Exclusive: Enviro group expands push against Trump's budget law
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The League of Conservation Voters is launching a $4 million campaign across swing states and districts to sour voters on the GOP budget law, the group told Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: It will help determine whether green groups can politically tether rising power prices to the law in the 2026 midterms, where control of both chambers of Congress is in play.
- The new campaign is the largest expenditure from LCV — a major node of the environmental movement's political work — since the law's passage.
Driving the news: The work in over 30 states will include "rallies, town halls, phone banks, digital ads, partnering with local officials and content creators, canvassing and tabling, and on the ground field operations," a summary states.
- States include Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin and many more.
- It's the latest step in an effort that already includes ads from LCV and other environmental groups, including LCV's $1.3 million buy with House Majority Forward and Climate Power.
- LCV is targeting House districts expected to have highly competitive races, including GOP-held seats like Arizona's 1st and 6th; Colorado's 8th, Iowa's 1st, and Michigan's 7th, to name a few.
My thought bubble: Democratically aligned environmental groups see costs and jobs — not climate change — as the central message.
- "People deserve to know why their energy bills and groceries are going up," Sara Schreiber, LCV's senior VP of campaigns, said in a statement.
- "Congressional Republicans who voted for the Big Ugly Bill have broken their promise to lower costs and have instead given tax breaks to the ultra wealthy and sided with Big Oil, polluters and other special interests," she said.
What we're watching: How Republicans navigate power price politics. Trump officials say Democratic policies have put too many constraints on fossil fuels.
- Wright told Politico that he knows Republicans are vulnerable over power prices but hopes voters will blame Dems.
- "The momentum of the Obama-Biden policies, for sure that destruction is going to continue in the coming years," he said.