Al Gore hasn’t been on the political front in a while, but the climate change activist is about to get on the stump for Hillary Clinton, according to various sources. Gore’s mission? The 68-year-old former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate is being deputized to capture the millennials who have been so resistant to the Clinton campaign, especially the “Bernie Bros” who still think casting a protest vote for someone like Jill Stein is a way to move the country forward.
Gore’s status as a combination of idealist and realist — best demonstrated by his climate film An Inconvenient Truth — gives him credibility with these dissatisfied voters. Gore also brings the painful experience of having his own presidential hopes diluted by Ralph Nader‘s independent candidacy in 2000 — when some believe the Nader protest vote delivered the presidency to George W. Bush. It’s not clear why Gore is stepping up now, but it could be environmental policy alone that drives him. The GOP ticket has repeatedly accused Clinton of waging a “war on coal.” That’s a war that Gore would volunteer to fight himself. Millennial voters — even those who have expressed reluctance to vote for Clinton — consistently cite climate concerns as a huge issue.
