Climate hasn't been core to the GOP. These conservatives are trying to change that

Tucked into a hallway at the Republican National Convention, between booths promoting the Second Amendment and another selling official merchandise of the Trump Campaign, sat a sprawling display of the conservative legacy in environmentalism.

Young conservatives ran back and forth asking convention goers with Nixon pins if they were familiar with former President Richard Nixon’s environmental policy. They approached oil lobbyists about the need for climate change conversations. They handed out stickers to rising young Republican voters.

“The word ‘Conservative’ is in ‘conservation,’” said Aidan Shank, one member of the American Conservation Coalition, the environmental group that set up the booth.

For years, the Republican Party has gotten a reputation for denying climate science and the urgency of global warming. Their statements about the environment usually focus on burning more fossil fuels, the biggest driver of climate change.

But this year, for the first time in recent memory, conservatives had a climate showing at the Republican National Convention. The leadership of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC) flew to Milwaukee for a week of conversations around climate, conservation, and energy. They kept up efforts to win delegates’ attention and support, even as their party nominated former President Donald Trump, who doesn’t acknowledge the full effects of human-caused climate change and has vowed to rescind many of President Biden’s climate-related investments.

Young conservatives are likely to support Trump this November. Still, they want to see their party talk about climate and energy policy. They see potential for a Trump administration to prioritize domestic production of clean energy. Unlike their Democratic counterparts–and prevailing climate science—they also still back oil and gas development.

“We can be hopeful. And our approach has always been to work with people where we can,” said Danielle Butcher Franz, CEO of ACC. She added: “We really are using this RNC to introduce ourselves to the base, and to stakeholders, and to say there's a better way to do environmental policy.”

Young conservatives hope to reframe the conversation

On their first morning in Milwaukee, six members of ACC got ready at an Airbnb for their convention debut. Decked out with their American flag caps, brown Tevoca boots, American flag belt and button-up shirt with bison, they planned out their RNC reception event schedule: arrive at 1 pm, do a reception hosted by another group, and have time to visit, talk to dozens of people over five hours.

ACC was an RNC sponsor, cementing its mark at the Republican gathering. It's considered a significant milestone for the group, which formed in 2017 during the first Trump administration.

At its inception, it quickly attracted young politicos like Stephen Perkins, the 29-year-old chief operating officer of ACC.

“I grew up going camping and with my dad and fishing and all that sort of stuff. And so we've always had an appreciation for the environment and the outdoors,” said Perkins, of the Texas places he grew up in and loved. “As I got more involved in politics, the issues that I gravitated toward were the tougher ones.”

Perkins likes to talk to fellow young conservatives about the impact of climate change on most policy issues. He recalled when one young Republican told him that he didn’t care about climate — that he was more concerned about immigration. Perkins had an answer for him.

“Not the only reason, but a big reason why people are coming here is many of them are climate refugees,” Perkins said of the explanation he gave about immigration “There are places where whether it's flooding or extreme heat, they're coming here to escape that. And so there's actually a connection.”

Generally, Republicans have not seen climate as their issue. And leaders, like Trump and Vance, have championed fossil fuel production over conservation and climate action.

“He’s (Trump) not perfect. We certainly recognize that. He needs to talk about climate change,” Perkins said. “But when you talk about seven years ago when ACC was started, you couldn't get Republican elected officials to even talk about climate change.”

Some of that has evolved. During the first GOP debate, an ACC member asked presidential candidates running against Trump how they would ease fears that the GOP doesn’t care about climate. There were few direct answers.

Although climate is not a top issue for Republicans, it does rank higher on the list of policy priorities for younger Republicans. The steps are small but ACC hopes a younger generation of conservatives can reframe the conversation. One way of doing so was with the large booth at the convention.

Most visitors were curious and generally supportive. They picked up stickers, and fliers and colored a large poster that spelled out the word “legacy.”

There was the occasional pushback — like an oil lobbyist who denied climate change.

“Approaching every conversation with empathy is the first place to begin,” said Aidan Shank, who was staffing the ACC table. “There's so many places where we can agree, and just assuming that the conversation revolves around finding those agreements, sometimes that's the most constructive way to create dialogue.”

The leaders at ACC wanted to create the organization in order to facilitate the conversations Shank is having at the convention now. Like Perkins, Danielle Butcher Franz grew up in the outdoors. Raised in a more liberal family, she said she never thought of the environment as a partisan issue, until she started talking to others.

“As we would speak to our peers, we would notice over and over them saying things like, ‘I'm conservative except on the environment’ or ‘I want to support Democrats because of climate change,’” Butcher Franz said.

Though she generally feels welcome in her conservative spaces, she at first had to fight stereotypes.

“On the right, you would sort of have this skepticism of, ‘Are you really conservatives, or is this like a Trojan horse for big government solutions that we don't agree with?’ ” Butcher Franz said, noting that she also pushes back against stereotypes about Republican interest in climate.

“It can be frustrating to have to constantly feel like you're in myth-busting mode, and you have to constantly dispel these preconceived notions that people have about what you believe and what you stand for,” Butcher Franz said.

Republicans celebrate being at the convention — at all

Later in the day, the group gathers inside the Mitchell Park Domes Horticulture Conservatory to host a reception with dozens of guests and to talk about energy innovation, and Republicans’ long involvement with the environment. Mainly, they wanted to celebrate being at the convention.

Nearly all the speakers acknowledged that this kind of convention presence was new and signals a turning tide. In remarks, ACC President Chris Barnard noted that he believed this was a historic event. “This is the first time something like this has happened at a Republican convention — we have a conservative climate reception,” he proudly told the crowd.

Talking with NPR, Barnard says he still feels like there is a stereotype that to care about climate or conservation is to be a Democrat. But he wants to see the GOP — even Trump and Vance — to take advantage of the issue.

“It's politically very popular,” Barnard said. “And so the first thing to say really is that for anyone in the Republican Party, that's not championing that message: That's really just a lost opportunity.”

Barnard saw speaking to delegates and other 2024 candidates at the convention as a foot in the door. And he hopes ACC’s conversations, the booth and receptions encourage them to address climate in their local races.

“It's important to talk to them and kind of equip them with the messaging and how they can talk about these issues,” Barnard said. “And hoping that there's a good opportunity to work with Republicans on important environmental and climate policies.”