“Democrats Don’t Have to Campaign on Climate Change Anymore,” written by Professor of Geography and the Environment Matt Huber, was published in the New York Times. Following is an excerpt:

For the past several months, Democratic elites have been debating how much to talk about climate change, if at all—in part because these new candidates have narrowed their focus to energy affordability to win back the working class. It is a striking shift from a few years ago, when many Democratic politicians thought the promise of a Green New Deal would build a coalition based on green jobs and fighting inequality.

Candidates like Mr. Forstag [a Democrat running for Congress in Montana] have the right strategy. The kinds of policies they support—for example, public investments in infrastructure like housing and electricity—will help address climate change, but there is little reason for politicians like them to focus on the issue anymore. The candidates’ first task must be to regain credibility with working people by tackling their more immediate, material concerns.

The voters who already prioritize climate action are firmly in the Democratic camp and highly educated and affluent, or as the economist Thomas Piketty calls them, the “Brahmin left.” What candidates like Mr. Forstag, Mr. Reichard [a Democratic U.S. House candidate in Missouri] and Ms. Berg [a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota] seem to understand is that for blue-collar voters, energy is an end-of-the-month issue and affordability should be the overarching policy goal. This is all the more important today, given rising electricity rates and war-fueled spikes in gasoline prices.