By Craig Auster, PAC & Advocacy Partnerships Director
At a time when people of color hold only 17 percent of the seats in Congress and women hold just 19 percent of the seats in Congress, the institution governing our environment does not reflect the racial and gender diversity of communities of America. Our country is now over 38 percent people of color and nearly 51 percent women. This disparity is a problem. Our policies will respond more effectively to our country’s needs when women and people of color are included in shaping these policies. Just look at the fact that the Senate took months to finally allocate funding to help the people of Flint, Michigan, a majority African American city where children were literally poisoned by polluted drinking water. In other words, to efficaciously fight climate change and correct environmental injustices, we need a more representative Congress.
Climate change disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income communities in the U.S., and, around the world, women are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Over this past year, our country has witnessed the environmental injustices that Flint, a majority African American community, faced, and as the NAACP notes, race is the number one indicator for the placement of toxic facilities in the U.S.; many of these facilities emit top climate pollutants carbon and methane. There’s no doubt that our solutions to combat climate change should take these environmental injustices and political disparities into account.
We need champions in Congress who represent and can truly elevate the concerns of all people across gender, racial and socioeconomic lines on the devastating impacts of climate change. A number of congressional lawmakers are already doing so. For instance, Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (FL-24) has drawn attention to the real-life impacts of sea level rise in her Miami district where 87 percent of the residents are people of color and nearly 26 percent live below the poverty line. Congressman Raul Ruiz (CA-36) has fought to stop the looming public health crisis of the climate-driven drying of the Salton Sea in his Inland Empire district where 56 percent of his constituents are people of color. We need to build on the powerful groundwork these members of Congress have laid — we need to add voices to this chorus.
LCV Action Fund has proudly endorsed Representatives Wilson and Ruiz in their re-elections, and has made an unprecedented attempt to reach out to candidates of color and women to ensure that our political endorsements reflect the racial and gender diversity of our country. This election cycle, we are supporting a group of candidates that more closely resembles America than ever before: 42 percent of our endorsed candidates are women and 32 percent are people of color. While there is still a long way to go to achieve parity — in both our own endorsements and our political system — it is important to note that only 19.7 percent of major party candidates for Congress this year are women, and even less are people of color.
Two of the tasks ahead in this election — keeping the White House in good hands and electing a pro-environment majority to the U.S. Senate — rely on voting strong female candidates into office.
To start, we’ve endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidency. With her extensive record of protecting public health and the environment, and her continued call to remedy environmental crisis, like Flint, we are confident Hillary Clinton is the woman for the job. Furthermore we cannot afford a Donald Trump presidency. His utter disregard for climate and the environment — complete with plans to gut the EPA to renegotiate the Paris agreement — would be disastrous for our hard-won victories. On top of that, Trump has, on many occasions, belittled women and insulted communities of color with his incendiary remarks. In this race, the stakes could not be higher.
We can take back the Senate too. The clearest path to a pro-environment majority in the Senate includes protecting two pro-environment seats and replacing four anti-environment senators. Among the candidates who this vision rests upon, at least five are women whom LCV Action Fund has endorsed: Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Rep. Tammy Duckworth (IL), Patty Judge (IA), Katie McGinty (PA) and Deborah Ross (NC). Catherine Cortez Masto would, in fact, be the first Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate and Katie McGinty would be the first woman to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate.
We are building pro-environment power from women and racially diverse communities across the nation. To start, we’re backing a number of promising Latino and African American leaders who are poised to be strong environmental voices in Congress. In California and Texas, LCVAF is supporting some exciting candidates like — Nanette Barragán (CA-44) and Salud Carbajal (CA-24) and former Congressman Pete Gallego (TX-23). Barragán and Carbajal are local elected officials who’ve fought for climate action and stood up to offshore drilling while Gallego is running to take his seat back in a Latino-majority community. In Virginia, state Senator Donald McEachin (VA-4) is running to represent a new, 41 percent African American seat where he will continue to fight for environmental justice while former Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown (MD-4) is running to replace environmental champion Congresswoman Donna Edwards and will continue her legacy of fighting environmental injustices and bringing clean energy to communities of color.
Finally, we’re hoping to see barriers broken, in the U.S. House of Representatives, for the very first time in November. In Montana, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau (MT-At Large), a champion for sustainability and conservation of public lands as a member of the State Land Board, could be the first American Indian woman elected to Congress and the first LGBTQ candidate to win federal office in Montana.
It is essential to our planet’s future that the U.S. continues to curb climate change and does not move backwards in 2017. And to do so in a thoughtful and inclusive way, we need a Congress that more equitably reflects our country — we need to elect candidates that bring diverse backgrounds to the White House, the Senate and the House. In recent years, our support of women and people of color has steadily increased, and we are committed to ensuring that the lawmakers who shape our environmental policies represent the needs and interests of all our nation’s communities.
Paid for by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, www.lcvactionfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
