With a focus on growing our political power with strategic investments across the country, EDF Action, EDF Action PAC and EDF Action Votes spent nearly $14 million in the 2022 cycle to defend climate champions up and down the ballot, making us the second largest spender in the environmental community. This is on top of the $10 million EDF and EDF Action spent to help pass bold climate legislation. It’s not about being everywhere: Our overarching goal is to spend these dollars where they can have the most impact.
EDF Action, EDF Action PAC and EDF Action Votes defended climate allies in the House and Senate, spending over $1 million each in two top-tier Senate races and investing in four of the ten most contested and expensive House races in the country, including $1.2 million to help re-elect Abigail Spanberger and $500,000 to help re-elect Elissa Slotkin. Additionally, the organizations invested $1.3 million in an on-the-ground field program in five key states where more than 500 EDF Action members volunteered for candidates in close races. Further, we invested deeply in Hispanic voters, focusing on the Southwest with a mix of Spanish and English radio, TV, digital and mail in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, demonstrating our commitment to this critical voting bloc. Our messages and messengers were also true to the electorate and included a former police officer in northern Virginia talking about January 6 and a solar entrepreneur in sunny southern California.
With a slim pro-climate majority to defend, there was no shortage of opportunities to get involved across the country. In the U.S. Senate battleground, EDF Action Votes focused its resources on four key races, deploying $3.4 million to support Sens. Mark Kelly in Arizona, Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. Our campaign in Spanish across multiple platforms reminded voters of Sen. Kelly’s bona fides and willingness to work across the aisle on water resilience whereas in New Hampshire, we teamed up with the LCV Victory Fund for a multi-million-dollar TV buy reminding voters of the need to elect a true climate champion in Sen. Hassan over her climate- and election-denying opponent. In Nevada, we drew the distinction between Sen. Cortez Masto and her big polluter-supported opponent while in Alaska, we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting the bipartisan efforts of Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola toward healthy salmon fisheries in Alaska.
EDF Action and EDF Action Votes worked during this cycle to defend our pro-climate majority with an investment of $3.6 million, including efforts to re-elect champions from both parties such as Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Levin of California. In fact, our organization was in four of the ten most contested and expensive House races in the country.
EDF Action Votes hit the airwaves for four House incumbents, with the organization’s largest investment being for Rep. Abigail Spanberger (VA07). The organization spent $1.2 million on an ad featuring Bobby Mathieson, a former police officer of 25 years and retired U.S. Marshal of eight years, who sternly criticized candidate Yesli Vega’s defense of the January 6 rioters. In MI-07, the organization launched a $500,000 TV ad supporting Elissa Slotkin by showcasing her opponent Tom Barrett’s problematic record of opposing job-creating clean energy investments for Michiganders.
EDF Action Votes partnered with LCV Victory Fund in several House races, including for Mike Levin, with a contrast TV ad featuring a solar entrepreneur and for Kim Schrier (WA-08) with a TV ad highlighting her opponent Matt Larkin’s extreme views. Additionally, EDF Action Votes went back up with a digital ad in WA-08 reiterating the message that Larkin is an ideological warrior for the far right.
EDF Action Votes supported Lauren Underwood (IL-14) with a four-piece mail program while in NV-03 and NV-04, the organization supported Susie Lee and Steven Horsford, communicating with the Latino audience through Spanish language radio and mail.
As in 2020, EDF Action Votes supported Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a bipartisan environmental leader in Congress. In 2022, the organization ran a three-piece positive mail program to showcase his ability to work across the aisle to deliver results for Pennsylvania families, including his support for tackling the climate crisis head-on.
A week out from Election Day, EDF Action Votes launched a contrast TV ad in CT-05 showcasing the choice facing voters between incumbent Rep. Jahana Hayes and challenger George Logan, a lobbyist and utility executive.
Since 2019, EDF Action has been working to build an on-the-ground program that harnesses the power of its membership through grassroots engagement. In this cycle, the organization had on-the-ground organizers in five states to mobilize and deploy climate activists: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and New Hampshire. With our “Climate Voters Unite!” message, more than 500 EDF Action members have volunteered in over two dozen critical campaigns starting on Labor Day. These volunteers have done the important work of speaking directly with voters on the phone and at their doors, helping our climate champions reach and turn out the thousands of voters they’ll need to win.
EDF Action and EDF Action PAC also set a new and ambitious goal for our organizations: to deploy members of our staff across the country. EDAF staffers mobilized members in their communities to volunteer for climate champions and worked in campaign headquarters on behalf of EDF Action PAC, keeping the focus on electing climate champions and raising the profile of the climate movement. Our organization set a goal of dedicating over 20 weeks of our staffers’ time toward the campaigns they felt most inspired to help. We expect to scale this element of our campaign work dramatically in the election cycles to come.
EDF Action also worked with other environmental groups including Clean Energy for America, the League of Conservation Voters, NRDC Action Fund, National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society Action Fund to put together the largest-ever national member mobilization effort in a non-Presidential election cycle.
EDF Action and EDF Action Votes understand how critical it is to build a strong state and local program by investing heavily in specific states, with a focus on supporting champions in both parties. This cycle’s biggest investments were a continuation of those made in the 2020 cycle.
EDF Action and EDF Action Votes worked in Arizona’s primary and general elections to support pro-environment candidates in both parties in the interest of a pro-conservation majority in the state legislature leaning heavily on water champions in the parched Southwest. This is important because across most of rural Arizona, groundwater pumping is completely unmanaged and without state legislative action to provide rural communities with more options, an Active Management Area (AMA) is currently the only comprehensive tool available to communities and local businesses to protect their groundwater supplies.
In New Mexico, a state that is home to one-third of the oil and gas-rich Permian Basin, EDF Action Votes worked in both the primary and general election to elect and re-elect pro-conservation candidates and beat back special interest-funded primary challengers. The organization also supported partners engaged in the critical effort to re-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham as Governor.
Texas is a leading innovator of advanced energy solutions yet Texans are dealing with climate and environmental disasters every day and the electric grid has failed to reliably serve residents. That’s why EDF Action and EDF Action Votes have invested intentionally in a big state like this one, with the 2020 cycle marking the organizations’ first investment in state alongside considerable local work. This cycle, EDF Action built on that work by first setting up a Texas PAC to help elect pro-climate candidates at the local level including supporting Lina Hidalgo in her re-election to the Harris County Judge seat, a race that was called one of the most important climate contests in the country.
EDF Action and EDF Action Votes worked closely with our partners in 2022 to ensure our investments make a real impact in especially close races across the country. The biggest partner investment EDF Action made ($2 million) was to an ally who was turning out environmentally motivated voters in key states. The organizations also supported efforts to ensure that pro-conservation legislative majorities in Colorado are sustained and are working to build a North Carolina legislature that promotes coastal resiliency. EDF Action Votes also provided critical support to allies working to re-elect Govs. Steve Sisolak in Nevada and Lujan Grisham in New Mexico.