Press Releases

LCV Action Fund Endorses Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff for Georgia Senate Seats

Jun 17, 2020

Courtnee Connnon, 727-744-4163, courtnee_connon@lcv.org

Washington D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, which works to elect pro-environment candidates, announced today its endorsements of both Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Senate in Georgia. 

“LCV Action Fund is committed to flipping the Senate and building a pro-environment Senate majority and Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are environmental leaders who will make that happen,” said LCV Action Fund Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld. “We are proud to support both of these candidates because we know they will bring fresh and bold ideas to enact climate policies that center racial justice and equity and they won’t be content with business as usual.”

“As Georgia natives, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff understand what’s at stake if the U.S. Senate continues to deny the science and put the health and safety of our communities at risk,” said Georgia Conservation Voters Executive Director Brionté McCorkle. “We need leaders in the Senate like Ossoff and Rev. Warnock who put people over polluters and prioritize climate justice, clean energy, and clean water.”

“Environmental health is vital to our own health, prosperity, and security. In the Senate, I’ll make energy and environmental policy on the basis of scientific evidence — not lobbying by polluters,” said Jon Ossoff. “I’m honored by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund’s endorsement and look forward to working with LCV to enact a historic infrastructure and clean energy program that will lay the foundations for decades of sustainability and prosperity.”

“I’m honored to have earned the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund’s endorsement in this movement,” said Reverend Raphael Warnock. “As a person of faith, I can think of nothing more important than honoring and protecting the only home we’ve been blessed with, for ourselves and our children. Too often, fossil fuel lobbyists and politicians have taken advantage of the revolving door between corporate boardrooms and political backrooms so much that we cannot tell the difference between the two. With the support of the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, I know we will flip this seat and ensure that environmental justice is a priority in Washington.”  

Reverend Raphael Warnock has served as the Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the former pulpit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, since 2005. He was the youngest pastor selected to serve in that leadership role at the historic church. Rev. Warnock has demonstrated a commitment to sustainability, environmental justice and climate action as a pastor and community activist. In March 2019, he hosted an interfaith meeting on climate change at Ebenezer Baptist with former Vice President Al Gore and Reverend William Barber II, who started the “Moral Mondays” movement in North Carolina and the new national Poor People’s Campaign. During his tenure, his church also started Project Green: Sustainable Ebenezer to get congregants involved with environmental projects. Warnock has also preached about environmental justice, working to not only get environmentalists to better understand the links between pollution, race and poverty, but to also get his congregants to see themselves as environmentalists. He has brought attention to critical issues of environmental injustice including that the most likely indicator of where a toxic waste dump will be sited is race, and that black children are five times more likely than white children to get lead poisoning. 

Jon Ossoff worked on Capitol Hill for U.S. Representatives Hank Johnson (D-GA-04) and John Lewis (D-GA-05), focusing on national security issues. In 2013, he took over as managing partner and CEO of Insight TWI, a nearly 30-year old investigative production company targeting corrupt public officials and organized crime for international news organizations, including a BBC documentary exposing atrocities committed by ISIS in Iraq. In 2017, LCV Action Fund was one of Ossoff’s earliest endorsements because of his commitment to building a clean energy future. After his narrow loss, Ossoff joined the Board of Directors of LCV’s state affiliate, Georgia Conservation Voters. He is again making climate and the environment a central part of his message as a Senate candidate. The first line on his website says, “Political corruption threatens our republic and the future of the planet.” Fighting political corruption has been a central part of Ossoff’s message and his work as a media executive and investigative journalist, and he has tied it to fighting climate change and protecting the environment. For example, his company has produced an investigative piece on the connection between political corruption and illegal logging in Sierra Leone that is threatening to destroy the country’s endangered forests within a decade.

 

About LCV Action Fund

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, the connected federal political action committee (PAC) of the League of Conservation Voters, works to elect leaders who stand up for a clean, healthy environment and to defeat anti-environment candidates who oppose climate action. Since the 1990 election cycle, LCVAF has helped elect and re-elect 90 U.S. Senators and 450 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the last several years, our efforts have also helped elevate climate change and clean energy as critical issues in key elections.

 

###

Paid for by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund and authorized by Jon Ossoff for Senate and Warnock for Georgia.