Sierra Club Endorses Sam Liccardo
Liccardo is clear choice for environmental voters
SAN JOSE, CA — Today, one of the nation’s most influential environmental organizations, the Sierra Club, announced its endorsement of Sam Liccardo for Congress. This announcement builds on growing momentum for Liccardo, after a poll shows Liccardo with a 12% lead in the two-candidate race to replace the retiring Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.
“Instead of simply putting out press releases or posting on social media, Sam gets the work done to build a better future for our planet,” Sue Chow, Vice Chair of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club said. “He is the only candidate in this race who has pledged to turn down fossil fuel money. Sam is a unique environmental champion, with a detailed plan to address climate change, and the leadership to make it happen. For any voter who cares about our planet, Sam is the clear choice.“
“I’m honored to be endorsed by the Sierra Club,” Liccardo said. “I know that if we don’t take serious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect open space, and build a more sustainable power grid, our children will suffer. In a divided Congress, I’ll work to pass meaningful climate legislation.”
As mayor of San José, Liccardo led a series of initiatives that reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 36% in his tenure, including launching a community choice energy utility that provides San Jose’s 1 million residents with 95% GHG-free electricity at rates 8% less than PG&E’s. He led three ballot measures that protected open space and hillsides against development–despite heavy developer opposition–and made San Jose the largest U.S. city to halt gas connections for new residential and commercial construction. He was invited to testify on sustainability issues before Congress, before Pope Francis’ 2016 convening of global climate leaders at the Vatican, and before the COP-27 U.N. global climate conference in Egypt.
Liccardo has laid out a detailed and ambitious climate change agenda, which includes a carbon dividend, halting offshore drilling and fracking, accelerating grid expansion, and eliminating federal subsidies to oil and gas companies. He has also proposed an innovative initiative of federally-backed financing to help property owners retrofit their homes and businesses with rooftop solar, batteries, and more efficient electric appliances.
In contrast, Liccardo’s opponent, Evan Low, earned a 44% rating from the Sierra Club in 2020 for his votes in the State Assembly. Low also accepted over $35,000 from both Chevron and PG&E, $25,000 from Phillips 66, and tens of thousands from other oil and gas companies. Prior to the primary election in this race, PG&E spent $325,000 in a SuperPAC supporting Evan Low.
Liccardo is endorsed by the New Democrat Coalition, NorCal Carpenters Union, Laborers’ International Union of North America, Defend the Vote, California State Controller Malia Cohen, U.S. Representatives Nanette Barragan, Tony Cárdenas, Lou Correa, Robert Garcia, Linda Sanchez, and Scott Peters, Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and more than 100 local elected officials and community leaders. In the primary election, he was endorsed by the Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. A full endorsement list can be seen here.
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About Sam Liccardo
Sam Liccardo is running for Congress to focus Washington on the big issues like homelessness, climate change, reproductive rights, and the punishing cost of living. To a Congress that has been called the least productive in decades, Liccardo says “Let’s Get it Done!” on the problems that matter most to the Peninsula, the Coastside, and Silicon Valley.
As Mayor of San José, the Bay Area’s largest city, Liccardo’s innovative efforts to confront homelessness include pioneering the conversion of motels to housing in 2016, four years prior to California adopting it as a statewide model. He piloted the development of quick-build prefabricated housing communities that were constructed at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional apartments, helping thousands come off the streets. Liccardo also launched a successful program that employs unhoused residents cleaning the city in exchange for housing and pay (“San José Bridge”). Though San José long struggled with growing homelessness, it became one of the very few California cities to reduce street homelessness in Liccardo’s final year in office, 2022.
Under Liccardo, San José resolved chronic deficits, reduced city debt, and improved its credit rating, particularly through a 2016 ballot measure that saved taxpayers $3 billion over three decades. He took on the gun lobby and crafted a first-in-the-nation requirement for gun owners to pay annual fees to support violence-prevention programs and to purchase liability insurance. He launched San José Clean Energy for the city’s one million residents which now procures 95% of its electricity from renewable and GHG-free sources. Liccardo also led a series of successful ballot measures to preserve open space and hillsides, rebuild city streets and other infrastructure, and provide hundreds of millions in funding for housing affordable to vital workers such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. Liccardo led efforts to expand BART and was part of the regional coalition that supported the successful efforts to electrify Caltrain.
Prior to his service in elected office, Liccardo prosecuted felony crimes of sexual assault and child exploitation in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, and also served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of California. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Georgetown University. His published works have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other national publications. He and his wife, Jessica García-Kohl, live in San José.
About California’s 16th Congressional District
California’s 16th is an open Congressional District that covers parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, home to Silicon Valley. The district covers all or part of the cities of Menlo Park, Los Altos, Woodside, Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, Atherton, Pescadero, Portola Valley, Campbell, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Saratoga and Stanford.