NextGen Climate is a political action group focused on winning this election – for the climate. Its moto: “Stop Trump. Vote Climate.” Now, NextGen is active on campus.
The group held its kickoff event on Wednesday night in the Union, offering free pizza and prizes for the over 25 attendees. Prizes included anti-Trump gear including foam fingers, t-shirts and sunglasses.
NextGen has officially endorsed candidates in the coming election, including Hillary Clinton for president and Ted Strickland for senator of Ohio, according to its website.
The group is working to spread the word about its mission around campus and the Bowling Green Community through voter registration, phone banking, texting, hosting tables and clip-boarding.
President Tom Steyer released his commentary on the NextGen website following the recent debate.
“Hillary Clinton proved to voters yet again that she is a climate champion who will build on President Obama’s historic leadership to address the climate crisis…” Steyer said, “Donald Trump, on the other hand, steadfastly refused to offer up any solutions and lauded the dirty fossil fuel sources of the past.”
The meeting’s main objectives Wednesday were for like-minded environmentally concerned students to meet one another and learn more about the goals on mission of NextGen. Attendees were told about the pressing issues, in NextGen’s view, facing the climate.
“Last year, 2015, was the hottest year on record and 2016 is on track to be even hotter by a much wider margin,” the field organizer facilitating the meeting, said. “July 2016 was the hottest month on earth ever recorded, which is wild, and it was the fifteenth consecutive month of hottest record breaking (temperature).”
Addressing these recent statistics, the field organizer with NextGen facilitating the meeting said that they have to make sure that Trump is not elected, as he “wants to dismantle the EPA” and “doesn’t believe in climate change,” she said.
“We need a strong community to make this happen,” she said.
The broader missions of NextGen in Bowling Green are to elect Clinton as president and Democrats to the Senate, in hopes of shifting control of the Senate from the current Republican majority.
NextGen is active on over 60 campuses throughout Ohio, Deputy Communication Director David Miller wrote in an email.
“A recent poll of millennials in 11 battleground states released by NextGen Climate, shows 75 percent of young voters in Ohio support protecting clean air and water and 92 percent support transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy economy,” Miller wrote.
NextGen also addresses other polices of concern to millennials and young voters, including gender equality, racial and economic justice.
With only 41 days until Election Day, the organizer said to the crowd, “We need you in order to make this successful.”
