I had my Vote! shirt on today because Third Act is running through the tape. Our Party Line senior-to-senior outreach moves into final get-out-the-vote mode today; we’ve already passed half a million phone and text contacts, and we are going to keep going till the bitter end, making sure that the folks we’ve IDed actually cast their votes.

It’s important—and it’s also an advanced form of self-soothing, because I find election day hard to deal with. So much rides on the outcome today, more than realistically should. We’ll find out whether or not the fightback against our slide into fascism-with-American-characteristics has begun in earnest; it’ll obviously take more than one election but at this point we have to win them all. Beginning tonight.

I think the reason it feels so fateful is that we’re counting whether there are more open-hearted people voting, or scared-hateful-cramped people. More people who can analyze their own self-interest and also see beyond it, or more people trapped in some ugly algorithmic spiral. I wish it weren’t so starkly good and evil—but after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good (and Joan Guerrero and Victor Diaz and…) it feels pretty inescapably binary. And so we do all we can.

Here, for instance, is a good reminder from Ning Mosberger-Tang to go all the way down the ballot!

This election season, millions of voters have the chance to advance affordability and climate progress by electing pro-clean energy commissioners to their states’ Public Service Commissions or PSCs (also known as Public Utility Commissions or PUCs)—a line at or near the bottom of their ballots. PSCs have enormous power over their states’ energy systems. They authorize the building of new energy infrastructure, set policies for rooftop solar and how its owners are paid, and oversee long-term planning that determines whether state clean energy goals are met. They are also responsible for ensuring utilities charge fair and reasonable prices for electricity.The donor collaborative that I founded, 1.5°Climate, made strategic fundraising for important PSC races around the country a top priority this year. One of those crucial races is in Georgia. 1.5°Climate’s decision to highlight the Georgia PSC elections was the result of a rigorous analysis that considered the potential climate impact of a positive outcome and pro-clean energy candidates’ chances of winning. Ahead of the special election last year that put clean energy advocate Peter Hubbard in an open seat on the PSC,1.5°Climate raised more than $800,000 from donors around the country for local nonprofit ally Georgia League of Conservation Voters (GCV) to elevate clean energy and affordability issues in the race. After his victory, Hubbard told the Macon Telegraph, “I will work tirelessly to lower utility costs, to bring more clean, reliable energy resources to this state, and to refocus the Commission’s work on the public interest.”Georgia PSC commissioners are up for election again next week, with five candidates running to fill two open seats. 1.5°Climate is once again bringing its combination of nationwide fundraising and local alliances to the Georgia PSC election, a huge opportunity for climate progress at the state level. Local organizing by Third Act and GCV, with fundraising support from 1.5°Climate–which has already raised an additional $500,000 for GCV this year—are helping to put a pro-clean energy majority on the PSC........

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