Photo courtesy of Sunrise Chicago

Before Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage to accept her party’s nomination for president tonight, another topic is expected to enter the spotlight: climate change. While Democrats haven’t made it a huge focus of the convention so far, they plan to center it more tonight (according to NPR) in speeches by the likes of Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in an effort to highlight the Biden administration’s wins on the issue.

Though it remains unclear how exactly climate will figure into Harris’ agenda, many environmental groups are still lining up to endorse her. Others appear more hesitant.

One of the groups that has yet to endorse her is the youth-led Sunrise Movement. Sunrise’s early campaigns targeted newly-elected Democrats like Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who participated in one of its earliest and most notable protests to push for climate action, a sit-in at Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s office in 2018. Then the group helped push Harris on climate during her last presidential campaign, commending her support for the Green New Deal and her commitment to banning fracking. But these were promises Harris has since walked back.

Recently, Sunrise has been vocal about its support for a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, holding a protest at President Biden’s campaign office in February and supporting the Uncommitted movement, which has been fighting to speak at the DNC. (Earlier today, my colleague Noah Lanard published a copy of the speech they would have given.)

Hours before climate night and the last night of the DNC, I talked to Sunrise Movement co-founder and communications director Stevie O’Hanlon about how the organization views Harris at this crucial moment.

I’m wondering if you can talk about the evolution of Harris as someone who said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning........

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