{"id":405,"date":"2026-06-16T12:07:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405"},"modified":"2026-06-16T12:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:07:29","slug":"the-climate-myth-democrats-cant-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Putin\u2019s plan to live forever<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As the midterm elections approach, something strange has happened: Democratic politicians who once talked about climate change as the defining crisis of our time now barely mention it at all. The phrase has begun disappearing from their speeches, social media posts, and podcast appearances. The main exception is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who has given some version of his \u201cTime to Wake Up\u201d speech on the dangers of climate change more than 300 times over the past decade and a half. He\u2019s accused \u201cclimate hushers\u201d of pushing the party to stop talking about the overheating planet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

If you had to pinpoint the moment that \u201cclimate hushing\u201d began, the 2024 presidential election would be the obvious contender. After President Donald Trump beat former Vice President Kamala Harris in all seven swing states, Democrats were left scrambling to figure out where they went wrong. One popular theory was that they were too busy harping on social justice and planetary problems at the expense of everyday concerns voters cared more about, like the rising cost of living. Whitehouse, however, sees global warming as a piece of that conversation, rather than a distraction from it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cClimate change is right now raising costs for families across the country through higher property insurance premiums, grocery and electric bills, and health care expenses,\u201d Whitehouse said in a statement to Grist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The idea that talking about climate change is a liability for Democrats has become conventional wisdom. Last year, the Democrat-aligned think tank Searchlight Institute issued the advice \u201cDon\u2019t say climate change.\u201d A recent op-ed in The New York Times concluded, \u201cWhen it comes to climate change, for now, it might be better to say nothing at all.\u201d An early draft of the Democratic National Committee\u2019s of the 2024 election, released under pressure in May, posited that messages about climate change and shifting to green energy \u201ccreated anxiety among workers in traditional industries worried about job losses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very zeitgeisty to assume right now that it\u2019s really important not to talk about climate, or that Democrats have paid a political cost for talking about climate,\u201d said Matto Mildenberger, a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. But there\u2019s no hard evidence that discussing climate change hurts Democrats in elections, Mildenberger and other experts told Grist. If anything, it rewards candidates with a modest boost among voters, studies and surveys show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The basis for thinking that Democrats should avoid the subject comes from polls asking voters about their top priorities: Climate change ranks number 24 out of 25 when Americans are asked which issues will be very important to their vote, according to data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication last year. That\u2019s mainly because other concerns have risen in importance, with liberal Democrats more concerned about things like protecting democracy, government corruption, and the treatment of immigrants than before the 2024 election. It\u2019s a logical leap, however, to assume that talking about climate change is a political liability simply because voters don\u2019t name it as one of their top issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Some commentators argue that you can achieve climate action just by getting Democrats elected, regardless of whether they\u2019re bringing it up. But deemphasizing climate change as part of their political platform could have long-term consequences: Without real discussion of it, you lose momentum for action and send a signal that it\u2019s not important. \u201cYou actually need to have conversation and attention to an issue to slowly build the coalition and policy work necessary to address it,\u201d Mildenberger said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In effect, Democrats are ceding rhetorical ground to their opponents, he argues, even as polling shows that Trump\u2019s agenda \u2014 blocking the construction of wind farms, scrubbing public information about global warming from government websites, and pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement \u2014 is broadly unpopular. \u201cAll of this is, frankly, doing the service of the fossil fuel industry, ultimately, because it\u2019s helping climate delay,\u201d Mildenberger said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Whitehouse has argued that Democrats are \u201cpoll-chasing,\u201d parroting what voters say they want to hear with bland, backward-looking messages. \u201cMany Americans don\u2019t believe Democrats are fighters,\u201d Whitehouse said. \u201cThe best way to shed that label is to actually step into the arena and fight. Our climate messaging has long been terrible, but it would be malpractice to shy away from a fight with Central Casting villains (the fossil fuel industry climate denial fraud and dark money corruption operations) with such high stakes for the economic well-being of American families.\u201d As people in the US struggle with rising costs and surging gas prices, oil giants are raking in billions from the Iran war, a dissonance that Democrats could tap into.<\/p>\n

Read more The case that Florida is ready to turn blue again<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Matt Burgess, an economist at the University of Wyoming who studies how to find common ground on the environment, agrees with the broader sentiment that Democrats alienated voters on cultural issues and lost sight of concerns around affordability, and that progressive messaging about climate change was a piece of that. But he said it\u2019s wrong to assume that climate change is a losing issue. \u201cThere are lots of different lines of evidence that suggest that climate change as an issue overall helps the Democrats and hurts Republicans,\u201d Burgess said. A study he co-authored in 2024 found that in a hypothetical world in which climate change hadn\u2019t been an issue in the 2020 election, Republicans could have gained somewhere around a 3 percent swing in the popular vote, enough to hand the White House to Trump instead of Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIf you have any issue that moves the needle a little bit in your favor in a super-close election, it can make the difference between winning and losing,\u201d Burgess said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Exit polling suggests there\u2019s little reason to believe that climate change was a problem for Democrats in 2024, as opposed to other issues playing a larger role. Swing voters considered \u201cUS efforts to fight climate change\u201d a reason to support Harris over Trump by 21 points, according to a survey of 5,000 voters from Navigator Research just before and after the election. Trump won by large margins on inflation, the economy, and immigration \u2014 concerns that were top-of-mind for voters. \u201cThe very simple version is, Trump winning those voters won the election,\u201d said Bryan Bennett, who runs the independent consulting practice Loft Beck Strategies, advising Democrats and progressives, and who directed the post-election survey in his previous role at Navigator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Harris, in other words, didn\u2019t lose because she mentioned climate change a few times, or even because Democrats passed climate policies under the Biden administration. Federal investments in infrastructure and manufacturing projects were, on a county level, linked to a very small improvement in the vote share for Harris, an analysis from the Center for American Progress found. If anything, the problem was that voters didn\u2019t know enough about the federal government\u2019s involvement to give the administration credit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Even if climate change is not an electoral problem for Democrats, they might have other reasons for staying quiet about it. The media ecosystem now is fractured, with many people getting their news from TikTok, YouTube, and podcasts as opposed to traditional news sources, meaning that it\u2019s harder than ever for politicians to make their preferred narrative heard, Bennett said. In recent years, the Democratic Party has gotten more serious about \u201cmessage discipline,\u201d the practice of sticking with a central message, to try to cut through the noise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cSo much of the oxygen in the room is taken up by, \u2018How do Democrats deal with, and how do progressives deal with, talking about the economy in a way that really meets voters where they are?\u2019\u201d Bennett said. \u201cAnd I think that inherently detracts from basically every other issue, regardless of whether it\u2019s a good thing to talk about or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Democratic politicians who are still mentioning climate change have tended to do so indirectly, arguing that clean energy is \u201ccheap energy\u201d and tying it to rising electricity bills. Polling suggests that voters have an appetite for more: Last fall, 41 percent of those surveyed by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication said they wanted political candidates to talk about efforts to reduce global warming more often, almost double the number who wanted to hear about it less. The trend of climate-hushing could stem from a misperception: Studies show that politicians and the public at large tend to vastly underestimate Americans\u2019 appetite for taking action on climate change, from carbon taxes to expanding renewable energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWe have this tension where, I think, empirically, talking about climate change provides a net benefit. It\u2019s a very small net benefit, but it is a net benefit,\u201d Mildenberger said. \u201cBut we have a discourse that somehow says that it\u2019s this massive cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The hidden factory farms behind America\u2019s pet snake boom<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

See More:<\/span><\/p>\n
    \n
  • Climate<\/li>\n
  • Policy<\/li>\n
  • Politics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why Democrats staying quiet on climate isn\u2019t helping them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit - American Living Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit - American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why Democrats staying quiet on climate isn\u2019t helping them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-16T12:07:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8\"},\"headline\":\"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-16T12:07:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405\"},\"wordCount\":1524,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405\",\"name\":\"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit - American Living Report\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-16T12:07:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":623},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=405#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Living Report\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit - American Living Report","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit - American Living Report","og_description":"Why Democrats staying quiet on climate isn\u2019t helping them.","og_url":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405","og_site_name":"American Living Report","article_published_time":"2026-06-16T12:07:29+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8"},"headline":"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit","datePublished":"2026-06-16T12:07:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405"},"wordCount":1524,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp","articleSection":["Interesting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405","url":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405","name":"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit - American Living Report","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp","datePublished":"2026-06-16T12:07:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/79ba1c3029c3c9307cbe6e800792c2d7.webp","width":1200,"height":623},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=405#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The climate myth Democrats can\u2019t quit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/","name":"American Living Report","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/americanlivingreport.com"],"url":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}