Mid-Missouri

Peaceworks

Working towards peace and sustainability

Vote for the Climate

Peaceworks has embarked on a campaign, “Vote for the Climate.” Our aim is to focus attention on where the candidates stand on the critical issue of climate change. This is an existential threat, with a very tight timeline. By any rational measure, the climate crisis should be a top tier issue for candidates and voters alike.

Unfortunately, many candidates are not even mentioning the challenges—or the opportunities—that this crisis presents. Climate change is ignored in many candidates’ stump speeches, and it doesn’t even show up in the issues sections of many candidates’ websites.

Candidate Positions Handout:

While Peaceworks does not endorse, support or oppose candidates for office, we do educate as to where the candidates stand on issues that concern us. We recently published a handout that outlines the positions and track records of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In doing this we drew heavily on research done by another non-partisan, non-profit, and also have shared links to the candidates’ positions as outlined on their own websites. You can find this handout if you click HERE.

We attempted to ascertain the positions of candidates for Missouri Governor, for Congress from the Fourth District and for state Senate for the 19th District and have shared these on the same handout.

Zoom Interviews:

We also invited all 12 candidates running for contested positions on the Boone County Commission, and for state legislative districts in Boone County to participate in short Zoom interviews on climate concerns.

To date, six of the 12 have agreed to be interviewed. We have reached out to each of the other six by postal mail, e-mail and Facebook message. One declined, saying they were too busy and the other five have ignored our repeated invites. Perhaps that would change if a sufficient number of voters were to ask them to address the climate crisis and how we should respond.

Here are the races we’ve included:

Boone County Commission:

Southern District:
Fred Parry                      No response.
Justin Aldred                  Click HERE.

Northern District:
Tristan Asbury               No response.
Janet Thompson             Click HERE.

Missouri General Assembly:

District 44
Cheri Toalson Reisch      Declined due to busy schedule.
Jacque Sample                Click HERE.

District 47:
Chuck Basye                  No response.
Adrian Plank                  Click HERE.

District 50:
Sara Walsh                     No response.
Kari Chesney                 Click HERE.

Missouri State Senate:

District 19:

Caleb Rowden                No response.
Judy Baker                     Click HERE.

What You Can Do:

Of course, assuming you are eligible, you can vote for the candidates who represent your perspective on climate change and other critical issues. But this is just the beginning. Between now and election day there is much to be done. You can volunteer with Peaceworks in our Vote for the Climate campaign. We would love to have more canvassers, so, if you’re game, please give us a shout.

If you find candidates who represent your point of view, you can possibly volunteer with their campaigns. This also is an ideal time to reach out to the candidates. Those who’ve shared their perspectives can be thanked for sharing their thinking. They also can be encouraged to consider taking stronger positions and/or doing more to make climate change a central focus of their campaign.

This is also an ideal time to share your concerns with those candidates who are not responding or laying out a strategy to address the climate crisis. They really do need to hear from us, so please consider taking just a few minutes to question them and encourage them to recognize that climate change is an existential threat and action is needed now.

With your participation, when election day comes, the climate will be a winner.