We followed the same process as the first round to decide who to endorse, but wanted to share some important feedback from our community.
After we announced our first round of endorsements on September 9th, Our Time organizers continued to meet with candidates across the country. They looked for bold leaders who are championing a Green New Deal and promise to work with people-powered movements during and after their election.
Our Time organizers nominated 16 new Green New Deal Champions in or near places with active hubs, local groups that are youth-led, with a demonstrated commitment to building a base that can turn out to support endorsed candidates and organize beyond the election.
We also received a number of nominations from people and communities far away from the places where our active, fired up hubs are ready to throw down behind champion candidates.
Here is just one of the messages we received:
“I appreciate the care with which you are approaching the nomination process and think your slate needs to have a LOT more people on it, in particular because there are a lot of deserving candidates out there. Just because there isn’t a hub in a constituency is not a final reason to leave out amazing candidates who fully support the Green New Deal!”
— Kathleen, BC
Our Time is building a movement for the long haul. We’re focused on more than the election, so when we endorse a candidate, we want to back that up with organizing power, energy and a fired-up movement ready to fight with our champions.
There are some amazing candidates that we aren’t endorsing today because we want to make sure that our endorsement is more than a symbolic nod. We need to figure out how to support these candidates from afar.
If we’re able to do that, we’ll consider making another round of endorsements that includes those candidates, and any other champions that might emerge after the Climate Strikes.