Hello everyone, and welcome back to State of Emergency. I’m Jesse Nichols, a video producer and reporter at Grist, and today we’re going to be talking about how worsening climate impacts are raising the profile of a largely overlooked section on state ballots: The race for insurance commissioner.
If you watched the presidential debate earlier this month, you might have been surprised by VP Kamala Harris’ response when asked about climate change. Instead of focusing on the dangers of drought or rising sea levels, her answer focused on home insurance. “It is very real,” Harris said. “You ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences who now is either being denied home insurance or it’s being jacked up.”
“It’s just not something [voters] pay attention to until things go wrong. Right now, things are going wrong.”
Dave Jones, a former California insurance commissionerSince 2020, the increasing number and severity of natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes have cast home insurance markets into turmoil, leading to an explosive rise in premiums. And this election s... Read more
