Paul Ryan said something interesting a couple of days ago about the prospect of Republicans losing the Senate: “If we lose the Senate, do you know who becomes chair of the Senate Budget Committee? A guy named Bernie Sanders. You ever heard of him?”
He’s right. Right now, Bernie is the ranking member in the Democratic Caucus on the budget committee. If we beat Donald Trump and the Republicans lose just four seats in November, Bernie Sanders will become the most influential senator on the committee that sets our national financial priorities.
For those of us who care about the fate of our planet, putting Bernie in charge of such a powerful committee is a big deal. We’ve already endorsed Kamala Harris of California and incumbent Brian Schatz of Hawaii for the US Senate – Bernie won’t be the only climate hawk. But we also need to do all we can to make sure that we elect climate hawks to replace climate deniers in key states like New Hampshire, North Carolina, Illinois, and Wisconsin. We also need to ensure that solar champion and Koch scourge Harry Reid of Nevada has a worthy successor. We need to elect Maggie Hassan, Deborah Ross, Tammy Duckworth, Russ Feingold, and Catherine Cortez Masto.
Climate Hawks Vote was the only climate group who endorsed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary based on a membership vote. His record as a climate champion in the Senate speaks for itself. And Bernie’s campaign fought for a bold national plan to keep fossil fuels in the ground and invest billions in sustainable infrastructure. With Bernie in place as Senate Budget Committee Chairman, climate hawks will be newly empowered to make progress on our agenda.
Bernie’s chairmanship would mean that a strong climate leader would have the power to schedule votes on significant budget priorities like setting a price for carbon pollution and eliminating billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies.
The Republicans—Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, Mark Kirk, Ron Johnson, and Joe Heck—are all outspoken anti-science climate conspiracy theorists backed by the fossil-fuel industry.
If we can beat Donald Trump, Democrats need to oust only these four Republican climate deniers in order to take control of the majority. Close races in states like New Hampshire, North Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nevada will determine whether or not Bernie will take the chairmanship.
