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By Monica Sager
Live News Reporter
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The Sunrise Movement, an influential national group of young progressives that was instrumental in the creation of President Biden's climate agenda, does not plan to endorse the Democratic incumbent in the presidential election, a worrisome sign for a re-election campaign that appears to be struggling to maintain its hold on the youth vote.
"We hold endorsements for politicians who are championing the Green New Deal and people we are fully behind," Stevie O'Hanlon, Sunrise Movement's communications director, told Newsweek. "We routinely do a lot of work on races where we don't make an endorsement but are doing campaigning work."
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After Axios reported this week that Sunrise would be withholding its endorsement, the group posted a thread on X saying it would continue to work hard to defeat Trump in November because "a second Trump term is an existential threat to our democracy and climate."
O'Hanlon noted that the group did not endorse Joe Biden in 2020, either.
"But not endorsing in 2020 didn't stop us from contacting 3.5 million unique young voters," the organization wrote. "In 2024, it won't either. We're planning a massive youth voter turnout program in swing states."
If Biden moved further left on climate issues before the election, Sunrise might change its stance.
"It's something that we would consider," O'Hanlon said.
The Sunrise Movement, which was formed to end the era of fossil fuels, said that the Green New Deal — a sweeping proposal that calls for 100% renewable energy by 2030 as well as a jobs guarantee, single-payer healthcare and free college — is its main political sticking point.
"It lays out a plan for how we prevent catastrophic climate change and improve the lives of people around the country by creating good jobs, lowering prices for utilities, for instance, and protecting our communities from climate disaster," O'Hanlon told Newsweek.
"We have been pushing politicians up and down the ballot to back the Green New Deal...Young people want to see President Biden choosing people over oil and gas lobbyists."
The Sunrise Movement started campaigning in Iowa in January against Trump and other GOP candidates, without backing Biden.
The group's activists are looking for the current president to "re-assemble (the) 2020 coalition," saying Biden has "actively fractured" that coalition over his position on the war in Gaza, immigration policies and approval of new fossil fuel projects.
In February, Sunrise joined with other leading youth organizations to provide Biden with a roadmap detailing what they said would be needed to regain the trust of young voters. The "Finish the Job Youth Agenda" calls for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the rejection of new oil, gas and coal projects as well as the access to free healthcare and affordable housing to people affected by climate disasters.
The Sunrise Movement's withholding of an endorsement comes after President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, widely considered the most sweeping climate-related legislation ever passed. The $740 billion bill included roughly $370 billion invested into initiatives to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Sunrise says it's not enough.
"Since last year, we have been urging Biden to declare a climate emergency and use executive powers to protect people around the country from extreme heat, wildfires, hurricanes and put a stop to the build out of oil and gas projects that are poisoning people's water and going against what science pretty clearly lays out," O'Hanlon said. "We need to move away from fossil fuels if we're going to prevent catastrophic climate change."
In 2020, the group's then-executive director, Varshini Prakash, worked with Biden on his Unity Climate Task Force to draft an environmental agenda that included the first-ever "Climate Corps."
"Young people everywhere should feel empowered by this victory and continue demanding the change we need," Prakash said last year about the climate corps initiative.
But Sunrise has been critical of the White House's other energy policies, slamming its decision to approve new oil drilling in Alaska.
"It's a step in the wrong direction," O'Hanlon said.
"Biden has with the [Inflation Reduction Act], with the American Climate Corp, with the pause on liquified natural gas export projects, made some big strides forward on climate change. We are looking at the science and objectively we need to be doing more."
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