Joe Biden Moves Left on Climate, Voters Love To See It
By Danielle Deiseroth, Marcela Mulholland and Julian Brave NoiseCat
Today, former Vice President Joe Biden released two new plans, building on his “Build Back Better” platform and updating the climate plan first released by his campaign last year. These climate plans are the most ambitious ever adopted by a Democratic nominee for president and provide a high-level outline of the Biden campaign’s vision to transition the United States to clean energy while promoting environmental and economic justice. In his plans, Biden adopts many proposals developed by progressives, including a clean electricity standard that would transition the economy to 100% clean and zero emissions power sources by 2035, as well as a commitment to target 40% of climate investments to frontline communities living on the hazardous edge of poverty, pollution and climate change. The former Vice President also endorsed the creation of a Climate Conservation Corps, an idea developed by Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s climate-focused presidential campaign that was first promoted on this blog in May of 2019.
These policy commitments–many of which were developed and advocated by Data for Progress and others–mark the arrival of a new climate politics at the core of the Democratic Party. This shift was largely catalyzed by the youth-led climate movement that has pushed the party to adopt a progressive climate agenda under the slogan of a Green New Deal that meets the climate crisis with the urgency and scale that science–and morality–demand. Just two weeks ago, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released its own policy recommendations, which far surpassed even the positions advocated by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont just three years prior. This is heartening. When it comes to perhaps the greatest existential emergency ever faced by humanity–a crisis that will be measured by the extinction of species, the jarring laneswitch in geological epochs and the course of planetary history–Democrats are nearing unanimous consensus: big, bold and just things must be done.
New Data for Progress polling shows that voters are enthusiastic about the former Vice President’s plans and this emerging consensus.
As part of a July survey, we asked voters about progressive climate policies and new recommendations from the Biden-Sanders climate unity task force. We found that 56% of voters are more likely to support a Presidential candidate that pledges to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035. Among voters under 45, 37% are much more likely to support a candidate that adopts this pledge.
Another issue favored by voters is job creation through investments in clean energy infrastructure development. 56% of all voters are more likely to support a candidate that will create millions of new union jobs with guaranteed health and labor standards to build new clean energy infrastructure. This plan is especially popular among young voters: 62% of voters under 45 say they are more likely to support a candidate with this plan.
Similarly, voters are supportive of job creation through green infrastructure development as a component of our nation’s coronavirus relief plans. This plan enjoys a 34-percentage-point margin of support among all voters, and has net-positive support among self-identified Independents and Republicans.
Additionally, voters are supportive of measures to ensure that federal infrastructure funding goes to the communities that need it the most. 59% of all voters would be more likely to support a Presidential candidate that creates an Environmental Justice Fund to invest in environmental justice projects for communities that are on the front lines of pollution.
As shown by our recent polling with YouGov, ambitious investments in new green infrastructure projects and environmental justice measures are also winning issues among Independent voters in battleground states. 60% of voters support a clean energy transition by 2035, and 69% of voters support prioritizing the development of clean energy technologies for communities that will help the communities most affected by climate change.
These are scary times. The coronavirus has exposed significant flaws in our democracy and welfare state. A historic recession has thrown millions of working people off their employer-based health insurance in the middle of a pandemic. The coronavirus has exacted the most devastating consequences on the vulnerable and neglected: the elderly, the poor and the people of color who live in neighborhoods and communities already harmed by poverty and pollution. As the dead heat of summer sets in, research has shown that the same communities that were redlined–locked out of wealth, locked up in prisons, preyed upon by banks and payday lenders and policed like conflict zones–are also the most likely to experience deadly heat islands. Climate change is exacerbating all of these injustices, and more: increasing the risk of floods that will inundate the homes of working families, bringing wildfires closer and closer to the sprawl of American cities and threatening the livelihoods of workers and retirees, laboring and saving on top of a carbon bubble
But once in a long while, the electorate and the activists and the politicians–and maybe even the stars–align and democracy works. For years, climate change was sidelined by both parties: Republicans who denied the science and Democrats who thought belief was enough. In those same years, humans burned more fossil fuels than in all prior history. But now, the politics are changing. The Democratic nominee for the highest office in the land has endorsed a plan that won’t solve all of our problems, but will give us and our children and our most vulnerable relatives and neighbors a fighting chance. And luckily, our research suggests that, come November, voters just might reward him for it.
Danielle Deiseroth (@danielledeis) is the Climate Data Analyst for Data for Progress
Marcela Mulholland (@x3Marcela_) is Deputy Director for Climate for Data for Progress
Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) is Vice President of Policy & Strategy for Data for Progress
Survey methodology:
Data for Progress survey: From 7/10/2020 to 7/12/2020 Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,390 likely voters nationally using web-panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is +/- 2.6 percentage points.
Data for Progress and YouGov survey: This survey fielded on YouGov's online panel and included 1,556 Independent US voters living in battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The survey fielded from July 8-July 10, 2020, and was weighted to be representative of these states' electorates by age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, US Census region, and 2016 Presidential vote choice. The weights range from 0.2 to 6, with a mean of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.52. The margin of error is +/-2.8 percentage points.