NextGen Climate Launches Youth Voter Program in North Carolina

NextGen Climate North Carolina to register and turnout students at 10 campuses across the state

SAN FRANCISCO—Today, NextGen Climate launched its youth voter program in North Carolina, expanding its efforts in the 2016 election cycle to elect climate champions to the United States Senate. NextGen Climate NC will educate, register, and turnout young voters on 10 campuses across the state, targeting 200,000 students.

“Donald Trump and the GOP’s toxic agenda is putting more states and control of Congress in play, and we have the opportunity to elect a Senator and a Governor in North Carolina that will push forward meaningful climate action,” said NextGen Climate President Tom Steyer. “We must take back the Senate and the Governor’s mansion if we are going to ensure that the next generation has a better future than the last. Young voters across the country are rejecting the fossil fuel driven campaigns of Senator Burr, Governor McCrory and Donald Trump and embracing the clean energy future.”

This announcement is an expansion of NextGen Climate’s youth voter program that is already operating in seven states—Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. NextGen Climate will engage students on 10 campuses in North Carolina, including: Appalachian State University, East Carolina University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The program will be run by Youth Vote Director Matt Skeens, a veteran organizer and climate change activist.

The need for urgent climate action in North Carolina is clear. The state’s coastline—which plays a crucial role in the state’s tourism, real estate, and fishing industries—is already experiencing the impacts of climate change from sea level rise, which is occurring at nearly one inch per decade. Further inland, increased summer heat stress, combined with more frequent droughts, are threatening North Carolina’s agricultural industry, which has already been affected by severe droughts in recent years. Young voters want their elected leaders to take urgent action on climate and NextGen Climate will work to make sure that their demands are heard at the ballot box this November.

According to a recent poll of millennials in 11 battleground states released by NextGen Climate, 78 percent of young voters in North Carolina say protecting clean air and water is a high priority, 80 percent say climate change is a severe threat we must start addressing now, and 94 percent support transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy economy. Despite this, Donald Trump and the GOP have vowed to gut the EPA and are opposed clean energy sources to like wind and solar that will create well-paying American jobs. Trump’s proposal to eliminate the EPA is extremely unpopular among North Carolina millennials—84 percent say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who takes that position, including 61 percent who say they would never vote for such a candidate. That’s why NextGen Climate will be working to turnout young people in record numbers and show candidates that they have to take climate change seriously if they want to get elected.