The Weekly | Young Climate Activists Push Democrats to the Left

Episode 8: ‘Hard Left’

Producer/Director Samantha Stark

Many Democrats want their 2020 presidential nominee to do two things above all: Defeat Donald Trump and protect the planet from imminent environmental disaster. But liberal activists, party officials and even some of the candidates themselves disagree on how far left the party should go to successfully accomplish both tasks. How they settle their differences over proposals like the Green New Deal, a groundbreaking climate-change plan, will likely influence the party’s — and the country’s — future.

“The Weekly” embeds with the young, liberal activists of the Sunrise Movement for three months as they aggressively press their case for revolutionary measures alongside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders. And we catch up with the Democratic frontrunner, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and other party loyalists, some of whom warn that radical policies may jeopardize their chances of beating Trump, who has mocked the threat of climate change in the past.

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Featured Reporter

[Read Astead’s article on how the young activists of the Sunrise Movement have become political power players in the 2020 presidential race.]

Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is still the group’s executive director. The group helped bring more than 1,000 young people to Detroit for the second Democratic presidential debate, where they tried to push candidates to further commit to the Green New Deal.

Rhiana Gunn-Wright, the policy director for New Consensus, lives in Washington, where she works with progressive groups to win broad support for the Green New Deal and other progressive policies.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York continues to gather supporters for her climate initiative. She’s faced pushback from party leaders, who introduced their own climate proposal that stops short of the Green New Deal’s most ambitious goals, but goes further than previous policies put forward by Democrats.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is running for president a second time. Though he’s stalled in the polls in recent weeks, he remains a leading contender for the Democratic nomination and has maintained a fundraising edge over his rivals. He’s a vigorous supporter of the Green New Deal.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s strategy of projecting unity with the other Democratic candidates was rattled in the first primary debate, when Senator Kamala Harris of California challenged his record and personal views. Biden, who leads the Democratic primary field in national polls, is more vocally highlighting his differences with other candidates and leaning in to the moderate label more explicitly.

Complete coverage

Producer Lizzie Blenk
Director of Photography Andreas Burgess and Vanessa Carr
Video Editor Geoff O’Brien and Sean Frechette
Senior Story Editors Dan Barry, Liz O. Baylen and Liz Day
Co-Producer Lora Moftah