“Climate change” wasn’t exactly a prominent topic across 2026 midterm campaigns. But post-election, it’s clear that the climate still won big, and that means more climate action could be right around the corner.

Donald Trump spent the first two years of his second term as president heavily attacking the environment, and the country’s climate efforts. And yet opposing candidates were warned not to focus on the topic.

Addressing “climate change” was “not a priority” for battleground voters, the SearchLight Institute, a think tank founded by Democratic strategist Adam Jantleson, warned last September. 

Many listened to that advice: Out of all Democratic and Republican candidates in eight of the key states in the fight for Senate control (Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, Michigan, North Caroline, Ohio, Texas), only two mentioned “climate” on their campaign websites, the Guardian reported.

The two candidates, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and James Talarico in Texas, both won their bids for the Senate.

Even elected Democrats have embraced “climate hushing” recently. An Inside Climate News analysis of press releases issued by members of the House and Senate found that mentions of climate change plummeted since 2025. 

Still, climate change did appear in the midterms in tangential ways. Candidates railed against AI data centers and soaring energy bills, and many made connections between clean energy investment and lower utility costs. 

And some candidates did outright embrace it. In Michigan, Democrat Will Lawrence, co-creator of the Sunrise Movement—a youth-led advocacy group that helped shape Joe Biden’s climate policies —beat an incumbent Republican, flipping a House seat.

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