Congressional Candidates With the Strongest Environmental Records

With the midterm election less than three weeks away, we set out to identify which candidates are the strongest supporters of federal efforts to fight global warming and the effects of climate change. Congress plays an important role in funding federal climate programs and providing oversight. The panels that handle these issues are the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Environment, and the House Committee on Natural Resources.

One trend is worth noting in any discussion of Congress and environmental policy. According to the think tank Center for American Progress, 199 members of the 119th Congress are climate deniers. No comparable count exists of members who strongly advocate for environmental protection.

Identifying the most environment-friendly candidates is also difficult because some have no federal track record, having never served in Congress. Our methodology had to account for this.

Nothing in our analysis or results is meant to endorse or favor any candidate. Some of our sources are organizations that say they endorse candidates based on climate policy.

Methodology

We started with the 2026 endorsement list from Climate Hawks Vote, a political group that backs candidates it considers climate friendly. Of its 19 endorsed candidates on the November 3 ballot, we ranked the 10 with a measurable environmental voting record.

Each candidate received a score from 0 to 100 based on two measures:

• Voting record (two-thirds of the score). Other groups publish scorecards showing the percentage of key environmental votes in which a lawmaker voted the pro-environment position. For current and former members of Congress, Climatecrisis247 used the League of Conservation Voters’ national scorecard, drawing on scores for their entire time in Congress where available.
• Endorsements (one-third of the score). Climatecrisis247 counted how many of three major environmental groups endorsed each candidate in 2026: Climate Hawks Vote, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club. Each group says it surveys or interviews candidates before endorsing them.

Some candidates evaluated by one or more of these groups could not be ranked. For example, nine Climate Hawks Vote nominees were left out because they have no comparable voting record. Because of our weighting, strong endorsements alone were not enough, so candidates without a voting record cannot be graded under this approach.

Our approach has other limitations we could not overcome. Some of the groups’ evaluations were based on policy positions rather than voting records. We considered contributions from pro-environment and fossil fuel interests, but that data is incomplete. In addition, some candidates in our original pool did not win their primaries.

To make the list, a candidate needed a composite score above 70. Data is current as of October 17, 2026.

Rank	Candidate	Race	Score
1	Manny Rutinel	House, CO-08	98.0
1	Mike McGuire	House, CA-01	98.0
3	Donavan McKinney	House, MI-13	97.3
4	Sherrod Brown	Senate, OH	95.3
5	Peggy Flanagan	Senate, MN	88.9
5	Chris Rabb	House, PA-03	88.9
5	Daniel Biss	House, IL-09	88.9
8	Troy Jackson	Senate, ME	87.3
9	Josh Turek	Senate, IA	70.5