As the 2026 midterms approach, voters are contending with concerns around affordability, the AI boom, and climate disruption in their daily lives. AI data centers have become the wild card in energy politics, driving up energy demand and utility bills, and playing a large role in a battleground House primary. A year after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rolled back key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, many climate advocates assumed the energy transition was stalled out, but new research suggests otherwise. How will climate and energy shape the ballot box this year? And what's it like to campaign on those issues in a swing state?William Lawrence, Candidate, US Congress MI-07; Co-founder, Sunrise MovementLeah Stokes, Associate Professor, UC Santa Barbara; Author, “The Carbon Wave”Lily Bermel, Visiting Fellow, Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit our ⁠episode page⁠ at ClimateOne.org Highlights:***Join Climate One for a town hall event on September 28 at 6 p.m. on navigating AI, climate, and the future of democracy. How do we ensure that AI and data centers serve the public good? How does a democracy function when AI is distorting our sense of shared truths? Tickets available at ⁠climateone.org/events⁠ ***Also: We’ll be having an electric conversation on October 14 at 6 p.m. between PG&E CEO Patti Poppe and California State Senator Scott Wiener about energy affordability, outages, and whether cities like San Francisco are ready to break up with the investor-owned utility model. Tickets available at ⁠climateone.org/events⁠ ***Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. ⁠Sign up today⁠.***Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/adsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices