Opposing Green New Deal Could Cost Popular Democratic Lawmaker Her Job, Poll Shows

After easily winning a third term in November, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) spearheaded a revolt against likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), arguing that the California lawmaker’s ascent would “jeopardize this hard-fought majority that we finally got” of moderate women in suburban districts like hers. Yet new polling suggests white, suburban women in Rice’s own southwestern Long Island district could turn on the Democrat if she refuses to back a Green New Deal, the umbrella term for the sweeping policy to combat climate change and overhaul the economy that Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has championed. A survey of 300 likely Democratic primary voters in New York’s 4th Congressional District described a Green New Deal as a plan “to invest trillions of dollars into the development and distribution of green energy, creating millions of new high-wage jobs while preventing catastrophic climate change.” The survey then told participants that Rice “does not currently support a Green New Deal,” and asked, “How does this information impact your vote in the 2020 Democratic primary for Congress?” The results suggest the overwhelming popularity of Green New Deal-style policies could propel upsets in districts beyond the diverse, left-leaning urban bastions that gave rise to socialist darlings like Ocasio-Cortez and others in her cohort...MORE