Invest in Tomorrow was founded after the Trump administration — with the help of congressional Republicans — unraveled clean-energy incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act. Its goal is to threaten clean energy opponents with the kind of electoral consequences long wielded by the gun lobby and oil interests.
The group’s first three targets were all congressional Republicans: Rep. Chip Roy, who was running for state attorney general in Texas; Rep. Andy Ogles, who was seeking reelection in Tennessee; and Rep. Ralph Norman, whom ITC targeted in his bid for South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial nomination in June and then again in the recent race for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s seat. All three lost their races.
The ads ITC pays for generally do not reflect the group’s focus on climate and clean energy issues. Instead, it deploys messages it thinks will be most effective against an individual candidate. Ads opposing Roy painted him as insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump, for example. The spots running against McKee accuse him of mismanaging the Washington Bridge closure and of doing financial favors for his donors.
McKee is not the only Democratic governor to consider tempering climate commitments in the face of high prices and anxious constituents. Most prominently, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has rolled back the state’s once-ambitious emissions-reduction goals.
McKee, however, has been perhaps the most pugnacious on the topic. He declared in July that anyone who argues against his proposals wants residents to have higher bills and is “advocating for their own personal self-interests.”
“If you wanted to take an action to show the Democratic governors that they need to get in line on the issue of climate, McKee is a good choice,” said Christian Roselund, a leader with nonprofit advocacy group Climate Action Rhode Island. “I’ve been trying to find a Democratic governor with a worse record on the climate than Dan McKee, and I’m not sure there is one.”
