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Today, nearly 50 organizations released the Green New Deal Champions Pledge, aimed at pushing candidates to champion the climate policy we need when in office, and to hold current members accountable to a standard of support for the Green New Deal.
It's been three years since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey introduced the Green New Deal Resolution, which outlined a new vision for our country and our movement: one where we avert the worst of the climate crisis, create millions of good paying union jobs, and invest in communities on the front line of the climate crisis.
Since then, multiple pieces of substantial climate legislation, guided by communities at the frontlines of the climate crisis, have been introduced that build towards the Green New Deal. We know we need to win federal climate legislation to tackle this crisis, but we can't wait until we have the right majorities in Congress to get to work. We need to do everything we can right now, to pressure our elected officials to support the bills that will put us on the path to a Green New Deal -- that's how we'll set ourselves up to win legislation when the moment comes. The text of the pledge can be found here.
The Green New Deal continues to be popular with voters across the country. Recent polling from Data for Progress shows that Green New Deal bills have overwhelming support, while young people, a key voting block for Democrats, continue to support climate legislation and action by massive margins. The Green New Deal Pledge is expected to have the same effect as the popular No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, which has changed the nature of campaigning since its establishment by toxifying money from fossil fuel lobbyists, PACs, and executives.
Progressive movement groups, sitting elected officials, and congressional candidates issued the following statements on the pledge:
"I'm proud to sign this pledge. Our generation will be facing the repercussions of the climate policy decisions we make in the years to come. We deserve representatives who are accountable to their constituents, not fossil fuel companies." Nida Allam, NC-04 Congressional Candidate
"Texas working families are seeing the climate crisis first-hand -- whether it's winter storms, flooding, or tornadoes in our backyards. We need to tackle this crisis. We can create good union jobs and preserve our planet for future generations. The Green New Deal does both." Greg Casar, TX-35 Congressional Candidate
"I'm proud to sign the Green New Deal pledge. Our communities here in Chicago are in crisis -- climate change is an existential threat, racial and economic injustices are raging. We need bold solutions like the Green New Deal that will combat climate change, environmental racism, and the injustices that persist in Chicago. And we need a new generation of leaders who will fight for the Green New Deal with the urgency that this moment demands." Kina Collins, IL-07 Congressional Candidate
"New York's 3rd District is a coastal community that has been ravaged by extreme weather events, pollution and that is quickly running out of drinkable water. We cannot afford more delays or half-measures. We need bold climate action now that matches the scale and urgency of this crisis. It is critical that we realize a Green New Deal." Melanie D'Arrigo, NY-03 Congressional Candidate
"Here in North New Jersey, we know what it means to be on the front lines of climate catastrophe. We've seen the devastation from Hurricanes Sandy and Ida. We've watched as generation after generation of our kids suffer from asthma, lead poisoning, and other environmental harm. We know what it means to have to fight developers for every tiny inch of green space. But we also know what it means to have a good union job. We know what happens when we invest in local schools and art institutions. We've gotten a taste of the good that can come from putting people ahead of profits. We know that a just transition to a green economy is not just a dream, but a necessity, and when I'm in Congress, I'm going to join the fight to bring this crucial Green New Deal framework to fruition." Imani Oakley, NJ-10 Congressional Candidate
"My community is hurting. The climate crisis has claimed lives and livelihoods. A rigged economy has left us with wages that are stagnant, businesses closing, and new job opportunities few and far between. The Green New Deal takes on the defining challenges of our time and transforms them into the pathway to a brighter future. For the air I breathe, for the people I love, and for the place I call home, I'm taking the Green New Deal pledge and look forward to supporting this legislation in Congress." Erica Smith, NC-01 Congressional Candidate
"I am immensely proud to be an original Green New Deal Champion with an amazing list of colleagues and friends. It is easy to say that climate change is an existential crisis, but words aren't enough -- we need real legislation that delivers rapid, comprehensive, transformative change. While organizers continue to strengthen and define the Green New Deal from the bottom, this project holds those in power accountable to the demands of activists and cements robust economic and racial justice standards in the Green New Deal. We have a long way to go, but I encourage every Congressperson to join me in taking this next step. Together, we will win a Green New Deal this decade." Representative Andy Levin, MI-09
"The Green New Deal is about jobs, justice, and dismantling systemic racism that's poisoning the lungs and futures of Black and Brown people in St. Louis and all across the country. We need to act now, and that means making sure politicians understand the urgency of this crisis. I'm proud to be part of an effort to hold people in positions of power accountable to the solutions we know are needed to address environmental racism, confront the fossil fuel industry, and realize true climate justice." Representative Cori Bush, MO-01
"Since I introduced the Green New Deal with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, the climate crisis has only become more severe. We have to act now to deliver justice for communities on the frontlines of this crisis and create millions of green-collar jobs to save our economy and save our planet. I'm proud to stand with my colleagues in the House and Senate, and with an entire generation committed to climate justice, in the fight for a Green New Deal." Senator Ed Markey, Massachusetts
"The threat posed by the climate crisis is growing by the day and we need to come together to take aggressive action to create a more sustainable economy and promote environmental justice. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the Green New Deal resolution and I will keep fighting to pass my BUILD GREEN Infrastructure and Jobs Act to deliver robust federal investment to help fight the growing climate crisis, spur innovation, and boost demand for American-made clean energy products." Senator Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts
"The science is clear, climate change is at the root of many of our societal problems. From increasing catastrophic weather events to racial injustice and everything in-between, our most vulnerable communities continue to be harmed. That is why I support a Green New Deal, a growing package of bills which will ensure that our next generation can live healthy lives, access strong union jobs, increase climate resiliency, and ensure that all communities have the resources necessary to thrive. It is time to put climate justice at the forefront of our policy decisions, and I am proud to be a part of that fight." Representative Jan Schakowsky, IL-09
"There is no denying that the climate crisis is at our doorsteps and continues to disproportionately devastate young, Black, brown, and immigrant communities both in the U.S. and around the world. From undocumented farmworkers facing increasingly deadly wildfires in places like California to millions of climate refugees displaced by extreme flooding, droughts, and other disasters, it's clear that there is no climate justice without immigrant justice and racial justice. The Green New Deal Resolution, alone, is not enough to combat the worsening climate catastrophe. In order to ensure ALL communities are protected, elected officials must also deliver on other bold, progressive legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people without growing detention and enforcement, like the Dream and Promise Act, and helps pave the way for a more just future for Black and brown immigrant communities bearing the brunt of climate change." Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, Senior Advocacy Manager of United We Dream
"The Green New Deal means robust public investment to transition off of fossil fuels translating into unprecedented investment in the well-being of everyday working people -- our jobs, our utility bills, our health, and our future. The GND Pledge allows us to show candidates and the world what support for a Green New Deal really means, and allows us to talk about how the GND will deliver for working people. The Working Families Party is proud to support it." Maurice Mitchell, National Director of Working Families Party
"As fossil fuel corporations destroy our communities and profit off of working families at the gas pump, our government has yet to pass climate legislation that meets the moment of crisis. And yet, support for the Green New Deal has never been greater. That's why we're launching Green New Deal Champions because we need members of Congress and elected officials to fight as hard as they can for the Green New Deal. We must pass the climate bills that make the GND a reality -- the GND Resolution is our North Star and the GND bills help us get there." Varshini Prakash, Executive Director of Sunrise Movement
"The Green New Deal Champions effort provides an exciting opportunity to advance a transformative agenda to end the fossil era, help working people, and catalyze a just energy transition. Rejecting fossil fuel money and committing to these key bills to phase out fossil fuels and build an equitable clean energy future are now clear requirements for politicians claiming the mantle of 'climate leadership.' With dozens of critical primary and general elections this year, we'll see which candidates and elected officials are truly willing to stand up to Big Oil and Gas's lies and fight for our communities." Collin Rees, Political Director at Oil Change U.S.
"In order for the federal government to do big things, rural communities and their local leaders must be involved. That is what we have learned from our work advocating for the American Rescue Plan. The Green New Deal and its advocates recognize the wealth of contributions and thought partnership that come from America's diverse rural communities; rural communities are not only the places where carbon is absorbed, these are the frontline communities facing both the most intense climate disasters and also some of the most innovative economic transitions. The Green New Deal principles, in partnership with rural communities across the country, can help us all mitigate the worst of our possible futures." RuralOrganizing.org
The list of current Green New Deal Champions, Green New Deal Pledge Signers, and endorsing organizations are below:
Members of Congress Who Are Current Green New Deal Champions:
Congressional Candidates Who Have Signed the Green New Deal Pledge:
Political Partners:
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
"There's nothing more Orwellian than voting to send 18-year-olds to die in another forever war—and then blaming them for it."
Republican US Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was widely dragged Thursday after she responded to upstart Democratic challenger Graham Platner's criticism of her vote for the Iraq War by trying to make the issue about him.
Platner—a Marine Corps combat veteran turned staunch opponent of illegal wars of choice—told The New York Times earlier this month that "we destroyed Iraq and we destroyed Afghanistan, and all the suffering, all the killing, all the dying, all the displacement—we, the United States, did that."
"The anger that I feel is for the people that sent me, who are frankly still the same people who are sending people off right now to be in harm’s way so we can have this stupid war with Iran," the presumptive Democratic nominee continued. "Susan Collins voted to send me to Iraq, and she’s also there to help [President] Donald Trump continue this absolutely insane conflict in the Strait of Hormuz."
"If I have any anger, it is reserved for the political system itself and the people in it who view war not as a thing that has a human toll but as a political game," Platner added.
Collins, who is trailing Platner by nearly double-digits in head-to-head polling, told The Maine Wire on Thursday that the Democrat "not only enlisted twice after the war was started, but he also went to work for a security company, a controversial one, named Blackwater, after his term in the service was over."
"So I respect anyone who steps forward to serve their country," Collins added, "but the fact is, that was Platner's decision to serve. He was not drafted."
Collins has voted for US wars fought in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates that more than 940,000 people—including over 432,000 civilians—were killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan between 2001 and 2023.
More than 7,000 US service members died in the post-9/11 wars, which cost American taxpayers more than $8 trillion.
Collins has also backed the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran and supported the invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The senator faced immediate backlash for her remarks.
"It was your decision as a senator to send Americans to fight in a dumb and pointless Iraq War," Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) said on social media. "You voted for it. Do you tell the kids and widows of the Iraq War dead that it was their fallen hero’s fault for enlisting?"
Independent journalist Nathan Bernard said on X that "voting to send thousands of soldiers to die and then blaming them for dying doesn't seem like a great way to win over voters, especially veterans."
David Sirota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever, also took to X, writing: "While [Platner] was deployed in Iraq in 2007, Collins cast one of the deciding votes to block legislation to create a timetable for ending the war and bringing Platner and other troops home. She literally voted to *keep* Platner in Iraq."
Sam Seder, host of "The Majority Report With Sam Seder," accused Collins of "a stunning abdication."
"If she regrets her support of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, she should say so instead of pretending the all-volunteer military owns all responsibility," he wrote.
Platner responded to Collins' attack by noting that the senator "voted to support starting the war in Iraq."
He continued:
On three occasions after that, she voted against withdrawing troops. On at least two occasions, she voted to fund the war. Now, all these years later, instead of acknowledging that she was wrong, she's decided that she's going to blame those of us, who in our late teens and early 20s, signed up to serve our country. That somehow it's our fault that she and establishment politicians like her wanted to abuse our willingness to serve, to go send us off to fight in stupid wars that did nothing but make some people very, very rich at the expense of American taxpayer dollars.
"It's no surprise to me, because even today, she continues to not stand up against the stupid war in Iran," Platner said. "She continues to not stand up against any of the abuses or the idiocy coming out of the Trump administration."
"This is very, very expected from establishment Republican politicians who love to talk about supporting the troops, but in the end, will always desert us," he added.
While acknowledging a request for US support in fighting drug cartels, Guatemala's president on Thursday refuted reporting by The New York Times claiming his government "has agreed to carry out joint strikes with the United States military inside its territory"—action that would violate the country's Constitution.
Citing "three people familiar with the talks," the Times reported that "President Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala agreed to both airstrikes and other military action in a call with [US] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth... with operations to start as early as next month."
However, Arévalo's office pushed back in a statement stressing that “there is no agreement authorizing foreign military operations by any country in national territory."
The presidential statement said that Guatemalan Defense Minister Henry Sáenz wrote to Hegseth "to request US cooperation in operations led by Guatemalan security forces against narco-trafficking organizations as part of a strategy launched in 2024."
"This request falls within the framework of existing bilateral agreements on the matter, and adheres to constitutional provisions and laws regarding cooperation agreements on civil and military security," the office added.
Arévalo's office stressed that Guatemala's Constitution stipulates that foreign military forces can only be deployed in the country if authorized by a two-thirds vote of the national Legislature.
A source from Arévalo's government told El País Thursday on condition of anonymity that the Trump administration has been exerting "great pressure" for two months.
“What they offered us is to select one or two places to bomb and televise everything," the source said. "But we have been clear that this is not going to happen. It cannot operate a US military force in the country, simply because it is unconstitutional."
Arévalo's office said it is seeking US assistance in training, strategic and tactical support, and intelligence sharing, pointing to recent actions against drug trafficking, including the capture of an arsenal in Las Cruces, Petén, the seizure of a narcotics laboratory in Ayutla, San Marcos, and the capture of numerous suspected narco-traffickers.
Asked during a Thursday press conference about the possibility of joint combat operations like those reportedly carried out by US and Ecuadorian forces in the South American nation, Arévalo claimed unfamiliarity with the details of the agreement between those two countries.
Progressive US lawmakers are demanding answers about “reports of serious human rights violations and the bombing of what appear to have been civilian facilities" in Ecuador, including a "dairy and cattle farm with no known links to armed groups or drug trafficking" where unarmed civilians were allegedly tortured.
Arévalo brushed off a suggestion that his request for US cooperation could open the door to human rights violations in Guatemala, telling reporters that "the best defense against any violation of human rights is our respect and commitment to the laws of the republic and to current legislation."
While Guatemala does suffer from serious narco-trafficking issues, many Guatemalans are wary of US intervention, given past meddling including the 1954 CIA-orchestrated overthrow of reformist President Jacobo Árbenz, which was followed by decades of right-wing repression, civil war, and a US-backed genocide against Indigenous Mayan peoples during which around 200,000 people were killed.
In March, the Trump administration lifted longstanding restrictions on arms transfers to Guatemala.
“Now, our soldiers are going to have access to modern technology, radars, night viewfinders," Sáenz told La Hora on Friday.
The defense minister said he discussed closer counter-narcotics cooperation with the United States during the “Shield of the Americas” summit, during which senior officials from over a dozen nations—most of them ruled by right-wing governments—gathered at President Donald Trump's golf resort near Miami.
In addition to Guatemala, the Trump administration has been trying to pressure other Latin American nations into launching joint military operations against narco-traffickers. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has vehemently rejected US requests, even as President Donald Trump has threatened "to do something" about cartels in her country.
“The epicenter of cartel violence is not Mexico, it’s the United States,” Sheinbaum defiantly declared in March. “The cartels are fueled by the United States’ demand for drugs and armed with US weapons, and thanks to the United States, they are able to orchestrate enormous bloodshed and chaos throughout Latin America.”
In January, Trump ordered the bombing and invasion of Venezuela, whose president, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted to the United States on dubious "narco-terrorism" allegations that were then significantly walked back.
Trump has also threatened to attack Colombia, Panama, and Cuba, whose people are bracing for what many observers fear is an impending US war. If Trump does order military action against Cuba, it would be the 12th country he's attacked during the course of his two White House terms. Trump also ordered the ongoing bombing campaign targeting boats his administration claims—without providing evidence—were smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Around 200 people have been killed by the US strikes.
As Nick Turse of The Intercept reported Wednesday:
Trump has turned the Western Hemisphere into a war zone as part of what he and others have called the Donroe Doctrine. This bastardization of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine has been used to justify strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean; an attack on Venezuela and the abduction of its president; CIA operations in Mexico; joint counter-cartel operations in Ecuador dubbed “Operation Total Extermination”; and increased military and intelligence operations elsewhere in Latin America.
Experts contend that, like the boat strikes, any airstrikes carried out against drug cartels would likely constitute illegal acts of murder, even if conducted with the permission of governments in targeted countries.
“As with the boat strikes, depending on the facts, further attacks could amount to premeditated killings outside of armed conflict, which some of us lawyers would refer to as murder,” former US State Department lawyer Brian Finucane told The New York Times on Thursday.
“Congress never authorized any of these strikes," he added. "So US personnel who participate in these actions could face consequences down the road, after the Trump administration.”
"The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event," claimed rapper Young MC.
Artists slated to perform at the government-sponsored 250th-anniversary celebration of the nation next month are recoiling in horror and pulling out left and right upon learning of President Donald Trump's involvement.
The lineup scheduled to perform at the "Great American State Fair"—which included the likes of Milli Vanilli, Vanilla Ice, and Poison vocalist Bret Michaels—was already getting dragged for what the Daily Beast described as a "lack of A-list musical talent" willing to perform for the president.
But some on the setlist apparently only agreed to participate because they were unaware of the president's heavy involvement in planning the festivities, which will include—among other things—a UFC fight on his birthday, a teenage athletic competition that many compare to the Hunger Games, and an American history exhibit created by PragerU hosted by an artificial intelligence-powered George Washington.
After just over a day, three acts—a full third of those announced—have already pulled out of the festival.
“I have informed my agents that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event,” said the hip-hop artist Young MC in a social media post on Wednesday, mere hours after the list of performers was published.
The rapper, who is most renowned for the 1989 classic "Bust a Move," said "the artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, Spin magazine describes it as ‘Trump-backed.’ I hope to perform in DC in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.”
Morris Day and the Time, most known for their work with Prince, denied ever having been part of the festivities.
“Contrary to rumor, Morris Day & the Time will not be performing at the ‘Great American State Fair,’" they said. "It's a no for me."
"Gonna Make You Sweat" singer Freedom Williams of C+C Music Factory said he was surprised to start receiving phone calls asking why he was performing for Trump.
He said his agent "didn't say nothing about Trump" when he booked the performance months before. "So I told my agent, yeah, no, I ain’t good to do that… I don’t fuck with Trump. I don’t give a fuck about Trump. I know the type of fucking anarchy he creates."
As its music festival falls apart, Freedom 250 has emphasized that it is technically an independent 501(c)3 and that the White House itself is not directly putting on the celebration.
However, the festivities are being coordinated by a White House Task Force created by Trump, and it has been relentlessly promoted on official White House social media channels.
Much of Freedom 250's programming is also overtly MAGA-coded, from its wellness-focused "Make America Healthy Again Monday" to its numerous Christian prayer events.