When Trump was elected in both 2016 and 2024, promising to make the federal government hostile to climate action, many climate advocates insisted that state and local governments would take up the mantle of pushing for clean energy. That’s the thesis of the “America Is All In” coalition, which brings together cities and states that have vowed to uphold America’s “climate commitments … [i]n the absence of federal leadership.” The unspoken caveat in these claims is that the states leading the way on climate policy are concentrated in a few liberal parts of the country, like New England and the West Coast.
The Democratic Party’s historic victory in this week’s midterm elections could change that. Democrats have secured control of both state legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion — also known as a “trifecta” — in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, three states that have spent years or decades under Republican or divided control. The three states have also lagged in their support for clean energy. Democrats also restored trifectas in Minnesota, Michigan, and Ne... Read more
