"Activists view November’s midterm elections as crucial for curbing Trump’s fossil fuel agenda and building a foundation for renewed action."
"In the final stretch of their midterm drive to gain control of Congress, Democratic candidates are talking mostly about the pain of high energy costs, not the risks of climate change.
But advocates of climate action view the Nov. 3 elections as a crucial moment for the movement. U.S. voters will decide whether to upend the compliant Republican-led Congress that stood by as President Donald Trump’s administration took unprecedented steps to bolster fossil fuels and choke off support for alternatives.
Environmentalists argue that it is especially urgent to put a check on the president in order to tackle the monumental new challenges posed by the rise of artificial intelligence and data centers. The world is close to overshooting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming threshold, increasing the risk of large-scale and potentially irreversible change.
“These elections are … starting to set the groundwork for 2028,” environmental author and activist Bill McKibben said in a recent interview with Democracy Now. “And that’s going to be, at least in climate terms, probably, maybe the last election that happens in a timeframe when we still really have an opportunity to affect some of the outcomes of these things.”"
Marianne Lavelle reports for Inside Climate News October 28, 2026.
