Young Republicans Advocate For Science

Young Republicans push party to drop climate change skepticism; Strategists warn that Trump’s anti-green rhetoric is alienating younger conservatives

Kiran Stacey and Courtney Weaver, April 1, 2019

“Senior Republicans are urging [the president] to curb his rhetoric on climate change ahead of next year’s election, as evidence emerges that young Republican voters are increasingly persuaded by the science behind climate change. Republicans in Congress and party strategists have told the White House that [the president] risks losing votes if he returns to his argument that climate change is a hoax promoted by China to undermine American manufacturing. Francis Rooney, a Republican congressman from Florida, said he had brought up the issue of climate change many times with the White House [because over 70 per cent of the people in his very conservative district] think the government needs to do something about climate change…

click to enlarge

…[For young Republicans, climate change is ‘an issue of science’ and not the older Republicans’ cultural or ideological question, according to] Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman who co-founded the House of Representatives’ climate solutions caucus in 2016…Polls suggest that the Republican leadership, which has spent much of the last few weeks campaigning against the Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal,’ is out of touch with younger Republicans’ opinions on this issue…A recent letter urging the party to prioritise clean energy and the environment was signed by 41 out of 50 state chairpeople of the College Republican group…[This is a dilemma for the president because he won the 2016 election in part by performing well in industrial states, where he promised to bring in policies such as reopening coal mines…[Some allies] believe he can be persuaded to change his mind, especially if polling begins to show he could end up losing important states next year…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet