Sunrise Movement plans pro-Harris outreach to 1.5M voters but stops short of endorsement

Left-leaning environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement said Wednesday it will conduct voter outreach on behalf of Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign, but it stopped short of an endorsement.

In an announcement, Sunrise Communications Director Stevie O’Hanlon said the engagement initiative will target 1.5 million young voters about the environmental stakes of the 2024 election, using a combination of in-person, phone and digital outreach.

Sunrise cited the large upswing in youth enthusiasm since Harris officially replaced President Biden as the Democratic nominee. The group also pointed to Hart Research polling on behalf of Climate Power indicating environmental issues are among those with the widest gap in trust between Harris and former President Trump.

“The Harris-Walz ticket means millions more young voters are tuning in and considering voting. We’re going all-out to reach those voters and mobilize our generation to defeat Trump this November,” O’Hanlon said. “And it’s why we will continue to urge the Harris campaign to put forward a bold vision that will energize young voters.”

Sunrise previously declined to make a presidential endorsement in the 2020 election, but the group has endorsed several candidates associated with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party who went on to win their primaries, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) in 2018; Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) in 2020; and Reps. Summer Lee (Pa.) and Greg Casar (Texas) in 2022. Bowman and Bush both lost their primaries to challengers earlier this summer.

The coalition that contributed to Biden’s 2020 victory included a number of younger voters who rank climate and the environment as a top priority. However, during the lead-up to his July withdrawal from the race, polling indicated Biden bleeding support from many of those voters, due to both general flagging enthusiasm in the race and decisions like opening part of the Arctic to the Willow oil drilling project.