https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/12/progressive-democrats-green-new-deal-00989390
By TIMOTHY CAMA
Excerpt:
A group of insurgent Democrats have won House primaries in recent weeks. They could have a major impact on how the party deals with the environment.
A new crop of progressive Democrats poised to join the House next year could pump new energy into the quest for a “Green New Deal” and even expand its scope eight years after activists put the aggressive climate change policy in the spotlight.
The insurgents — some of whom have unseated more moderate incumbents in closely watched primaries for safe blue seats — will arrive at a time when Democrats focus less on talking about a climate crisis and more about pocketbook issues, and when the party is grappling with how to respond to the artificial intelligence boom.
The progressives could generate tensions with party leaders looking to win back the House on a message of affordability that has not featured talk of what Republicans call the “Green New Scam.”
“The Green New Deal, frankly, is a floor now, not a ceiling, for what we need to actually be looking at doing,” Melat Kiros, an attorney who unseated incumbent Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette (D) in a primary last month, said during an interview.
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Kiros pointed to “the missing component of AI, and how that all factors into all of our legislation, specifically when it comes to the climate, that we need to be focused on.”
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During a June debate, Avila Chevalier also touted a broad Green New Deal. “We need to … make sure that we are fighting for the repairs that [public housing] needs by fighting for a Green New Deal for public housing, which would not only allow us to repair [the New York City Housing Authority] so that residents can have a dignified place to live,” she said. “It would also decarbonize it.”
And in an April forum, New Jersey Democrat Adam Hamawy, who won a primary to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, said, “We don’t talk about this enough, but we need to pass the Green New Deal.”
Hamawy said, “We need to move away from fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy, and this would create a just transition of jobs that would also reduce our energy costs.”
The insurgents are backed by the Sunrise Movement, which has long been the chief champion of the Green New Deal. The group last year broadened its scope beyond climate, but the issue remains a priority for the organization.
“We’re seeing this climate work we’ve already been pushing for, like a green jobs guarantee, as the baseline. And we’re also seeing new issues emerge that were not present when the Green New Deal was first launched, like data centers and AI,” said Sunrise spokesperson Denae Ávila-Dickson.
“We’re seeing what kinds of things a new Green New Deal is going to have to address. Talking with a lot of young people, AI is probably going to be one of the biggest issues of our generation. So, what does it mean for a Green New Deal to address data centers? What does it mean for a Green New Deal to address the jobs that are going to be lost due to AI, and what is that new future going to look like?”
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Asked about Democrats who are being advised to talk less about climate change, Kiros said that “it’s being said by a lot of folks who aren’t actually talking to voters.”
