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BREAKING — today, LCV Victory Fund is announcing the 2024 Dirty Dozen, our list of 12 of the worst anti-environmental candidates running for federal office this year. I’ve included it for you below. |
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This list is an important one. Not just because it sends a clear message to voters on where these candidates stand — but because each of the Dirty Dozen candidates is running in a race where the environmental movement has a serious chance to decide the outcome. |
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I’m reaching out today because our field operations in many of these races are still underfunded. I’m asking for your help today because each and every one of these races is winnable if the environmental movement turns out enough voters. This includes defeating Trump, who we previously named — and who remains — “the Dirtiest of All Time”. |
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LCV Victory Fund has a track record of taking on corporate polluters’ favorite candidates — and going all in to defeat them at the ballot box. |
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In 2022, our movement went big to turn out voters in key races. Our work helped defeat an anticipated ‘red wave’ and instead, elect a green wave of 130 federal and 975 state-level candidates, including 13 pro-climate, pro-democracy governors. |
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Importantly, we defeated 10 out of 12 of our Dirty Dozen targets last cycle. I’m hoping we can do even better this time around — because this year’s list has some dangerously extreme candidates: |
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President: Donald TrumpTrump was already the most anti-environmental president in history, having rolled back 100 environmental protections, suppressed science, appointed anti-environmental officials and judges, and continued to call climate change a hoax while in office. Since then, his views have gotten even more extreme, and the Project 2025 playbook that would guide his second term would have devastating consequences for people and the planet. On the campaign trail, he has vowed to be a dictator in order to expand oil drilling and will eliminate support for wind power on day one. He frequently says that climate change is “not our problem.” |
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AZ-SEN: Kari LakeKari Lake is a fringe climate change denier whose failed 2022 campaign was backed by Arizona’s utility companies and the oil and gas industry. Lake has positioned herself as a mouthpiece for the climate denial and misinformation of the extreme MAGA right wing with statements such as, “don’t tell me that we’re in some sort of a weird heating trend, I don’t believe that for a minute”, and “I’m not going to be afraid of the weather.” While Arizonans were facing devastating record heat last year, Kari Lake dismissed concerns about heat deaths as “mass hysteria.” Likewise, she continues to deny the reality of Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, and her own loss in 2022. |
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MT-SEN: Tim SheehyTim Sheehy is part of the growing number of out-of-state millionaires moving to Montana, buying up lands and driving up costs. Sheehy joined the board of right-wing think tank the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), but quietly failed to disclose his role with the group, in violation of ethics rules. PERC advocates for policies that would make it easier for billionaires to wield even more control over land in Montana, including advocating for privatizing public lands. |
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NV-SEN: Sam BrownSam Brown is a MAGA extremist who is out of step with Nevada. His support for opening Yucca Mountain to dangerous nuclear waste because it would be a source of revenue speaks to a record of putting profits and polluters over the health and safety of Nevada communities. Brown said he would eliminate the U.S. Departments of Energy, Education, Transportation, and federal “environmental departments and agencies.” |
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OH-SEN: Bernardo MorenoBernie Moreno is a multi-millionaire former luxury car dealer who ran as an extreme-right candidate against JD Vance in the 2022 Senate primary. This time around, with Donald Trump’s endorsement, Moreno has made it clear that he is fully on board with Trump’s dirty energy agenda. At a candidate forum in February, Moreno made his priorities clear when he said, “We should be unleashing American energy and being an energy-dominant country. Instead, we have this move towards windmills, solar panels. We need coal, we need natural gas, we need oil.” |
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PA-SEN: Dave McCormickDave McCormick is a mega-millionaire former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund whose answer to a question about energy policy at a campaign stop involved mentioning that his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, is on the board of Exxon. It is no surprise that Dave McCormick’s energy policy plan literally starts and ends with oil and gas. McCormick says, “we need to get back to the energy policies under President Trump.” |
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WI-SEN: Eric HovdeEric Hovde is a multi-millionaire bank executive who likes to rail against regulations and is being backed by billionaire oil barons who actively oppose any kind of meaningful environmental safeguards. Hovde would join the dirty energy industry’s backers in Congress who want to keep our country dependent on fossil fuels and has said that the push to get to 100% clean energy by 2050 is “delusional.” Hovde supports a pro-polluter agenda, endorsing Donald Trump’s policies in 2019 by saying, “His deregulation program and obviously his tax reform act was very good for businesses.” The Trump tax law ended up giving a $25 billion handout to Big Oil. |
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AZ-06: Juan CiscomaniRep. Juan Ciscomani, is a career right-wing activist trying to hide his extreme MAGA ties. Before going to Congress, Ciscomani served for 14 years on the board of a fringe group called Patriot Academy that hosts extreme right-wing speakers and promotes climate deniers. Now, Ciscomani wants to greenwash his record of voting to kill off clean energy which earned him a paltry 14% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. |
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CA-41: Ken CalvertRep. Ken Calvert, who was first elected to Congress in 1992, is now trying to hide his abysmal record on environmental issues from voters, along with his 8% lifetime LCV score. Calvert made his allegiances to polluters clear when he sided with extremists on the “Default on America” plan, which threatened to force a national recession if Republicans didn’t get their way on gutting environmental protections. |
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CA-45: Michelle SteelRep. Michelle Steel has earned a dismal 4% lifetime score from LCV for her voting record, even sinking to a resounding 0% in 2023. Her votes include attempts to repeal clean energy investments that are already helping California create good-paying jobs and trying to repeal critical protections for clean air and water. She has even voted against bills to protect the California coastline from offshore drilling and to stop oil price gouging while making up to $50,000 in oil royalties. |
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NM-02: Yvette HerrellYvette Herrell now holds the record for most appearances on the Dirty Dozen list, having lost to LCV Action Fund-endorsed candidates in 2018 and 2022. She has a 0% lifetime LCV score and was one of the top recipients of oil and gas money during her brief time in Congress. Yvette Herrell has taken $735,161 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry and voted to protect oil companies from price gouging investigations. |
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NY-04: Anthony D'EspositoRep. Anthony D’Esposito represents a Democratic district that President Biden won by more than 14 points in 2020, yet he continues to ally himself with Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans. D’Esposito has been a vocal opponent of clean energy, voting three times to repeal clean energy tax credits and opposing a major new clean energy infrastructure project in New York. He even cosponsored a measure calling for a halt to offshore wind development along the entire Atlantic coast. |
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Friend — the races targeting these Dirty Dozen candidates WILL decide who controls the House, the Senate, and the White House next year. |
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But to beat the Dirty Dozen, we need to get more organizers on the ground and reach more environmental voters who are at risk of sitting out this election. |
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These last weeks ahead are make-or-break for our efforts to defeat Trump and other extreme MAGA candidates who are in the pocket of Big Oil and other polluters. But right now, we’re still far short of our funding goal. So we’re asking: |
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Thanks for standing with us, Friend. We’ll be in touch soon with more updates on our campaigns and more ways you can help defeat the Dirty Dozen. |
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Pete Maysmith
Senior Vice President, Campaigns LCV Victory Fund |
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Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, www.lcvvictoryfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. |
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