Location: California

It’s been a busy few weeks in California! I ran into several Lab members at Saturday’s Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice events in San Francisco, and the Solidarity to Solutions and Global Climate Action Summit activities are currently in full swing. Those events follow the California legislature’s recent passage and Gov. Brown’s Monday signing of SB100, which puts the Golden State on track to generate 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. Hats off to all the groups who made these things happen!
This week’s alert builds off that latest chapter in campaigns for 100% clean energy, by revisiting what we know about engaging Americans around 100%.

Based on Spring 2018 polling, this slidedeck summarizes research on how youth audiences (defined here as Millennials and younger) approach electoral politics. 
The authors identify four drivers influencing voting: political understanding, belief in the political system, a sense of civic or personal responsibility to vote, and alignment with the Democratic Party. Conversely, the lack of these drivers (e.g., skepticism of the political system) are among four key barriers to participation identified. The authors also describe four types of mindsets among young eligible voters, one that leads to voting and three that do not. These latter three mindsets may be based on apathy (lack of personal political interest), a revolutionary mentality (distrust of a broken political system), or uncompromising values (refusal to vote for candidates they do not fully support).