Rep. Eric Sorensen is unique in the halls of Congress — he worked as a meteorologist on television before joining the House of Representatives. He’s the first one since the 1970s, and he isn’t afraid of talking about the climate crisis or how his former career prepared him for his current one.
As a weatherman, Sorensen worked to incorporate climate change into his forecasts, trying to present information that would be useful to viewers’ daily lives without being political. It was at a time when even acknowledging climate was divisive — something he blames on former Vice President Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth.”
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What does your experience as a TV weathercaster bring to the various demands of this job?
We haven’t ever had a meteorologist come to Congress from the background of the science, but more importantly than that, the background of the science communication. You know, how does it make sense to everyday people in Midwestern America?
When I was talking about climate on television, I never told anybody that they did anything wrong, or that they had to do something different. Instead, I was just communicating the science. And I didn’t realize that the farmers, they were the ones listening, because they were already being impacted. And immediately, they could understand it.
It seems like some meteorologists are afraid to talk about climate change because it might alienate people. Is that a legitimate fear?
I think for a lot of people it is. For a meteorologist who spent a lot of time in one place, they are the authority for that science. They have to understand that there’s a risk in talking about something that may be perceived as political.
For instance, for me, in order to talk about climate in 2008, I had to go from the news director to the general manager to the CEO. And then I had to figure out when I had to talk about it. And then we went back and looked at the Nielsen ratings, we had to look at the email and snail mail and everything else. We could quantify what was the reaction. And the reaction was not negative. We never splintered the audience. In fact, the audience grew, because no one was talking about it.
After that, I went to weather conventions and I was able to get up on stage in from of 700 meteorologists to say, ‘It does work, you can talk about this.’
He also discusses how being the weatherman prepared him for Congress in the CSPAN interview.
Naturally, Sorensen is on the Science, Space and Technology Committee as well as the Agriculture Committee. He is trying to make an impact on both despite being in the minority. He can influence legislation to best serve his constituents and shape our response to the climate crisis.
However, his time in Congress could be cut short, as he resides in a swing seat that may be trending away from us. The question for Rep. Eric Sorensen is whether or not 2024 is the end of the line for him.
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Rep. Eric Sorensen is one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the nation. He barely won his initial election in 2022 by a 52%-48% result. That’s why I’ve included him in a group of 23 incumbents or open-seat races we are defending. #SaveTheMajority Fund.
Eric Sorensen for Illinois-17
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