NextGen Climate Launches New Program to Engage, Register and Mobilize Young Voters For Climate Action

SAN FRANCISCO—Today, NextGen Climate launched a national campaign to register and mobilize young voters in seven key battleground states to help elect climate champions to the White House and the Senate this fall. In the months leading up to Election Day, NextGen Climate will work across seven states—including Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada, Illinois and Colorado—with a network of partners, student leaders and volunteers to empower young Americans to join in the fight for climate justice and bring their demands to the ballot box.

“Young voters are our best hope for solving the climate crisis. This generation is super smart, incredibly passionate, and strongly prefers candidates who embrace clean energy solutions,“ said NextGen Climate President Tom Steyer. “That’s why I’m so excited to support the next generation in making sure their voices resonate at the ballot box.”

NextGen Climate is starting early and doing intensive training with teams who will organize on at least 203 college campuses and mobilize young Americans across seven states. The scale of this campus program is unprecedented by any non-candidate campaign, and will show the size and scope of the enthusiasm for climate action among young voters. NextGen Climate’s teams will register and turn out young voters using data-driven field strategies, innovative digital tools and creative tactics to engage voters to elect climate champions.

Millennials participate in politics everyday, but not always at the ballot box. As the Black Lives Matter, DREAMers and Fossil Fuel Divestment movements demonstrate, young people are not only passionate about making change—they’re often the ones leading the change. NextGen Climate will work to turn the energy and enthusiasm of millennials into action and turn them out to vote. In the primaries, young voters are already breaking turnout records, and this program aims to continue this momentum through November to ensure that we elect climate champions to the White House and Senate.

NextGen Climate will build on our record of using fun, creative, and cutting-edge campaign tactics to reach young climate voters. NextGen Climate is committed to reaching young people where they’re at: on their phones and tablets, at their doors, and in their communities. Whether it’s being one of the first political operations to run Snapchat ads or orchestrating concerts and brewery tours for climate action, NextGen Climate has a history of pushing the boundaries to reach voters—and will continue to use these innovative tactics in the lead-up to Election Day.

NextGen Climate will also register young people to vote, and facilitate students voting on campus. As part of this effort, NextGen Climate will continue its Climate Organizing Fellowship Program to build the next generation of climate leaders who will continue to push for climate action and clean energy solutions through November and beyond. Through this stipended role, Fellows are responsible for spearheading climate change and clean energy organizing on campus and managing volunteer efforts to register student voters and turn them out in November.

To learn more about NextGen Climate’s youth vote program click here.

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