Telemundo: These Congressional Candidates Deny The Climate Crisis While Seeking To Represent The Latinos Who Are The Most Affected By It

Dozens of politicians, however, continue to downplay the climate crisis, even denying it in their public comments, and obstruct legislation that seeks to mitigate both its causes and its effects, which in many cases are harming people, sometimes Latinos, who they then ask to vote for them.

In Florida, for example, with at least 6.1 million Latinos, sea levels in Miami are expected to rise by 17 inches by 2040. Floods and hurricanes (a historic season is expected this year) are compounded by the highest heat on record.

In the Tampa Bay area on Florida's west coast, Republican Anna Paulina Luna represents District 13. In 2019, she claimed that "the Earth is in a phase of global warming," but "in articles from the 1970s, the main theme back then was global cooling. The Earth, like most organic beings, works in cycles. We're not going to go extinct in 12 years."

This is a myth used to deny the climate emergency and has even been disproven in scientific articles, which claim that as early as the 1970s, despite not having the same level of climate science as today, the scientific community was concerned about the greenhouse effect that causes global warming.

Luna has rejected the idea that reducing fossil fuel emissions (coal and oil) is necessary to combat the climate crisis, contrary to what the international scientific community and the 195 countries that signed the Paris Climate Agreement (including the United States) affirm.

Noticias Telemundo called the congresswoman's office in Tampa and wrote to three members of her congressional staff, but has not yet received a response.

Another state hardest hit by the climate crisis (and with 40% Latinos) is California.

Mike Garcia, a representative for District 27, said in 2019 that "the fires are not a result of climate change" and that they were "caused by people" and the result of "poor leadership".

Climate scientists at NASA, among many, many others, claim that the climate crisis in the Southwest is making fires more numerous and severe (due to heat and drought)-Garcia has a degree in political science and a master's degree in national security policy, with no apparent climate training.

Telemundo News called Garcia's office in Washington DC and was referred to an email address. No response has been received so far.

NASA also highlights how the climate crisis is increasing the incidence and severity of wildfires in the Northwest. In Oregon, the first Latina representative for District 5, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, criticized the Democratic plan to eliminate the American economy's dependence on polluting coal plants. "The climate has been changing for thousands and thousands of years. We can't predict when it will change," she said in 2023.

Also in Texas, but far from the hurricanes, in the arid desert on the border with Mexico, extreme heat broke the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in 2024. In District 15, Republican Monica De La Cruz faces Democrat Michelle Vallejo in one of the closest races of November, spokespeople from both parties told Noticias Telemundo.

In 2021, De La Cruz took to Facebook to criticize the 13 Republicans who voted for the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill pushed by the Democratic administration of Joe Biden because it funded programs to combat the climate crisis.