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The electorate has a growing awareness of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its energy efficiency and electrification incentives: 63% of respondents say they are somewhat or very interested in pursuing home electrification and efficiency upgrades. This includes 70% of Latino Americans, 66% of Black Americans, 60% of White Americans, and 58% of rural Americans. Additionally, voters report that the components of the IRA that make them more likely to support federal investments in clean energy and energy efficiency focus on potential cost savings from energy efficiency upgrades and the creation of new clean energy jobs. In addition to voters overall, majorities of voters across partisanship favor keeping various IRA incentives, rather than ending them. After reading that components of the IRA may face repeal by a new administration, voters say that losing household energy savings or economy-wide air quality improvement benefits are among the most concerning outcomes of IRA repeal.

Voters, including swing voters, side more with clean energy advocates in the debate over the country’s energy future. By a 55%-45% margin, voters side more with an argument in favor of prioritizing clean energy over an argument in favor of prioritizing oil and gas. Swing voters (defined as those who did not rule out voting for either Harris or Trump from the start of the candidates’ campaigns) side more with the argument in favor of clean energy by a 14-point margin, which is even wider than the 10-point margin that Navigator found among the overall electorate.

Climate change was one of voters’ top reasons to support Harris over Trump. Polls of the 2024 electorate, both before and after the election, have consistently found that abortion and climate change were Harris’s clearest issue strengths against Trump. Of the issues named in the survey, climate change ranked on par with Project 2025, abortion, and January 6th as the clearest rationales to support Harris rather than Trump: the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021 – Harris +21; the proposals within Project 2025 – Harris +21; U.S. efforts to fight climate change – Harris +20; the status of abortion laws in the U.S. – Harris +18.

Voters who participated in the election, especially voters of color, overwhelmingly support expanding clean energy and investing in climate resilience. 84% of voters who participated in the election support expanding clean energy investments to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. 83% of voters who participated in the election support expanding clean energy investments to lower electricity bills and energy costs. 84% of voters who participated in the election support providing more resources to protect families against the impacts of climate change and to prepare for and recover from future climate disasters. Among Black voters, 92% support providing more resources to protect families against the impacts of climate change and to prepare for and recover from future climate disasters, including 56% who “strongly” support the idea, 91% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to lower electricity bills and energy costs, including 59% who “strongly” support the idea, and 89% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S., including 51% who “strongly” support the idea. Among Latino voters, 90% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to lower electricity bills and energy costs, including 46% who “strongly” support the idea, 90% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S., including 45% who “strongly” support the idea, and 88% support providing more resources to protect families against the impacts of climate change and to prepare for and recover from future climate disasters, including 47% who “strongly” support the idea.

Trump voters have much less confidence in him to handle climate change than other issues. While 90%+ of Trump voters say that he is better able to handle most of the issues that were included in the survey, climate change ranks at the very bottom with just over half of his voters (56%) saying that he is better able to handle the issue than Harris: immigration – 95% of Trump voters trust Trump to handle; the economy – 94%; the situation in the Middle East – 91%; crime – 90%; health care – 78%; abortion policy – 66%; climate change – 56%.

Even while electing Trump, most voters said that they’re concerned about climate change and that the country should prioritize clean energy over fossil fuels. Climate voters were the most reliable voting bloc for Harris. 65% of voters who participated in the election said that they’re concerned about the effects of climate change in their community. 56% of voters who participated in the election said that the country should focus on expanding clean energy over fossil fuels. Harris carried the “very” concerned group by a wide margin (78%-20%), though the race was much closer among the “somewhat” concerned group (54% Harris / 44% Trump). Trump, meanwhile, built up massive margins among voters who dismissed the problem. He carried the 19% of voters who were “not too concerned” about climate change by 60 points (79%-19%) and won the 15% of voters who were “not at all concerned” about climate change by 88 points (93%-5%).

Building narrative power helps to achieve three important things: building a future where frontline narratives are dominant narratives; shifting who owns and run the narrative ‘means of production’; and making community-led policy change and culture change durable. To design narrative research, begin by understanding the narrative landscape within which an issue or dynamic is operating and assessing the collective capacity to drive narrative change; then test narrative interventions, like mini-campaigns. Employ advisors on our research projects is helpful to understand the nuance and complexity of a policy agenda or a lived-experience. Choosing research participants who are typically engaged in the issue area being explored is helpful (for example, organizers with a local organization managing volunteers, a policy advocate for a specific community or issue area, a lawyer who utilizes the legal system to highlight solutions for the challenges workers and migrants face, an artist who uses their craft to raise up voices and awareness). Moreover, interviews are key to understanding what is needed to build and hold a shared understanding of the narrative landscape in which these communities exist.

The Red Deal is a powerful guide to Indigenous liberation and the fight to save the planet. Only mass movements can do what the moment demands. Politicians may or may not follow—it is up to them—but we will design, build, and lead this movement with or without them. The Red Deal is a call for action beyond the scope of the US colonial state. It’s a program for Indigenous liberation, life, and land—an affirmation that colonialism and capitalism must be overturned for this planet to be habitable for human and other-than human relatives to live dignified lives. The Red Deal is not a response to the Green New Deal, or a “bargain” with the elite and powerful. It’s a deal with the humble people of the earth; a pact that we shall strive for peace and justice and a declaration that movements for justice must come from below and to the left.

Movements seldom win by overpowering the opposition; they win by shifting support out from under it. Use a spectrum-of-allies analysis to identify the social groups (students, workers) that are affected by your issue, and locate those groups along a spectrum, from active opposition to active allies, so you can focus your efforts on shifting those groups closer to your position. Identifying specific stakeholders (e.g. not just students, but students at public colleges; not just workers, but domestic workers) can help you identify the most effective ways of moving different social groups closer to your position, in order to win your campaign.