The Green New Deal is Incredibly Popular
By Marcela Mulholland and Saul Levin
The climate crisis is in full swing, and by now, nearly every community in the United States has experienced a hurricane, flood, wildfire, heat wave, or other event that is unfamiliarly severe or strangely timed. Over the past three years, the campaign for a Green New Deal (GND) has successfully reframed the conversation away from strictly technology and market solutions, and toward heavy public investment as the core solution needed to stabilize the climate. In many ways, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the reconciliation bill are watered-down policies carrying many pieces of the Green New Deal. But as the negotiations for the reconciliation bill drag on, the Green New Deal is gaining steam once again.
New polling finds the Green New Deal is incredibly popular among voters — nearly across the board. Three new core GND bills were introduced for the first time last year in Congress: the Green New Deal for Cities, the Green New Deal for Public Schools, and the Civilian Climate Corps. Numerous other bills have shifted the climate conversation, improved existing bills, and built out other aspects of the vision.
Support for these landmark bills is also growing in Congress. Last summer, a group of Squad climate staffers made a new push, and after dozens of sign-ons to the GND bills, more than 50 percent of House Democrats now support some piece of Green New Deal legislation. Eleven Democrats are signed onto every core bill.
While the Build Back Better agenda is urgently needed, no scenario currently on the table, even its passage, comes close to the scale of investment and transformation required to fully take on the climate crisis. With that in mind, the time has come to lean into a push for a Green New Deal once again.
The good news is that the Green New Deal is incredibly popular, while the bad news is that Congress is not close to keeping up. Our latest polling finds support among the public is already there, and it is strong. We can and must grow GND support.
Looking at three GND-branded bills, for example, reveals that over 65 percent of likely voters support each one, while none enjoys even 20 percent support among members of the House and Senate. The gap, shown in the graph below, is stark to say the least. The United States Congress is not coming close to representing the climate ambition of the people of the United States of America, and we’re ready to change that.
In early 2022, Data for Progress conducted new polling on a larger group of six core Green New Deal bills with extensive demographic detail. Even with high costs disclosed, every bill has majority support from every demographic polled other than Republicans. That means that men, women, voters over and under 45 all strongly support every bill, as do Black, white, and Latino/a voters, and urban, rural, and suburban voters.
Black voters are by far the biggest proponents of the legislation. They support every core piece of GND legislation by at least +60 percentage points, with an overwhelming average of 78 percent supporting.
Various findings are edifying for proponents of specific bills. For example, the Green New Deal for Cities, which would fund climate projects in every city or county, enjoys support from rural voters by an +35-point margin. Republicans support the Green New Deal for Schools by a thin +4-point margin. All bills enjoy some GOP voter support while they receive zero GOP support in Congress.
Progressives have shown pragmatic and effective leadership during the infrastructure fight during this crucial two-year period. As a key strategy to maintain momentum toward passing the Build Back Better agenda, we must keep building toward a beautiful, visionary future that minimizes suffering, creates jobs, and improves lives in the process of taking on the climate crisis at scale.
Marcela Mulholland is political director at Data for Progress.
Saul Levin is a fellow at Data for Progress.