Press Releases

LCVVF Names Ted Cruz to 2018 Dirty Dozen

Oct 15, 2018

Alyssa Roberts, 202-454-4573, aroberts@lcv.org

Washington, D.C.  – Today, LCV Victory Fund named Texas Senator Ted Cruz to its annual Dirty Dozen list. For more than two decades, the iconic list has targeted candidates who consistently side against the environment and public health. A notorious climate denier, Cruz has one of the worst environmental records in the Senate — earning him an abysmal 3 percent lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard.

Cruz has voted against dozens of policies that promote clean air and clean water, and against protections for Texas’ public lands. In just the last two years, Cruz has voted to confirm anti-environmental officials to lead the top federal agencies which are supposed to protect our environment, public health, and clean energy economy. Meanwhile, Cruz has taken nearly $2.9 million from the oil and gas industry since he was first elected to the Senate.

Cruz opposes the Production Tax Credit for wind energy, and voted against legislation to extend it. He also voted against installing solar panels on 10 million roofs by 2025, creating jobs and reducing carbon pollution in the process.

“Ted Cruz is an extreme, out-of-touch climate denier who has failed to protect public health,” said Pete Maysmith, LCV Victory Fund Senior Vice President for Campaigns. “He has voted against protections for public lands and efforts to expand renewable energy while refusing to accept that climate change is real even as Texas experiences serious droughts and destructive storms like Hurricane Harvey. Cruz’s record is catastrophic, and it’s time for Texas to send a new voice to the Senate.”

Among his most extreme policy positions are Cruz’s views on climate change. He has repeatedly labeled climate change as liberal propaganda while smearing scientists as ideologues. In a 2015 interview while Cruz was running for president, he said: “a number of scientists receiving large government grants — disregard the science and data and instead push political ideology.” He has also said that climate change is a pseudoscientific theory that isn’t supported by data and facts, asserting that “global warming alarmists are the equivalent of flat-Earthers.”

Over the years, Cruz has escalated his hostility towards science. In June, he was one of four senators who called for an investigation into the National Science Foundation’s grants, specifically regarding a meteorological education program, saying “[it] is not science — it is propagandizing.”

LCV Action Fund has endorsed Beto O’Rourke in the race, noting that he “has been a consistent champion for our right to clean air, water and conservation of public lands.”

 

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Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, www.lcvvictoryfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.