Here’s what happened to climate policy in 12 state and local elections

Vice President Kamala Harris won’t get the chance to continue, or build upon, the Biden administration’s climate legacy, which includes the largest investments so far in clean energy, green jobs and the climate transition.

When former President Donald Trump returns to Washington in January, however, it’s unclear how far he will get in overturning the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other landmark laws.

It’s likely, however, that the dynamics of his first term will play out across the nation. Governors, mayors and other regional leaders will buck the Trump climate-nihilism. They will form new coalitions, or reinvigorate old ones, that align with the goals of the Paris Agreement and try to protect natural resources.

The results of these closely watched races have rolled in from the Associated Press. It’s not all bad news for those hoping for climate-savvy leadership and policies to counter the “red wall” of lawmakers set to overtake the White House and Senate in 2025.

Even in Trump-voting states, Democrats took the lead in some key positions. For example, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (D), who made a mark suing polluters, is bound for the governor’s mansion there. And Mayor Kate Gallego, known for advancing climate resilience in water, energy and transport, kept her office in Phoenix, winning over two-thirds of voters. 

Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin wins a Senate seat

Three-term U.S. House Rep. Elissa Slotkin will graduate to the Senate, replacing fellow Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Slotkin clocked a slim victory, with 48.6 percent of votes over Republican Mike Rogers, at 48.3 percent.

Rep. Slotkin has earned a 98 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters. That’s for her consistent votes for climate-friendly policies, including the IRA.

“While Elissa Slotkin campaigned on her vote for the clean energy plan, which has  created more than 21,000 new jobs for Michiganders, Mike Rogers spread lies about the state’s growing EV industry,” according to the nonprofit Climate Power.

Slotkin also consistently voted against efforts to claw back the Biden administration’s climate measures. For example, she opposed an attempt to prevent the General Services Administration from requiring large federal contractors to disclose Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions. She also voted against efforts to block EPA standards for cleaner cars and trucks, and an attempt to prevent the EPA from funding environmental justice work.

Working for the Department of Defense, the former Central Intelligence Agency analyst took part in the first survey about the impact of climate change on military bases.

Slotkin is expected to continue to advocate for clean air and water for Michigan. The state has coastlines on four of the five Great Lakes, which have more than 80 percent of North America’s freshwater.

Her opponent, Rogers, served as a Michigan congressman from 2001 to 2015. He opposed the IRA but has recognized climate change as a problem to solve.

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin gets a ‘threepeat’

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin narrowly won a third Senate term against a challenger whose ads framed the IRA as a “radical agenda”.

Her Republican opponent, the Trump-endorsed businessman Eric Hovde, has likened clean energy tax credits to “corporate welfare”. However, the former Sunwest Bank CEO also approved $200 million to finance solar projects for businesses.

A vocal supporter of the IRA, Baldwin has a 97 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters. 

“This endorsement highlights Tammy’s strong legislative record of supporting workers and a clean environment, which in Wisconsin has created 180,700 jobs, spurred 222,000 applications for new businesses, incentivized $3.8 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments, and invested $41 million to replace lead pipes,” according to the BlueGreen Alliance of labor and environmental interests in September. 

Baldwin is credited with getting both sides of the aisle to maintain the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) after Trump threatened to cut 97 percent of its funding during his first administration. Wisconsin has 1,000 miles of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior waterfront.

Democrat Jacky Rosen reelected to Senate for Nevada

Clean energy manufacturing was a focus of the campaign of Sen. Jacky Rosen, who snagged her second term in the U.S. Senate for Nevada which Trump also won. The nation’s driest state has more solar jobs per capita than any other. Rosen opposes tariffs on solar panels. 

She fended off unsubstantiated attacks that her backing of the IRA cost Nevadans jobs. The Koch Brothers group Americans for Prosperity spent eight figures on ads making this claim.

Rosen beat Republican Sam Brown, who was endorsed by Trump. Brown, a former Texan who has not held an elected office, said he would have opposed the IRA and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He also advocated for cuts to the Department of Energy. 

“While my extreme MAGA opponent Sam Brown would rather bash clean energy to score political points, I’m working to jumpstart Nevada’s energy future in areas like solar and geothermal so that we can continue this growth and improve people’s lives,” Rosen told Inside Climate News.

The League of Conservation Voters awarded Rosen a 96 percent lifetime score. Her campaign also pledged to protect the 80 percent of Nevada’s land owned by the federal government. 

Ruben Gallego appears headed to the Arizona Senate

In Trump-voting Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego beat Kari Lake. Gallego will likely move up from his House seat representing Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District.

Climate wasn’t a core issue in this campaign, but water was. Lake argued that conserving water would hurt farmers and ranchers. Gallego, on the other hand, has sought to tax companies farming with water-hungry crops. He also opposed the heavy use of water by foreign companies, including a Saudi-owned hay farm.

Among Gallego’s 13 campaign priorities were “environment and climate change” and “protecting Arizona’s water.” He has touted his support for the IRA and protection of the state’s public lands, including the Grand Canyon.

Gallego’s support for the IRA and other measures addressing climate change has earned him a 97 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters. He introduced a bill in 2022 that would have the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development issue grants to help cities fight the kind of record-breaking heat Arizona has been suffering.

Former TV news anchor Kari Lake’s blessing from Trump, again, doesn’t appear to have made the difference in winning over Arizona voters. Democrat Katie Hobbs beat Lake in 2022 for the state’s governorship.

California: Prop 4

California voters passed Proposition 4, which will create a $10 billion bond to conserve water, fight wildfires, enhance climate resilience and conserve nature. It’s the largest of a dozen conservation-related state and local ballot measures totaling $18 billion, according to The Nature Conservancy.

Prop 4 includes:

• $3.8 billion for water-related projects. Half of that goes to water quality, and the other half to mitigate floods and droughts and restore the health of freshwater lakes and rivers.
• $1.5 billion for preventing wildfires and protecting forests.
• $1.2 billion to boost coastal resilience from a rising Pacific Ocean.
• $1.2 billion for biodiversity conservation.
• $850 million for offshore wind turbines, transmission and storage.
• $700 million for parks, museums parks, museums, zoos and aquariums.
• $450 million for extreme temperatures.
• $300 million for agriculture sustainability.

Forty percent of the funds are supposed to help underserved communities. 

“California can’t afford to wait,” the Los Angeles Times editorial board wrote in an Oct. 12 endorsement. “Voting yes on Proposition 4 will help California weather the climate crisis that grows more dire by the year.”

Going forward, investors will be able to purchase bonds from the state to fund natural resource protection efforts. California will pay them back with interest.

Democrat Josh Stein will be North Carolina’s next governor

North Carolina voters opted for Trump. However, they also overwhelmingly voted for Attorney General Josh Stein (D) over climate denier Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) for the governor’s office. Stein has vowed to take the swing state to carbon neutrality by 2050. 

“Josh Stein could be North Carolina’s most environmentally friendly governor,” according to the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.

Stein has advocated for ramping up renewable energy and regulating power plant pollution. As state attorney general, he successfully sued Duke Energy over coal ash spills and Chemours over polluting the Cape Fear River with “forever chemicals”, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

“I was compelled time and again to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken the EPA’s enforcement powers, whether it was winning clean power cases or fighting for the clean car standards or calling for limits on greenhouse gas or being part of a successful coalition that stopped efforts to allow oil and gas drilling off of our beautiful coast here in North Carolina,” Stein said in May.

North Carolina is shaping into a center for electric vehicle and battery production. It tops the nation in new clean energy jobs and rural investment, according to the advocacy group Climate Power.

The state is picking up the pieces from Hurricane Helene in September, which experts acknowledge was made more powerful by climate change. The event caused some $53 billion in damage.

Washington state preserves cap-and-trade law

Evergreen State voters rejected Initiative 2117, which would have unraveled a cap-and-trade law that came into effect in January 2023. The measure’s backers blamed the cap-and-trade rule for pushing up gas prices by as much as 60 cents per gallon. Microsoft, Amazon and BP, however, actively supported the law.

The 2021 Climate Commitment Act (CCA) limits the amount of carbon that companies can emit. It applies to businesses emitting at least 25,000 tons of CO2 annually. Those high emitters can pay for allowances to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases. 

The law has brought in more than $2 billion to the state. This has helped to electrify buses and ferries and build out EV charging sites.

Third-term Gov. Jay Inslee (D), nicknamed “greenest governor” by the League of Conservation Voters, campaigned hard to preserve cap-and-trade.

California, which became the first U.S. state 20 years ago to pass cap-and-trade, has also fended off challenges to the law, last in 2010.

Arizona: Phoenix mayoral race

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego (D) handily beat Republican Matt Evans to keep the job she has held since 2019.

Among the youngest mayors of a large U.S. city, Gallego has made sustainability core to her policies, alongside diversifying the economy and fortifying investments in infrastructure. Her collaboration with other mayors includes serving as vice chair to the Climate Mayor network.

The desert city of 1.65 million, the fifth largest in the U.S., is rapidly expanding as it faces extreme heat and water challenges. On Oct. 2, Gallego shared the city’s first progress report on its 2021 climate action plan:

Highlights under her tenure include:

• Shrinking per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 20.5 percent since 2012 in government and the community
• Creating offices “overseeing heat response and mitigation, water resources, public health, and innovation”
• Expanding light rail and alternative mobility systems, and electrifying bus fleets
• Adding solar panels at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, among other renewable energy projects
• Keeping one-third of waste from landfills in 2023 and 2022

Gallego’s challenger, Evans, featured water management as a key part of his campaign but did not tie the city’s water scarcity to climate change. 

Republican David Sunday wins for Pennsylvania attorney general

By 2040, Pennsylvania will have to pay close to $1 billion each year to mitigate extreme heat and other effects of climate change, according to the Center for Climate Integrity. 

Whether the state’s attorney-general elect David Sunday (R) will heed that warning remains to be seen. The prosecutor in the York County District Attorney’s Office has shared little with the public about his stance on climate change. 

That’s a contrast to outgoing Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a former contender for Kamala Harris’s presidential running mate. Although environmentalists criticized him for courting fossil fuel interests, he stood against fracking. Shapiro had also joined with other state attorneys general in climate-related lawsuits.

Sunday’s opponent, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale (D), supported climate policies and prioritized environmental justice. At the same time, he rejected supporting Bucks County’s effort to sue the oil and gas industry to pay for problems created by climate change.

Cruz retains Senate seat in Texas

Senate Republican incumbent Ted Cruz won his third term, beating Democratic Rep. Colin Allred.

Cruz received more donations from the oil and gas industry than any other politicians besides Donald Trump, the biggest recipient followed by Vice President Kamala Harris. The senator’s haul was $922,776 from Big Oil in 2023 and 2024, according to Open Secrets.

Along party lines, Cruz voted against the IRA. He has called carbon dioxide “good for plant life.”

Cruz sits on the Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation; the Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on the Judiciary.

Republican Scott Perry keeps seat in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District

Rep. Scott Perry (R), who denies climate change and seeks to undo parts of the IRA, will retain the House seat for the 10th Congressional district in south-central Pennsylvania. 

The League of Conservation Voters awarded Perry a 0 percent score for 2023. The incumbent made misleading claims in October related to the Biden administration’s climate policies, according to Climate Power. For example, he falsely claimed that the administration opposed clean energy production despite having voted himself against the federal clean energy plan that created 334,565 jobs in two years.

By contrast, Perry’s challenger, Emmy Award-winning TV anchor and Democrat Janelle Stelson, supported climate legislation and efforts to increase clean energy. 

Perry formerly chaired the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He also supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential contest.

Arizona: The Arizona Corporate Commission

The future of renewable energy in the Grand Canyon State appears to be dimming. Three Democrats running for three of the five open seats on the Arizona Corporate Commission (ACC) are running behind their Republican counterparts. 

The ACC regulates the state’s utilities. Its powers include greenlighting power plants, shaping the profit margins of water and power utilities and determining the maintenance and build out of the energy grid. 

The Republican candidates, Rachel Walden, Rene Lopez and incumbent Lea Marquez-Peterson, won the election.

In the past year, with only one Democrat member, the ACC rammed through a pair of natural gas power plants without public comment, demanded additional fees for customers with solar panels, and hollowed out support for communities transitioning away from coal plant closures. 

Walden shares pro-fossil fuel industry conspiracy theories. “I think that green energy is a deep state issue, I really do,” she said on a podcast in January. Sitting Commissioners Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers backed Walden.

“When it comes to mitigating climate change … the corporation commission plays a huge role in that,” said Emily Doerfler, a clean energy lawyer, told Inside Climate News. 

UPDATED: This story was updated to include the latest election developments.

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