Defend Our Future More than Halfway Toward 100,000 Pledge Goal

Campaign to Drive Millennials to Vote on Climate Issues on Track to Surpass Goal Weeks Before Election Day

NEWS RELEASE 

Contact:
Keith Gaby, 202-572-3336, kgaby@edf.org
Mark Eddy, 720-201-4251, marke@markeddycomm.com

(Denver, CO – October 7, 2014) Defend Our Future, a campaign of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), announced today it is more than halfway toward meeting its goal of 100,000 pledges to vote on climate issues this election, and are in position to surge past that milestone well before Election Day.
 
“We were confident young voters would respond to our call to vote on climate issues this election cycle,” said Dr. Alicia Kolar Prevost, who is running the non-partisan effort for EDF. “But this response has been staggering. Voters in Colorado are sending a message to politicians loud and clear — they care deeply about climate change and want leaders who do as well.”

Defend Our Future is employing a mix of groundbreaking digital, social and data targeting technologies, along with traditional boots-on-the-ground organizing, to collect the pledges from potential voters. The non-partisan campaign will serve as a test run for a larger, national effort in future election cycles. The campaign’s website is defendourfuture.org.

The message of Defend Our Future focuses on empowerment for voters under 35. Younger voters represent the leading edge of a growing demographic wave that is far more supportive of climate action than older cohorts of voters. Colorado organizers are on the ground at Colorado State University and University of Colorado, Boulder.

“Millennials are the ones who must live with the consequences of climate change,” Prevost said. “They have the power to tell elected leaders, candidates and policymakers that they want action. This campaign is designed to help them harness that power.”

With more than 3 million members, Environmental Defense Fund creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships to turn solutions into action. edf.org