WASHINGTON - 350 Action is endorsing candidates who have voiced and demonstrated their commitment to progressive action on climate change, by supporting a just transition away from fossil fuels towards 100% renewable energy that centers workers through a Green New Deal, and advocating to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

This week, 350 Action is endorsing the following candidates:

Ed Markey, Senator from Massachusetts

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman running for the 14th District in New York

Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman running for the 5th District in Minnesota

The following is a statement from 350 Action’s North America Director, Tamara Toles O’ Laughlin: 

“The candidates we are endorsing today are the exemplars for what political leadership on solving the climate crisis can look like. Ed Markey, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar have consistently shown that they are accountable to the climate movement and ready to push forward bold, visionary climate policy. From the Green New Deal to making polluters pay, we look to these representatives to continue centering Black, Indigenous, and working class communities in their work and advocacy.”  

350 Action endorses Ed Markey, Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, co-sponsor for the Green New Deal Resolution, and Chair of the House Energy Independence Committee. Markey introduced the original Green New Deal resolution in the Senate, pushing his colleagues to aim for bolder climate policy and inspiring a generation of activists calling for sweeping federal action on climate change that centers fixing an inequitable economy.  Here is his response to our candidate questionnaire:

“[A Green New Deal] would be the greatest blue-collar jobs program in a generation and repair the historic oppression of frontline and vulnerable communities that have borne the worst burdens of our fossil fuel economy, all while combating the existential threat of the climate crisis. Our Green New Deal resolution calls for a historic ten-year mobilization that will mitigate climate emissions and build climate resilience.”

350 Action endorses Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat Congresswoman from New York City, and progressive champion in the House. Ocasio-Cortez introduced the original Green New Deal resolution in the House, and has an impressive record of pushing for comprehensive climate policies tied to economic and racial justice. Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal advocate for major progressive platforms, including Medicare for All, a Homes Guarantee, and Fight for 15. Just last week, along with Senator Sanders, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal Public Housing Act. Here is part of her statement:

“We reject the paradigm that environmental justice must come at the cost of our jobs or our economic well being, and that’s what this legislation here is about. This week we learned that in the Bronx alone, 2,400 Bronx public housing residents may be going without heat tonight. That is inhumane, that is an injustice, just at the time when temperatures are dropping to 22 degrees at night -- that is environmental injustice too. This legislation adopts the tenets of the Green New Deal, which is first to center frontline communities, those who are impacted most by the climate crisis -- that is communities who are low-income, communities of color, Native communities, rural communities.” 

350 Action endorses Ilhan Omar, Democrat Congresswoman running for the 5th District in Minnesota, on a platform of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. As an original co-sponsor of the House Green New Deal resolution, Omar has inspired with her vocal advocacy for major reform on climate change, wealth inequality, and human rights. Here is her response to our candidate questionnaire:

"I completely support a moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure. In addition to supporting full divestment from the fossil fuel industry, I will continue advocating for prohibition of new extraction of fossil fuels sitting below federal lands and water. I will support policies like the Keep It In The Ground Act, which will end new leases for extraction of fossil fuels   on all federal lands. It will also stop new leases for offshore drilling in the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico and prohibit offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.”