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CNN
24-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Democratic socialists fresh off Mamdani victory see opportunity in Minneapolis
State & local racesFacebookTweetLink Follow Less than a month after Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's mayoral primary, some of Mamdani's allies are coalescing around another democratic socialist challenging the incumbent Democratic mayor of Minneapolis. Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh has proposed enacting rent stabilization if elected mayor, disciplining and firing local police who work with immigration officers, and increasing access to affordable housing. Fateh on Saturday won the endorsement of the Minneapolis Democrats at a convention that supporters of incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey have challenged, arguing the results were tainted by issues with the voting system. It's a setback for Frey, though one decided by several hundred delegates on the final ballot rather than the larger electorate in November. Still, Fateh's emergence shows democratic socialism is on the upswing well beyond New York City, powered by record-low approval ratings for the Democratic Party and as many elected Democrats face criticism from the party's left flank. 'We are 2-for-2 with socialist mayors of major American cities,' exclaimed Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a national climate justice group that also endorsed Mamdani, in a video she posted after Fateh's victory. Fateh is the first Somali-American and first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota State Senate. In the state legislature, he has pursued funding free college tuition and securing a statewide living wage for ride-share drivers. He told CNN that he already has more than 1,000 volunteers knocking on doors and making calls. He sees Mamdani's win as proof that progressives can lead with their values and still win. 'I think nationally the Democratic establishment has not done a great job speaking to the needs of working people for far too long,' he said. Frey is a two-term incumbent who led Minneapolis during the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests and unrest following George Floyd's murder by a White police officer. He has positioned himself as a 'pragmatic progressive.' He maintains that under his leadership, he's made important investments in affordable housing like through the Stable Homes, Stable Schools program aimed at getting Minneapolis public school students experiencing homelessness into housing or providing them with housing assistance. 'We have a chance right now to make Minneapolis a national model for how major cities that are run by Democrats can work, how they can deliver for people on everything from affordability to public safety,' Frey told CNN. Frey has alienated some of the city's progressives with the use of his veto power. Last year, he vetoed a council-backed resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, a Minneapolis minimum ride-share pay law and a carbon emission fees ordinance. But he argues the issues are more complicated than they appear on the surface and he had good reason to try to block some of what's come out of the city council. 'Occasionally, you do have to tell people what they don't want to hear when that in fact is the truth. I won't sign on to things like defunding the police or rent control, when those policies have been shown very clearly to not work,' Frey said. Shiney-Ajay told CNN that her group and allies relied on the same sort of grassroots organizing as in New York to deliver Fateh's victory at the Minneapolis convention of what is formally known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. 'We had a large, organized push towards getting people to go to the ward gatherings and then be able to get elected as delegates,' Shiney-Ajay said. It was the first time in 16 years city Democrats made an endorsement for a mayoral candidate. 'I think this is really a sign of a seismic shift happening in the country right now of young people in particular, just calling for policies that actually improve the lives of everyday people and being sick of the status quo,' Shiney-Ajay added. The endorsement means Fateh will get resources from the state DFL party like volunteers and access to the voter access network, the database that is given to endorsed candidates. Frey noted that he came in second place at the nominating convention in his last two successful runs for mayor. His campaign has challenged the convention results, alleging hundreds of votes were missing or uncounted in mayoral balloting. Local reports suggest the endorsing convention was chaotic, the party's online delegate voting system malfunctioned and at one point, some of Frey's supporters left the arena. Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist says while Frey is well within his right to ask the state party for a review, the convention ran in accordance with the rules. 'I think when a lot of people see a vibrant and very participatory discussion, a debate over the rules, they see chaos but really this was very tightly organized,' Maraist told CNN. Just as in New York, a final verdict on the Democrats' intra-party struggle in Minneapolis will come in the fall. Many of Frey's supporters are also shrugging off the impact of the endorsement and believe he will ultimately win a third term. 'I think he's well positioned because both his record and his policy priorities are more closely aligned with the Minneapolis electorate than that of the city council, who is significantly to his left on issues like defunding the police and allowing homeless encampments,' said Jacob Hill, Executive Director of All of Minneapolis, a PAC that endorsed Frey. Hill argues Fateh is too extreme. 'Omar Fateh makes Bernie Sanders look conservative,' he said. Like New York City, Minneapolis has ranked-choice voting, but in the general election rather than the primary. Some of Fateh's supporters are wary of deploying an 'anyone but Frey' strategy in the fall's ranked-choice general election contest, like what was used against Andrew Cuomo in New York, as they say that has not worked against Frey in the past. 'There were challenges to Mayor Frey in 2021 that used a 'don't rank Frey' strategy and that failed monumentally so just using that same terminology is not something we want to do, but there are three viable candidates that are opposing Mayor Frey,' said Chelsea McFarren, chair of Minneapolis for the Many, a progressive political action committee founded in 2023. The group has not yet endorsed a mayoral candidate but would like to see Frey ousted in favor of a more progressive leader.
Chicago Tribune
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago activists urge Pritzker to pass law to make polluters pay for climate change damages
Young climate activists from Chicago called on Gov. JB Pritzker to enact legislation that would make the fossil fuel industry — instead of taxpayers — responsible for funding green, resilient infrastructure and disaster response in the face of climate change, following similar bills recently passed in Vermont and New York. 'Illinois can and must do the same,' said Oscar Sanchez, co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, at a Sunday rally. 'Kids get asthma before they learn to ride a bike. Cancer becomes a ZIP code issue. Our elders breathe toxic poison in their own home,' he said. 'It's not just the pollution, it's the climate crisis bearing down on us right now. We see streets turn into rivers after storms, basements flood, families lose everything. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies — the same ones fueling this crisis — are posting record-breaking profits.' The group, a coalition led by the local Sunrise Movement chapter, gathered across the University of Chicago's David Rubenstein event venue in Woodlawn, where the Aspen Ideas Climate Conference officially kicked off Sunday afternoon with hundreds of leaders from business, government, academia and other fields. Pritzker was set to discuss green tech and infrastructure investments; also invited were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who were expected to talk about their approaches to energy and economic development. Some of the young activists praised Pritzker for his commitment to climate issues and said he has an opportunity to demonstrate that by standing with Illinoisans and holding corporate polluters accountable. Passing a 'Make Polluters Pay' law, they say, would make these companies responsible for the public health and climate change impacts in Illinois that are a direct result of their activities. In Chicago, for instance, such legislation would help address what activists have long protested as discriminatory zoning practices, which have pushed heavy industry into poor communities of color — exposing residents to toxic chemicals and pollutants and leading to a higher prevalence of negative health effects in the population, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease. 'We know what environmental racism looks like, because we live it every single day,' Sanchez said. Some primarily Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and suburbs, like Chatham, Austin, Cicero and Berwyn, also experience severe flooding during heavy rains. 'If I'm going to be honest with everyone, I don't like being here. Because this shouldn't have to be our reality — that polluters are polluting Black, Latino, working-class communities across Chicago and Illinois,' said Gianna Guiffra, a Sunrise Movement volunteer. 'We shouldn't have to be protesting simply to tell them that we are human beings too. These big oil and gas companies make it very clear to everyone that they are choosing profit over life, that they are choosing profit over human beings, that they are choosing profit over our planet.' In 2024, Vermont became the first state to require oil companies to pay for damages from extreme weather driven by climate change, after catastrophic flooding that summer. Later last year, New York also passed its own Climate Change Superfund Act, which would raise $75 billion over 25 years from the fossil fuel industry to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation projects in the state. 'These polluters should pay for the damage they have done to our communities,' Guiffra said. Following suit, the activists say, means Pritzker would be standing up to the Trump administration, which has made 250 million acres of federal public land eligible for sale to the highest bidder, led regulatory rollbacks on polluters, and cut tax incentive programs for renewable energy projects. 'This could be the ground zero of a mass movement that puts the billionaires in check, takes power back for the people and guarantees hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of good, clean energy jobs,' said Sage Hanson, a Sunrise Movement volunteer.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Mamdani connects climate policy to his affordability agenda as he runs for New York mayor
As she canvassed for Zohran Mamdani in New York City on Tuesday last week, Batul Hassan should have been elated. The mayoral candidate – a 33-year-old state assemblymember – was surging in the polls and would within hours soundly defeat Andrew Cuomo on first preference votes in the Democratic primary election. But Hassan's spirits were hampered by record-breaking temperatures. In Crown Heights, where she was the Mamdani campaign's field captain, the heat index soared into the triple digits. 'I couldn't think about anything but the heat,' she said. 'It was so dangerous.' Early that Tuesday morning, Hassan visited a public school polling site, where elderly workers sweltered without air conditioning. The city board of elections sent over paper fans, but they were no match for the heat. Related: A roadmap to beat Trump? How rise of Zohran Mamdani is dividing Democrats If Mamdani is elected, that school could be retrofitted with air conditioning and green space to bring down temperatures as part of his green schools plan, or could even be transformed into a resilience hub for communities shelter amid extreme weather events. 'Seeing total infrastructural failure on election day emphasized the stakes of what's happening with the climate crisis and the importance of the election,' said Hassan, who took time off from her day job at the leftist thinktank Climate and Community Institute to canvass. Mamdani's green schools plan is just one of his schemes to slash carbon emissions and boost environmental justice. If elected mayor, his plans for New York City would make residents 'dramatically more safe' from extreme weather, said Hassan. But the democratic socialist, who was endorsed by the national youth-led environmental justice group Sunrise Movement and student-led climate group TREEAge, did not place the climate crisis at the center of his campaign, instead choosing to focus relentlessly on cost-of-living issues. The model could help build popular support for climate policies, supporters say. 'Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns,' Mamdani told the Nation in April. 'They are, in fact, one and the same.' Over the past two decades, Democrats increasingly focused on the climate. But often, their proposed schemes have been technocratic, Hassan said. Carbon taxes, for instance, can be impenetrably complex, making them difficult candidates for popular support. They can also be economically regressive, with 'working class people experiencing them as an additional cost', Hassan said. More recently, Joe Biden coupled climate plans with green industrial policy and plans to boost employment. But even those projects can take years to affect tangible change, critics say. As president, for instance, Biden achieved historic climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But its green incentives disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and its job creation remains invisible to most people around the country. One poll found only a quarter of Americans felt the IRA benefited them. 'Now with Trump, we see the pitfalls of the IRA, where there is real difficulty in consolidating enough political support to defend those climate policy achievements,' said Hassan. Mamdani 'learned from some of the mistakes' of the Biden administration, said Gustavo Gordillo, a co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supported Mamdani's campaign. His housing plan, for instance, aims to lower planet-heating pollution by boosting density, but his signature promise is a rent freeze. That pledge could ensure residents are not priced out of New York City and forced to move to more carbon-intensive suburbs, and prevent landlords from passing the costs of energy efficiency upgrades or air conditioning installation to renters, preventing displacement, said Hassan. Similarly, Mamdani's headline transit goal was to make buses faster and free, which could boost ridership and discourage the use of carbon-intensive cars. 'Public transit is one of the greatest gifts we have to take on the climate crisis,' Mamdani said at a February mayoral forum. Biden's IRA placed little focus on boosting public transit, said Gordillo. This was a missed opportunity to cut emissions and also lower Americans' fuel costs, he said. 'We need to expand mass transit to fight the climate crisis, which hasn't been a priority for the Democratic establishment,' said Gordillo, who is an electrician by day. 'But we also need to expand it because we want to improve people's lives right now.' As a New York assemblymember, Mamdani has backed explicitly green policies. He was a key advocate for a boosting publicly owned renewable energy production. The effort aimed to help New York 'live up to the dream of our state as being a climate leader', he said in 2022. He also fought fossil fuel buildout. He coupled that climate focus with efforts to keep energy bills low, consistently opposing local utilities' attempts to impose rate hikes, said Kim Fraczek, director of the climate nonprofit Sane Energy Project. 'His growing political influence is a clear win for communities demanding a just transition: renewable power, democratic control and relief from crushing energy costs,' said Fraczek. Progressive cities like New York are often climate leaders. But if they price out working people, only the wealthy get to see the benefits of their green policies, Mamdani's backers say. By crafting popular climate policies, the Democratic nominee is also building a base of New Yorkers who will work to defend those plans in the face of threats from the Trump administration, they say. 'New Yorkers want an affordable city, clean and green schools, fast and free buses, and a rent freeze,' said Daniel Goulden, a co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America ecosocialist working Group. 'But most importantly, New Yorkers want a future – one where they can live and thrive in New York.'
The Guardian
18-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Youth-led Sunrise Movement to launch campaign to ‘villainize big oil' and force climate action
The youth activists who put the Green New Deal on the political map are launching a new campaign to 'villainize big oil' which will push for the industry to pay for climate action so the costs don't fall on ordinary people. Seven years ago, the Sunrise Movement captured headlines when its members stormed then incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, demanding the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and creation of good jobs. The movement helped inspire some of Joe Biden's green policies. But under Donald Trump, those moves – and other, decades-old environmental regulations – are under siege. A major reason for that, Sunrise says, is the president's allegiance to oil bosses over ordinary people. 'He takes his orders from big oil billionaires like the ones who funded his campaign,' said Stevie O'Hanlon, co-founder and communications director of the Sunrise Movement. Now, the Sunrise Movement is calling for polluters to foot the bill for climate action and asking down-ballot candidates to do the same. In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, the organization will be rallying young people around the country under the banner 'End the Oligarchy, Save Our Futures'. The campaign will kick off with a virtual call on Wednesday night, which will be streamed at nationwide watch parties and feature California representative Ro Khanna and TV star Hannah Einbender. It will attempt to reframe climate action, which powerful conservatives have long aimed to write off as a 'culture war' issue despite its material repercussions for ordinary people. 'Climate disasters are devastating working people around the country – destroying homes and pushing people into crushing debt. It's far past time that big oil be held accountable,' said Khanna. With the new effort, organizers will try to harness the populist outrage that Sunrise believes helped elect Donald Trump, Aru Shiney-Ajay, Sunrise's executive director, said. 'What we're seeing right now around the country is a deep sense that this system isn't working for us and that it is working for billionaires and rich people,' said Shiney-Ajay. 'The polluters pay frame speaks to that idea that some of the richest companies should help clean up the mess they made, while also undermining Trump on something where he polls the lowest, which is on climate issues.' A focus of the campaign will be passing 'climate superfund' bills – which require fossil fuel companies to pay for climate damage – in statehouses across the country. Vermont and New York last year became the first two states to pass such legislation, and California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Oregon are considering similar measures. 'We see this as a 50-state campaign,' said O'Hanlon. To obtain its endorsement, Sunrise has since its founding required political candidates to eschew money from oil donors. Now, it will also ask endorsees to support such legislation. Passing 'polluters pay' bills may be a long shot in some states, but Sunrise thinks it has a better chance than other kinds of climate measures, potentially even garnering support from conservatives who are concerned about both corruption and their pocketbooks. The two successful Vermont and New York bills passed with co-sponsorship from Republicans, organizers note. 'We're bringing this message to the people who liked the call for government efficiency that we've seen from Doge and Elon Musk and Trump,' said Ramón Pereira Bonilla, a 24-year-old Sunrise organizer in the flood-prone city of Orlando, Florida. 'We're saying: 'We want to make the government more efficient for taxpayers, save taxpayers money.'' In Florida, activists hope to see lawmakers introduce a bill in the fall or next spring, Pereira Bonilla said, adding that canvassing in the state has already suggested interest from conservatives. In California, where historic fires ravaged Los Angeles earlier this year, advocates are looking to pass a climate superfund proposal before the legislative session ends in September, helping the state pay for infrastructure damage, public health programs and climate resilience measures, said Nico Gardener Serna, 26, of Sunrise's Los Angeles chapter. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion 'We've known that fossil fuel extraction has caused the climate crisis for decades,' he said. 'There is a sustained and powerful effort from the community to hold corporations accountable.' Laws in Vermont and New York are facing legal challenges from oil interests, and Trump in April issued an order to 'stop the enforcement' of climate superfund laws. But Sunrise and other activist groups believe they can still succeed. 'When we organize, we can rewrite the rules and build something more fair, more honest and more prepared for the future we deserve,' Cassidy DiPaola, communications director of the Make Polluters Pay campaign, said. Sunrise's new campaign will also aim to re-energize the youth climate protest movement, which advocates say has lost steam in recent years. To do so, it will hold nationwide 'school strikes' like the ones popularized by the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, and will also explore using more disruptive nonviolent tactics than they have previously employed. The rallies will aim to build momentum and courage in service of a prospective general strike in 2028, as called for by the United Auto Workers president, Shawn Fain. Students helped kick off historical general strikes, such as that in May 1968 in France, Sunrise notes. In the nearer term, the organization will be looking to next year's midterm elections as a way to fight back against Trump's attacks on climate action, pushing candidates to pledge to support ordinary people over corporate interests and stand up to Trump, Shiney-Ajay said. 'We'll be looking for candidates to talk about climate as the populist, working-class issue that it is,' she said. The campaign could be a wake-up call for Trump, who not only benefits oil bosses but in has also placed them in the White House, said Gardener Serna. 'The billionaires and corporations and fascists from the administration are terrified of communities coming together and standing up for themselves,' he said.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump takes aim at city and state climate laws in executive order
Donald Trump is taking aim and city- and state-led fossil fuel accountability efforts, which have been hailed as a last source of hope for the climate amid the president's ferociously anti-environment agenda. In a Tuesday executive order, Trump instructed the Department of Justice to 'stop the enforcement' of state climate laws, which his administration has suggested are unconstitutional or otherwise unenforceable. The president called out New York and Vermont, both of which have passed 'climate superfund' laws requiring major fossil fuel companies to help pay for damages from extreme weather. Related: Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda could keep the world hooked on oil and gas 'These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration's objective to unleash American energy,' the executive order says. 'They should not stand.' He also targeted the dozens of lawsuits brought by states, cities and counties against big oil in recent years, accusing the industry of intentionally covering up the climate risks of their products and seeking compensation for climate impacts. The move left advocates outraged. 'This order is an illegal, disgusting attempt to force everyday people to pay for the rising toll of climate disasters, while shielding the richest people in the world from accountability,' said Aru Shiney-Ajay, the executive director of the youth-led environmental justice group the Sunrise Movement. The new order came as Trump touted new moves to revive the coal, the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuel. It also followed a March meeting at the White House where fossil fuel executives reportedly lobbied Trump to give them immunity from climate litigation. Days earlier, 200 environmental, consumer advocacy and social justice groups had urged top congressional Democrats to block attempts from big oil to gain legal immunity, the Guardian reported. Oil interests applauded the new move from the president. 'Directing the Department of Justice to address this state overreach will help restore the rule of law and ensure activist-driven campaigns do not stand in the way of ensuring the nation has access to an affordable and reliable energy supply,' Ryan Meyers, the senior vice-president of top US fossil fuel lobby group American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement. But advocates say the order is an an anti-democratic attack on municipalities' climate action, which serve a crucial role in counterbalancing Trump's anti-environmental agenda. 'Make no mistake: this executive order isn't about energy independence or economic security – it's about ensuring billionaire polluters never have to face a jury of ordinary Americans,' said Cassidy DiPaola, the communications director of Make Polluters Pay, which backs the climate superfund laws. 'The American people deserve better than a government that protects polluters' profits over people's lives.' Fossil fuel companies poured $96m into Trump's re-election campaign and affiliated political action committees, as he pledged to roll back environmental regulations and loosen regulations on the industry. This was less than the $1bn Trump requested from the sector in an infamous meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club last spring, but still constituted record levels of spending. Trump pledged to attack climate lawsuits, which he has called 'frivolous', on the campaign trail. And during his first term, his administration filed influential briefs in the cases supporting the oil companies. But environmental lawyers question the validity of the new executive order. Related: Trump signs orders to allow coal-fired power plants to remain open 'This illegal and unconstitutional order panders to the biggest polluters on the planet and shows Trump's utter hypocrisy on states' rights,' said Jason Rylander, the legal director of the climate law institute at the conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity. 'Trying to sic the justice department on state officials who are protecting their people from pollution will fail because the US attorney general has no power to declare state laws illegal.' In recent months, rightwing groups have launched campaigns attempting to shield oil companies from city and state climate accountability. Some have ties to Leonard Leo, who is known as a force behind the Federalist Society, which orchestrated the ultraconservative takeover of the American judiciary and helped select Trump's supreme court justice picks. A truck parked outside a major fossil fuel conference last month in Houston warned that city and state policies and lawsuits 'are threatening America's pro-consumer energy dominance', linking to an op-ed from a group with links to Leo. The new executive order echoes this sentiment, saying the litigation and laws 'threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security'.
