Location: Wisconsin

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including on prioritizing clean energy sources over fossil fuels, voters supporting investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, and clean energy in key states.

There continues to be clear opportunity to boost support for clean energy in key states, with battleground voters shifting in favor of the Biden administration’s clean energy plan in response to positive messaging. In Arizona, support for Biden and Democrats’ clean energy plan increase 21 percentage points (from 39 to 60%) after reading about it. Similarly, support in Georgia increased 17 percentage points and support in Wisconsin increased 25 points. However, voters in these states are worried that clean energy policies might cost them more money in the short term.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including a new 19-nation survey about climate change, new national polling on climate acton, new polling about the Inflation Reduction Act in Midwest battleground states, and a novel new survey of video gamers’ attitudes about climate change.

Integrated, year-round community organizing is necessary to create people-powered political representation in the Midwest. Midwestern state economies have destabilized, and this has caused shifting politics, such as formerly Democratic or swing states now voting mostly for Republicans. This report dispels multiple myths about Midwestern politics, such as: some states swung irreversibly to the right; Midwest states can be won either by engaging only people of color, or by frantically chasing white Obama/Trump voters; retail politics can work in the Midwest by “treating” white voters with messages about the economy and Black voters with messages about race, while ignoring Native, Latino, AAPI, and other voters; and we can win Presidential, US Senate, or Gubernatorial races by dumping billions of dollars into paid advertisements each cycle, rather than building the human capacity to lead and govern. This report argues for intentionally, consistently organizing people into membership organizations, unions, and community institutions in order to move constituencies of people into political action and create political homes. Overall, this report argues for “state ecosystems” of democratically accountable movement groups to engage in electoral politics.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including a new international sustainability poll from POLITICO and Morning Consult, findings about the public’s reactions to different terms for methane gas, and state-level polls in Indiana, Maryland, and Wisconsin.­

A larger proportion of Wisconsinites are concerned about climate change than any other issue facing the state. However, folks are more concerned about the threat of climate change nationally rather than in Wisconsin. The article suggests this might be due to the increasingly nationalized nature of elections in Wisconsin. When considering messaging in swing states, where messaging is already more nationally focused, advocates interested in increasing turnout on these issues should actually consider more national frames. This is a deviation from most recommendations to focus on localized messaging.