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Our Voter’s Guide helps every American to prioritize reproductive choice and climate action, from the statehouse with a stop in the White House, the halls of Congress and the Governor’s mansion.
Because American voters want to prioritize climate-action in the voting booth, Vote Climate U.S. PAC is releasing our 2024 presidential, congressional and gubernatorial Voter’s Guide, making us the only website in the country to provide a climate change Voter’s Guide for candidates for U.S. president, state governors, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and Statehouses (partial) all in one convenient, user friendly site, making it a unique resource. (Always click the green + button to the left of the candidate's name, for detailed research and sources.)
American voters will also be able to use Vote Climate U.S. PAC’s Voter’s Guide to see if a candidate supports Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The right to choose safe and legal abortion is a fundamental human right and is a top priority voting issue.
On June 24, 2022 the U.S. Supreme Court took away American women’s essential right to bodily autonomy when they overturned Roe v. Wade. Just like climate change, the inevitable compulsory pregnancy that results from losing access to abortion, poses an existential threat to American women. It threatens their lives and health, imposing crippling economic hardships on them and their families. Unwanted pregnancies and births stress the environment, driving climate change and related weather extremes. Now with our Voter’s Guide, Americans can elect pro-choice, climate-action candidates.
We are the only website in the country that gives incumbents and challengers for U.S. president, state governors, U.S. House and U.S. Senate a Climate Calculation, a score ranging from Climate Hero to Climate Zero, helping Americans to vote for climate action. Like most Voter’s Guides, we score incumbents on pivotal climate votes in Congress. But Vote Climate U.S. PAC is the only organization that goes well beyond votes to assess incumbent’s position: what do candidates say about the issue; leadership: what do they do; and putting a fee on carbon polluters. (For more details see our 2024 U.S. House and U.S. Senate – Incumbent Scoring Criteria and 2024 U.S. House and U.S. Senate – Challenger Scoring Criteria)
Our incumbent Governor’s Voter’s Guide also looks at their climate plan. We want to see: support for using 100% renewables by 2030; keeping fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) in the ground; support for zero human-made, greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; and support for at least one of four particular types of carbon dioxide removal, not carbon capture and sequestration,” said Strickler. (For more detail see our Scoring Criteria for Incumbent Governors and Scoring Criteria for Gubernatorial Challengers.)
The following categories, analyzing the politics of climate change, are also updated:
"Thank you Gwen Walz for powerfully sharing your fertility journey and committing to protecting fertility treatments for all Americans."
Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz—whose husband, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, is U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate—shared her full fertility journey in an essay published by Women's Health on Monday, just weeks away from the November 5 election.
The Democrats are set to face Republican former President Donald Trump—who is voting to uphold Florida's six-week abortion ban and brags about having appointed three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who reversed Roe v. Wade—and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), whose selection was seen as further proof that their administration would "stop at nothing to ban all abortion" at the federal level.
Since Harris took the torch from President Joe Biden this past summer, she has had widespread support from reproductive freedom advocates. They celebrated her choosing the Minnesota governor, who signed bills strengthening abortion protections and shielding people who seek or provide abortions or gender-affirming care from legal action by conservative states.
"Donald Trump is the one who took down Roe. I don't trust him. And frankly, I'm not willing to put my daughter's reproductive health in his hands."
Throughout the campaign, Tim and Gwen Walz have shared their difficult journey to conceiving their two children: 23-year-old Hope, and Gus, who turned 18 on Sunday. As the Minnesota first lady detailed in Women's Health, she had "felt pangs of frustration and anger since Roe was overturned" but was ultimately pushed to speak out by an Alabama Supreme Court ruling.
In February, Alabama's high court recognized frozen embryos as children who must be protected by the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, halting in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the state and elevating fears of what Republican control of Congress and the White House would mean for the future of fertility treatments and reproductive freedom more broadly.
"I don't think anyone should be telling us when, if, or how to start families. But when the Alabama Supreme Court ruling came down, that was a moment when it was just like, okay, now we're here," Gwen Walz wrote. "We went through this difficult time for a purpose—to have our children—but there's another purpose now. We have an opportunity, in leadership roles as governor and first lady, and now on the campaign trail for Kamala Harris, to tell our story. So, we told it all across the country."
She recalled taking Clomid, "a medication that increases the hormones that stimulate egg production in your ovaries and can help you get pregnant," and coordinating her schedule with their "wonderful neighbor Mary," a nurse and mother of three who helped administer shots to boost her chances of pregnancy and successful fertilization.
"When we finally conceived Hope using intrauterine insemination (IUI), it was right before Easter. We'd been struggling with infertility for years by that point," Walz wrote. "You never imagine that your daughter is going to have fewer rights than you do. And in 21 states that have abortion bans or gestational limits right now, that is the case."
"Donald Trump is the one who took down Roe. I don't trust him. And frankly, I'm not willing to put my daughter's reproductive health in his hands. If he's elected, I think there will be a nationwide abortion ban," she continued. "But I plan on making my voice heard at the ballot box. There's a clear choice between Kamala Harris and my husband, Tim—who trust women—and Trump and JD Vance, who do not. Everyone has to understand that you have the power to make this choice, and the power to respect reproductive freedom for every single woman in every single family—so that if, when, or how you want to have a family is up to you."
Welcoming the essay on social media, Reproductive Freedom for All said, "Thank you Gwen Walz for powerfully sharing your fertility journey and committing to protecting fertility treatments for all Americans."
Reproductive Freedom for All has endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket and has been working to reach voters in key states. The group's president and CEO, Mini Timmaraju, said earlier this month that "one of the most powerful ways we can mobilize voters is by speaking to the people we know in our own communities."
"Voters have never been so fired up about abortion," she added. "Our reproductive freedom is at stake and we can't afford to do anything less than leave it all on the field."
"We don't have to guess what another Trump presidency will bring, Georgians and millions more are living it."
Just a week after Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney struck down Georgia's six-week abortion ban with an "absolutely epic ruling," the state Supreme Court on Monday reinstated House Bill 481, demonstrating what's at stake in next month's U.S. elections.
In a 6-1 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court granted a stay sought by Republican state Attorney General Christopher Carr. The so-called Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act took effect again at 5:00 pm on Monday. The high court left in place the judge's decision to block prosecutors' broad access to abortion patients' medical records as the case proceeds.
"It is cruel that our patients' ability to access the reproductive healthcare they need has been taken away yet again," said Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of Feminist Women's Health Center, in a Monday statement. "Once again, we are being forced to turn away those in need of abortion care beyond six weeks of pregnancy and deny them care that we are fully capable of providing to change their lives."
"This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians' lives, and our patients deserve better," she continued. "The state of Georgia has chosen to subject our community to those devastating harms once again, even in light of the deadly consequences we have already witnessed. We will keep fighting to protect our patients, their health, their rights, and their dignity—in the clinic, in the Capitol, in the courts, and in the community."
The state and national ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Georgia-based law firms have challenged H.B. 481 on behalf of Jackson's group as well as multiple providers and organizations including Planned Parenthood Southeast and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.
"Today's ruling is an egregious example of how far anti-abortion lawmakers and judges will go to strip Georgians of their fundamental rights," stressed Jaylen Black, vice president of communications and marketing of Planned Parenthood Southeast. "As our state and region have been battered by Hurricane Helene and chemically polluted air quality, they're focused on causing more harm rather than prioritizing time-sensitive recovery efforts. At every turn, they choose to put their own agendas above our health and well-being."
The Georgia law—which prohibits abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, which is before many people even know they are pregnant—is one of several strict bans that have been enacted or allowed to take effect since the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority reversed Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Reproductive freedom has been a key topic of the 2024 election cycle, at all levels of politics, including and especially the presidential contest. Former Republican President Donald Trump has bragged about appointing half the justices who overturned Roe but also unsuccessfully tried to distance himself from the most extreme abortion bans.
Meanwhile, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly stressed her support for reproductive freedom and attacked her opponent for his role in rolling it back, including in a speech in Georgia last month and a Sunday appearance on Call Her Daddy, a podcast whose primary audience is younger American women.
During Harris' September speech, she paid tribute to Georgia women whose deaths health experts have said were "preventable" and the result of the state's six-week abortion ban. Critics of the high court's new ruling also pointed to their deaths.
"Today, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion extremists. Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer," asserted SisterSong executive director Monica Simpson. "Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health—all for the sake of power and control over our bodies. This decision is unconscionable, especially after the loss of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, two Black women who would be here today had this ban not been in place."
"This ban is rooted in white supremacy and intensifies an already dire situation in Georgia, where Black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy complications compared to white women, largely due to the absence of Medicaid expansion, a shortage of OB-GYNs, and a healthcare system rife with inequities since its founding," she continued. "Despite all evidence that this ban is killing us, the court sided with those more interested in limiting our access to care than seeing us live and thrive."
Simpson declared that "now, we need everyone to turn their pain into action and vote with these issues in mind this November."
Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, also responded to the Georgia high court's ruling by emphasizing the importance of electing Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, next month.
"Amber Thurman and Candi Miller died because of this abortion ban," she
said on social media. "We fight back in their memory and the countless other women across the country who have their freedoms at risk. 29 days until we elect repro champions to fix this mess starting with VP Harris and Gov. Walz."