Virginia slate, McClure has introduced legislation to pave the way for more electric vehicle charger infrastructure and remained a strong advocate for environmental justice and climate action in the state.
  • Kathy Tran for House District 18: As delegate, Tran has made Virginia’s transition to clean energy and environmental justice a priority. During this year’s session, she championed an innovative approach to break through bottlenecks that are holding back small solar projects – and defended the state’s climate wins like the Virginia Clean Economy Act, its participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and its Clean Car Standards.
  • Sam Rasoul for House District 38: Rasoul has been a critical voice for climate action since being elected to the Assembly – and championed the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, defended the state’s climate wins like its participation in the the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and trained the next generation of VA candidates through the organization he helped start, the Impact Center. He knows it’s imperative we fight to protect and expand the Democratic majority in the 2025 election cycle to ensure Virginia passes meaningful environmental legislation.
  • Mike Jones for House District 77: A former Richmond councillor, Jones has been a champion for environmental justice efforts in the state legislature – introducing legislation to move the state away from single use plastic and to commission studies on the impact of climate change on vulnerable populations in Virginia. 
  • Rozia Henson for House District 19: Henson is an organizer and public servant for his community in Woodbridge who was elected as the state’s first out gay black male legislator – and who has taken strong action for climate in his first term in office by advocating against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, defending the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), and fighting for funding for conservation efforts.

• Massachusetts
  • Michelle Wu for Mayor of Boston: In her first time as mayor, Wu has made a name for herself as one of the country’s top climate mayors. She’s divested city funds from fossil fuels and ended their use in all new construction, boosted public transit ridership through fare-free bus lines, and transformed whole neighborhoods to be more pedestrian and biker friendly. We’re so excited to work to keep her in office another term and continue the climate work she started.
  • Tracey Valletti for Peabody Municipal Light Plant: Valletti ran for her city’s local utility governance in order to block efforts to expand outdated gas peaker plants. Since later being appointed to it, she helped pass the city’s Green Communities Designation Act unlocking hundreds of thousands of dollars in clean energy grants.
  • Juan Jaramillo for Revere City Council At-Large: Since winning his seat on Council, Jaramillo, the former Political Director of the Environmental League of MA, has written the city’s compost pilot program and helped pass new community solar and battery storage legislation so the city can better store clean energy.
  • Katy Rogers for Everett City Council At Large: Since being elected to City Council, Rogers has championed efforts to reduce emissions by requiring public buildings be energy efficient and holding private developers accountable to high environmental standards, and pushed to move the city off single use plastics. 

• Alaska: The country’s largest state has a high percent of rural residents – and electric cooperatives play a critical role in providing power that ensures they have reliable service. These cooperatives’ boards hold elections this year where ratepayers will have the choice to elect champions for clean energy to represent them. All these candidates are running to push for their coop’s expansion into clean energy and to wean the state off natural gas from Cook Inlet. We’re supporting the following candidates for coop boards:
  • Matanuska Electric Association: Mark Mastellar 
  • Chugach Electric Association: Katherine Jernstrom
  • Homer Electric Association: 
    • Patrick Parker for District 1
    • Mitch Michaud for District 2
    • Erin McKittrick for District 3