There’s a tendency in Washington to think of climate change as a coastal issue. It’s the coasts, after all, where melting ice caps will turn into flooded communities, and it’s the coasts where voters tend to back the party willing to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Democrats.
But there’s at least one Midwestern Democrat challenging that assumption, and he has the cumulus qualifications to back it up. As a former local TV weatherman, Rep. Eric Sorensen of Illinois runs in part on the issue of climate change; his campaign logo prominently features the silhouette of a wind turbine. He points to family farmers struggling to adjust to changing growing seasons and fiercer storms, to more frequent tornadoes and deeper floods.
In addition to chitchatting about the weather, and Project 2025’s plans to ax the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sorensen sat down with Roll Call this summer to discuss what it’s been like, as a gay man, to see recent Republican attacks on LGBTQ rights.
