California Delegation Nominates Biden for President, Touts Environmental Justice

Standing in front of lapping waves and beachgoers at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Los Angeles Supervisor Hilda Solis represented California virtually in the roll call to nominate Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.

Lee and Solis, two of California’s co-chairs to the national convention, touted Biden’s commitment to environmental justice as part of a “Roll Call Across America,” that featured nominating videos from across the country.

“Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on polluters to protect our air and water is about environmental justice and economic justice,” said Lee. 

The pair, appearing to stand physically distanced in the sand, announced California’s award of 263 delegates for Biden, and 231 delegates for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders won California’s March primary but Biden picked up the lion’s share of the state’s unpledged delegates, which include state party leaders and officeholders.

During the Democratic primary campaign, Solis backed Biden, while Lee supported California Senator Kamala Harris.

Rep. Ro Khanna of Fremont, the third co-chair of the California delegation and a supporter of Bernie Sanders, did not participate in the roll call.

Solis, the former Secretary of Labor, was an early pioneer in the environmental justice movement — pushing for laws to mitigate the impacts that polluting landfills and factories had on the predominately Latino neighborhoods she represented in the state legislature and Congress.

“Climate change is not a hoax, it’s real,” Solis said on Tuesday. “And communities of color have been bearing the brunt of this reality for generations.” 

While the environmental and climate justice movements have taken hold in California, the issues have been largely absent from Biden’s own climate record.

On the campaign trail, Biden has touted his work enacting the 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act, seen as a boon for clean energy investment in states including California.

But studies of the stimulus have found no way to track its benefits for communities of color.

Biden’s platform for president, by contrast, contains explicit goals of “righting wrongs in communities that bear the brunt of pollution.”

Those include a goal of identifying front-line communities and a promise that “disadvantaged communities receive 40% of overall benefits” of clean energy spending.

“He will prioritize equity and bring clean energy jobs to black and brown neighborhoods,” Solis said. 

Biden has also promised to create an Environmental and Climate Justice division within the Department of Justice, to investigate and prosecute polluters.

Tuesday’s convention program also gave a platform to one of California’s rising Democratic stars: Robert Garcia, the mayor of Long Beach.

Garcia appeared in the convention’s virtual keynote address, a speech traditionally reserved for the party’s young talent. This year, the segment featured seventeen speakers who wove pieces of their own stories into an endorsement of Biden and a critique of President Donald Trump.

“You deserve more than the constant chaos Donald Trump delivers,” Garcia said. 

In recent weeks, Garcia’s mother and stepfather both died of complications from COVID-19. Garcia, the first openly gay mayor in the city’s history, has posted openly about his loss, and promoted the need for vigilance against the coronavirus.

“We’re facing the biggest economic and health crisis in generations, because our president didn’t and still doesn’t have a plan,” he said Tuesday.

Garcia came to the United States from Peru at age five, with his mother, Gaby. He attended California State University, Long Beach, as an undergraduate, and returned to earn a doctoral degree in education. He told convention viewers on Tuesday that he has “lived the frustration of paying off student loans.” 

The second night of the Democrats’ four-day convention also included speeches from former Secretary of State John Kerry, and Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden. On Wednesday night of the convention, Sen. Kamala Harris will introduce herself to the nation as Biden’s running mate.