At least two districts may have flipped due to climate change. One is a district I know well having campaigned in it, lived next to it, attended church in it, and worked with students from it. The IL-6th is home to two national laboratories, Argonne and Fermilab,. The New Republic profiles how Sean Casten won over these bipartisan centrists with a pro-business pitch for fighting climate change. These are the kind of Rotary Club Mainline Republicans and independents disgusted by Trump and proudly pro-science.
Mark Sanford writes in today’s Times that his far more conservative leaning district may have flipped due to coastal environmental concerns like offshore drilling and climate hangs. That his climate denying “drill baby drill” opponent cost him his party’s nomination and allowed this 40 year GOP stronghold to elect a Democrat.
There are a lot of post-mortems about moving left or embracing the center. When it comes to climate change, the only option for Democrats is to move aggressively to combat the danger of climate change and embrace the opportunity the post-carbon economy will create. Fighting climate change is the pro growth agenda, propping up dinosaurs like coal and gas with taxpayer subsidies is an anti-growth agenda that bets against innovation, entrepreneurship, and America.
