Democrats split over climate debate
Party leadership opposes activists’ call for the DNC to sponsor event
More than a dozen presidential candidates are descending on San Francisco this week to try to wow Democratic National Committee members at their annual summer meeting. But a brewing battle over whether to host a dedicated climate change debate is threatening to grab the spotlight.
While CNN and MSNBC are hosting two presidential forums on the topic next month, party activists say that isn’t enough. They’re demanding a headto-head, DNCsponsored debate among the Democratic candidates, which they argue would give the climate crisis the attention it deserves.
“You really don’t have an opportunity for people to have a robust discussion and put forward their plans if they’re talking for
10 or 15 minutes each on their own,” said Tina Podlodowski, the Washington State Democratic Party chair, who’s spearheading the effort. A real debate among the candidates on the issue would “get to the heart of what differentiates us from Republicans and what differentiates us from Donald Trump.”
But party leadership is strongly against the idea, with DNC Chair Tom Perez insisting it would be unfair to focus a debate on any single issue.
The clash is a sign of the generational tensions within the party, even on a topic that has many of the presidential candidates in close agreement.
CNN’s forum on Sept. 4 will allow 10 candidates to talk about their plans. All of the top candidates will be there — Sen. Kamala
”We had some buzzwords, but there was no followup. We need a more substantive debate, and we have not gotten that.”
— Christine Pelosi, California DNC member
Harris initially declined the invitation, citing a scheduling conflict, but agreed to attend Tuesday after facing criticism. Another MSNBC climate forum later in September is open to all candidates.
Under DNC rules, the candidates at the forums will only be allowed to speak one after another, and not appear onstage at the same time.
That could change this weekend. A DNC committee is expected to vote this morning on two dueling resolutions — one calling for a party-sponsored climate debate, and another calling for sticking to existing rules. Even if the prodebate motion is defeated, supporters plan to raise it again during the meeting’s general session.
“The committee is dominated by folks that Tom (Perez) has personally appointed, so I expect to lose,” said Podlodowski, who’s sponsoring the pro-debate resolution. “But we will then turn around on Saturday and try to turn this into a floor fight.”
Her resolution calls for the DNC to either host a climate-focused debate or agree not to punish candidates who choose to participate in such a debate. As of Tuesday night, it had the support of 75 DNC members, Podlodowski said. About 375 members are expected
to attend this week.
Several hundred young activists from the Sunrise Movement, a climate-focused nonprofit, will also be gathering in San Francisco this weekend.
“Tom Perez’s blatant attempt to silence the growing momentum behind a climate debate is offensive, undemocratic, and a disservice to the very voters he’s supposed to represent,” Sunrise Executive Director
Varshini Prakash wrote in an email.
Several of the presidential candidates have also called for a climate debate, including front-runner Joe Biden.
But Perez has argued that the party needs to stay impartial and not elevate specific issues above others. The party has also been deluged with requests for focused debates on other topics, from issues affecting
seniors to gun control and campaign finance reform.
Changing the debate rules to hold a debate on one issue “would be putting our thumb on the scale,” Perez wrote in a blog post in June.
Christine Pelosi, a California DNC member who’s pushing for a climate debate, said a potential compromise could involve holding multiple issue-specific debates based on sections
of the party’s platform, such as national security or military and veterans issues.
In last month’s Democratic presidential debate, “We had some buzzwords, but there was no follow-up,” said Pelosi, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “We need a more substantive debate, and we have not gotten that.”
Beyond the debate over the debate, this week’s meeting at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel will give the presidential contenders a chance to hobnob with some of the most influential people in the party and hustle for endorsements from DNC members. The candidates who are still stuck near 1% in the polls will likely face a grilling about how long they can stay in the race.
“The number one question is, ‘Why are you still here?’ ” Christine Pelosi predicted. “Show me your path to victory.”
Thirteen candidates are attending, including Harris, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Biden and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg are skipping it, although Buttigieg will be in the Bay Area next week for fundraisers.
Biden was also the only major candidate who didn’t attend the California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco in June.
But California delegates note that the this week’s meeting won’t be quite as important as in past campaigns, when most DNC members were superdelegates with a big say in the presidential nomination. That changed after the 2016 election.
“It used to be that when you walked into the DNC meeting, you were walking into a room with 20% of the nomination,” Pelosi said. “That was a B.F.D., as one of our candidates would say.”