As the Midterms Approach, What’s Electrifying the Electorate?

As the 2026 midterms approach, voters are contending with concerns around affordability, the AI boom, and climate disruption in their daily lives. AI data centers have become the wild card in energy politics, driving up energy demand and utility bills, and playing a large role in a battleground House primary. A year after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rolled back key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, many climate advocates assumed the energy transition was stalled out, but new research suggests otherwise. 

How will climate and energy shape the ballot box this year? And what's it like to campaign on those issues in a swing state?

William Lawrence, Candidate, US Congress MI-07; Co-founder, Sunrise Movement

Leah Stokes, Associate Professor, UC Santa Barbara; Author, “The Carbon Wave”

Lily Bermel, Visiting Fellow, Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.

For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit our ⁠episode page⁠ at ClimateOne.org

Highlights:

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:25 William Lawrence on campaign messaging

00:05:48 William Lawrence on climate and data centers 

00:08:05 William Lawrence on giving people more agency 

00:13:21 William Lawrence on addressing decarbonization and affordability