In this op-ed, Izzi Graj explains why she is linking arms with young people around the country to go all-in this election cycle on efforts to elect leaders who reject fossil fuel money and take the climate change crisis seriously.

On August 8 , I joined dozens of young New Yorkers at Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office to demand for the seventh and last time that he refuse campaign contributions from fossil fuel CEOs and lobbyists. That day we gave Cuomo one last chance to stand with our generation and fight for us. We’d hoped the governor would pledge to reject campaign contributions from the fossil fuel billionaires responsible for this crisis, but that didn’t happen, and my friends were arrested at his office. I was infuriated. I was there as a volunteer with Sunrise Movement, a youth-led organization that is turning our rage at decades of inaction on climate change into a political machine capable of helping to elect honest leaders who will fight for our generation and create millions of good jobs in the process. Our organization is only one year old, and we’re working every day ahead of the midterms to support real leaders who will fight for our generation.

Many fossil fuel executives have spent my entire life knowing that climate change literally threatens life on earth, but instead of leading the transition to clean energy, they decided to line the pockets of politicians on both sides of the aisle to ensure they can win a few more bucks for their dying industry. Oil and gas executives strive to maintain company profits, which seemingly means doing everything in their power to hold back the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. They have spent decades using their deep pockets to pressure politicians into carrying out their pro-fossil-fuel agenda. If Democratic candidates choose to support Big Oil in the fact of this year’s wave of progressive energy, the prospects for action at the scale we need are grim.

On that day in Cuomo’s offices, we chanted, “Does it weigh on you at all?” We filled the atrium with voices, banners, and cardboard shields painted with phrases like “for the air we breathe,” “for the water we drink,” and “our time to lead.” We demanded Cuomo’s administration choose a side: corporate bribes from the fossil fuel industry or the health and well-being of New Yorkers. After chanting, sharing personal stories of the impacts of climate change, and attracting attention in the office building, we were ordered by security guards to leave. I led the rally outside while nine of our members stayed inside the building, sat down, and continued to sing. New York Police Department officers proceeded to arrest all nine of them for criminal trespassing. We reached out to Cuomo’s office for comment on the incident but have not heard back.

The most frustrating part is that Governor Cuomo recently told me face to face that he would reject money from fossil fuel interests. In a video of that conversation, you can see my shock when I asked him if he could pledge to stop taking fossil fuel money and he replied, “Yes, I’m there.” I thought he was finally taking young people seriously and standing up to fossil fuel billionaires, the same people who have encouraged climate denial and held back action on climate change for decades, fueling climate disasters that kill thousands of people every year and threaten the poorest and most marginalized communities of New York. But the next day, he took it back, his team arguing that he’d misunderstood the question. Maybe Cuomo was never going to give up those relationships — he’s taken $113,000 from the fossil fuel industry this election cycle alone, according to climate-science information site DeSmog.