"A push to emphasize affordability isn’t climate hushing, its advocates say. But a Democratic think tank has suggested this recalibration is in order — and some in the party are tweaking their messaging."
"In late January, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a long-time climate hawk, said in a thread on X that Democrats should ignore calls to stop talking about climate.
“There’s a thing out there called a ‘climate husher,’” he wrote. “Anyone who cares about what fossil fuel pollution is doing to Earth’s natural systems needs to ignore these so-called ‘climate hushers’—people who think Dems should stop talking about climate.”
Climate hushing is a difficult phenomenon to pin down. As President Donald Trump relied on his climate denialist refrain with a reference to “the green new scam” in January at Davos, there’s no question that corporate America has gone quiet on climate. But the exact pervasiveness of political climate hushing headed into the 2026 midterms is yet to be seen as Democrats wrestle with the best way to talk about a core party principle: the urgency of addressing climate change."
Claire Barber reports for Inside Climate News March 1, 2026.
