Bernie Sanders aims to be 'the climate candidate' in Iowa caucus

Nick Coltrain | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Full speech: Bernie Sanders speaks at disability forum Watch the full speech U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders gave, Nov. 2, 2019, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders aims to solidify himself as “the climate candidate” in a crowded Democratic field with a Des Moines “climate crisis” summit featuring U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, senior state staff said.

The Saturday event will "make climate a focus of a presidential campaign to win the caucus in Iowa,” Iowa Deputy State Director Bill Neidhardt said Sunday, arguing that it's a first for a presidential campaign. “Even (former Vice President Al Gore) in 2000 didn't have that level of purpose.”

Every Democratic candidate has addressed climate change to a degree. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee campaigned for president almost exclusively on a climate change platform, but acknowledged his effort was largely to make it a topic in the primary race. After making a nationally televised debate, he dropped out of the race. Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is also making climate change a key plank of his candidacy.

The campaign wants to make the event in Des Moines into more than just a locally focused climate summit, Neidhardt said, but also on the broad effects of climate change. It will start at noon Saturday at Drake University.

"I say this, aware that I am in a church of God, that we have an enormous moral responsibility to ensure that the planet we leave to our kids is healthy and inhabitable,” Sanders said at an event at a Waterloo Baptist church Sunday.

Co-headliner Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman Democrat from New York City who quickly rocketed to political celebrity, is a lead sponsor of the “Green New Deal,” a comprehensive bill to reshape the economy around combating climate change.

The summit will also feature author and journalist Naomi Klein, whose newest book is titled "On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal," U.S. Youth Climate Strike co-founder and executive director Isra Hirsi and Sunrise Movement activist Zina Precht-Rodriguez. Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker and organic dairy farmer Francis Thicke will also feature at the summit.

Sanders has also staked out defining platforms of universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and tuition free higher education. In a Sunday speech, and echoing points he frequently makes on the campaign trail, Sanders described health care, housing, decent paying jobs, education and "living on a planet not being destroyed by climate change" as human rights.

"Bernie can do it all, right?" Neidhardt said. "Medicare for all is a foundational health care policy and we lead on that. But make no mistake, Sen. Bernie Sanders has the most comprehensive climate plan of any candidate. That puts us in a position to run on climate, be the climate candidate and win the caucus campaigning on climate."

This story has been updated to include the national activists who will speak at the summit. Their names were released Monday.

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.