In the closely watched North Carolina Governor’s race, Attorney General Josh Stein resoundingly defeated Lieutenant Governor and climate denier Mark Robinson, even as Trump carried the state. Stein ran on his climate record, including his record of holding corporate polluters accountable for dumping toxic chemicals into our water.

Stein is succeeded as Attorney General by former U.S. Representative Jeff Jackson, a longtime advocate for clean energy. He has pledged to use his office to protect the right to vote, safeguard future elections, and hold polluters accountable. We also picked up state legislative seats and broke the Republican supermajority in the North Carolina General Assembly, protecting the Governor’s ability to veto bad legislation that could harm the environment.

State Supreme Court justices have vast influence over state environmental and democracy policy, with the power to uphold climate action policies and strike down harmful legislation.

Starting in WISCONSIN in 2023, then-circuit judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated her opponent by a 11-point margin. This victory for Protasiewicz flipped the court from an anti-environment majority to one that now leans pro-environment.

In MICHIGAN, two justices will increase the Court’s pro-environment majority to 5-2, after Kyra Harris Bolden won re-election and Kimberly Thomas came out on top in her open race. 

And in NORTH CAROLINA, Justice Allison Riggs, a pro-environment judge, retained her seat on the state Supreme Court by approximately 700 votes.

With Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin and anti-climate legislative leaders threatening to roll back the state’s ambitious climate act, the stakes were high in Virginia’s 2023 state elections. Fossil fuel special interests spent millions in dark money attacking pro-climate legislators. In a resounding success, pro-climate candidates retained their majority in the state Senate and flipped the House of Delegates.