Campaign Season Activities
As election season picks up steam, one of our goals is to make sure Congress takes action on climate and encourage candidates to generally support strong bipartisan national climate legislation.
/topics/congressional-in-district-activities
Work with incumbents and keep building support
Continue working with your incumbent members of Congress as you have been, even if they are retiring, to increase their support for climate action and our current Asks for Congress. Despite the considerable distraction of the elections, they still represent you and vote on legislation through the end of the year, including the lame duck session after the election. They need to keep hearing from constituents, and especially new voices from different demographics in the district, based on your research and understanding of who your member of Congress trusts. Regardless of your member’s stance on specific climate policy, we need them to hear from their constituents that climate action must be a top priority now and throughout the remainder of this Congress. See the Developing Relationships with Candidates training for recommended strategies to bring candidates the message that voters want more action on climate.
This campaign season, we're ensuring candidates and voters keep climate at the front of the conversation through meetings with candidates and getting out the vote activities. Throughout the election season, be sure to log your campaign season activities in the Action Tracker, including:
● Log town halls with incumbents under Contact with Legislator - Town Hall Meeting
● Log meetings with incumbents as Contact with Legislator
● Log non-incumbent candidate contacts as Grasstops Meeting
● Log your work with EVP or other voter focused activities in the Action Tracker under the new event type, Grassroots Outreach - Phone / Text Banking.
2026 Senate and House Candidate Guidelines
The political landscape on climate has changed under the current administration. Whether you are meeting directly with a candidate or asking a question at town halls or forums, consider the candidate you are speaking to and the audience as you craft your question. For Republicans, multiple party events and even some moderate Democrats, you may want to focus on clean energy and permitting barriers rather than asking how they will address climate change directly. For Democrats, you may want to focus on how they will work across the aisle and how permitting reform and clean energy are important issues to address climate change. In all cases give them space to address the issue in general rather than asking them to support a particular bill or criteria. You can tell them why you are concerned, personal stories of how climate change (or energy prices, or permitting challenges) is impacting you, people you love, or your community and how much you want them to commit to real solutions to the problem. Once the election is over, you can start or continue educating the winners on the specifics of how to achieve that 2030 goal.
Read more tips on getting the most out of town halls or candidate forums in our training on Attending Town Halls and Candidate Forums. Get ideas for questions to ask from this list of sample Town Hall Questions or visit the sitewide forums to see and discuss what others have shared.
And plan for the future! Candidates need to make themselves known to voters, so you can learn a lot about them. Make notes on their personal stories, biggest issues, major supporters, and who they are trying to appeal to as they campaign. You need to know what is important to your future member of Congress, and they are busy communicating that in many ways throughout the campaign. Check the candidates campaign website and social media and sign-up for their newsletter and press release distribution list to stay informed on their priorities and upcoming events. You can start cultivating people they would trust as messengers as you find out who they are.
You can also find your state's important primary dates with this National Conference of State Legislators site. (The primaries are used by political parties to determine the candidates who will run for all partisan offices in their states on the general election).
We encourage you to attend on-line, telephone and in-person events and engage via social media, and if you have success stories please share them with your state coordinators and/or network director. As you participate online and in social media, watch for people who appear to be influential with your candidate and consider striking up a conversation with them over social media. Start now to build a relationship with the people who can influence your future member of Congress.
Some events will encompass both parties and some will be held by just one party. Ideally, left of center CCL volunteers will participate in Democratic events and right of center CCL volunteers will attend Republican events. If you attend any event, especially fundraisers, as a supporter of a particular candidate, remember that you are there as an individual who is concerned about climate change, not as a representative of your CCL chapter. Your CCL chapter cannot pay for you to attend a fundraiser for a candidate.
Additional Resources
- Communicating With Conservatives Training Page
- Laser Talk on Bipartisanship
- Worksheet for leveraging candidate town halls
Staying Nonpartisan and Bipartisan in Campaign Season
Whatever you choose to do during election season, remember always that CCL is both nonpartisan (we do not engage in partisan politics or endorse candidates) and bipartisan (we work with people from both of the major parties). If your current member of Congress asks to speak at one of your meetings, you are welcome to have them attend, though you should be clear they are invited as your current Representative/Senator and you should discourage campaigning. If one candidate, incumbent or non-incumbent, is invited to speak at your meeting, all candidates should be invited to avoid a campaigning event. Whatever activities your group engages in should be evenhanded toward all candidates. If you have any questions about what events to attend or what your ask should be, please reach out to your State Coordinator or Network Director.
- Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonpartisan organization. During electoral campaigns, we have the opportunity to connect with individual candidates on the issue of climate change, while being clear that we do not support, endorse or organize for individual candidates or political parties. We empower everyday people to bridge divides and build political will for effective climate solutions in Congress. We know that only by securing support from a significant number of elected officials from both of the major parties will our plans become law.
- As individuals, you are encouraged to participate in our democracy and our elections in whatever way you would like. Read more tips on what you can do in the “And what about our democracy?” section of the Developing Your Chapter Action Plan, including registering to vote and helping others participate in our elections. However, if you are widely seen as a CCL leader in the community, you might want to consider how your individual activities, including on social media, will impact how you and CCL are seen. People may not be able to distinguish your partisan work from your nonpartisan role in CCL. And, whenever we are wearing our CCL hats, we need to act in ways that are consistent with our goals and values. We need to act during campaign season in ways that leave us well positioned to work with whomever wins the election.
Activities to Avoid
- CCL chapters should not endorse any candidates or participate in partisan campaign activities or events.
- CCL chapter meetings should not be used to spread campaign materials or advocate for candidates or provide a platform for a candidate to speak (if one candidate is invited, they all should be invited). If not all candidates accept the invitation, it may be better to meet with them outside of a chapter meeting in a non-CCL event.
- CCL chapters should not attack candidates. They may become your future members of Congress. They are likely to remain community leaders, and it’s not consistent with our core values and CCL’s policy of respect, gratitude and appreciation.
What if one of our CCL chapter members is running for office?
CCL cannot endorse a specific candidate, but volunteers, as individuals not associating themselves with CCL, are free to help in any way they wish.
If you have a CCL volunteer running for a partisan office locally, then:
- Continue to act consistently with CCL’s policy of respect, gratitude and appreciation for public service toward all candidates.
- Work with them as they step back from CCL if in a leadership role within the CCL group.
- Supportive chapter volunteers should be mindful of the impact of their visible support in our nonpartisan lobbying.
- Consult CCL staff and your network director if you are uncertain about particular activities.
- Candidates are free to talk about CCL but not claim they are endorsed by CCL.
- CCL welcomes all candidates as volunteers and/or supporters.
We are at an exciting time for CCL, and we are only here because of your dedication and advocacy. Please reach out to your State Coordinator or Network Director with any questions you may have as we build political will for a livable world during this election season.
To skip ahead to a specific section go to the time indicated in parenthesis.
Overview & Agenda
(from beginning)
Working With Incumbents
(3:21)
House & Senate Guidelines
(6:14)
Staying Nonpartisan & Bipartisan
(12:19)
Activities To Avoid
(17:44)
- Todd Elvins
View the Google Slides presentation.
To skip ahead to a specific section go to the time indicated in parenthesis.
Overview & Agenda
(from beginning)
Working With Incumbents
(3:21)
House & Senate Guidelines
(6:14)
Staying Nonpartisan & Bipartisan
(12:19)
Activities To Avoid
(17:44)
- Todd Elvins
Download this episode (right click and save).
View recent episodes on CCL’s iTunes channel.
Let us know if you've completed this training! Your progress will be logged in the Action Tracker so you can reference a list of trainings that you've completed.
Instructions for printing this page on Community.
- Election Season Tabling Materials
- Election Season Media Kit
- Election Season Activities Guidance including Town Halls and Candidate Forums
- Tracking Election Related Actions
- Working with the Environmental Voter Project
- EVP Phone Bank Leader Job Description
- 2024 Primary Dates for each state
- Voter Registration Handout
- See all resources associated with Lobbying Congress.