Give minorities a green reason to vote

GUESTWORK | Kathleen Rogers, Greg Moore and Antonio Gonzalez

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Campaign for Communities, which created a coalition of Latino, African American, low-income and environmental organizations working to educate, register and turn out voters using environmental issues as motivation. During the 2004 and 2008 election cycles, we registered hundreds of thousands of voters and turned out more – all of whom were educated as to how their health was at risk from environmental issues and how to analyze candidates’ records.

Our initial effort was a breakthrough.

Before then, no coalition of national black, brown and environmental groups had ever been formed to work on voter education. At the time, few Latino or African American organizations were singularly focused on environmental issues. While minority-led environmental justice groups had long existed, most were focused on environmental health issues. None were focused on voter education and making the environment a major voting issue.

When we began, we suffered no illusions. We knew that jobs, education, immigration and other issues would initially trump environment, an issue never fully translated to minority populations. Our initial attempts to create environmental educational materials that would resonate with minority voters produced limited results. But we found common ground and our coalition produced long-term friendships and shared history.

For 10 years, minorities have repeatedly proved themselves reliable voters for health, environment and infrastructure investment initiatives and for candidates who support them. Across the spectrum of issues, Latinos and African Americans vote in higher percentages than their white counterparts for environmental initiatives and for green candidates.

Beyond consistent pro-environment voting, African-American, Latino and other organizations now include environment and environmental health-related issues. Some polls indicate that minority voters’ concern about climate change is almost double that of whites. Minority-rights-focused organizations now invest in environmental staff and in training young environmental scientists, conducting their own research on climate issues, fighting for their fair share of the green jobs market and playing an important role in solar energy investments in their communities.

Despite these pro-environment voter statistics and community environmental programs, year-round investment in educating and turning minority voters into permanent climate/environment voters still lags behind investments in other demographics. While large-scale voter registration efforts always materialize during major election cycles, few leave a permanent infrastructure behind. And with few exceptions, none are focused on creating permanent active environment voters.

While there have been advancements in strengthening relationships between environmental and civil rights organizations, creating a vibrant, diversified climate or environmental voter constituency requires continual investment in voter registration and education. Environment and climate issues are key concerns for both minority and youth voters. Give them a green reason to vote and they will turn out.

Kathleen Rogers is president, Earth Day Network, Greg Moore is executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund and Antonio Gonzalez is president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP). SVREP, founded in 1974, is the largest and oldest nonpartisan Latino voter organization.