Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has a new "climate engagement director": Camila Thorndike, a veteran figure in the far-left climate movement who has suggested she will not have children over fear of climate change and most recently worked for a group at the center of efforts to ban gas stoves.
Thorndike served for two years in various senior positions at Rewiring America, a climate-focused nonprofit that has advocated for the United States to rapidly electrify its entire economy—from the transportation and manufacturing sectors, to the residential and power sectors—according to her LinkedIn profile. In her role with the Harris campaign, she will be tasked with ginning up support for Harris from climate activists.
Thorndike has also promoted the idea that fear of climate change is a good reason to avoid having children. In 2022, for example, she told the Washington Post that she is hesitant to have a child out of "love for my hypothetical child" and because she wants to "protect them from suffering."
"Hello from official day one at Harris-Walz HQ! It's an honor to help the movements I love elect our future climate champion-in-chief," Thorndike wrote in a Wednesday LinkedIn post announcing the hire. She describes herself on LinkedIn as a "climate hype girl for democracy."
The decision to hire Thorndike, who has been a part of the far-left climate movement for years, suggests Harris is prepared to maintain a close relationship with anti-fossil fuel activists if elected. And it also appears to fly in the face of Harris's claims that while her "values have not changed," she no longer supports climate initiatives such as mandating electric vehicles or banning fracking.
Kamala's new "climate engagement director," Camila Thorndike, is the electric stove on the left. https://t.co/AL9GAXuXez
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) September 4, 2024
Rewiring America was founded in 2020 to "help mobilize America to address climate change and jump-start the economy by electrifying everything."
The group was ultimately at the center of the recent push to ban gas-powered stovetops. Talor Gruenwald, a research associate at Rewiring America, was the lead author on a study published in December 2022 that blamed rising cases of childhood asthma on gas stove usage. That study was then cited by government officials including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who used it to push electric stoves.
The group broadly advocates for a series of policies to boost green energy and discourage fossil fuel use in the United States, and has invoked World War II-style spending programs as a model for fighting global warming.
"We will need to triple the amount of electricity delivered in the U.S. and we’ll discover that the moonshot engineering project we need is a new grid with new operating rules, more like the Internet. We must have ‘grid neutrality,’" one of the group's co-founders Saul Griffith wrote in a blog post in September 2020. "The industrial mobilization required will mean an effort similar to WWII’s Arsenal of Democracy in size, speed, and scope."
Griffith then published two lengthy reports outlining how the nation can achieve "total decarbonization" and quickly rewrite regulations governing how energy is developed.
Since then, Rewiring America has expanded and has taken a high-profile role influencing the Biden-Harris administration's policymaking. For example, the group was involved in negotiations related to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, it has been featured in White House electric vehicle initiatives, its cofounder Alex Laskey participated in a White House electrification event, and it is listed as a Department of Energy partner in the agency's energy efficiency efforts.
"The future is shaped by the efforts to mobilize and empower voters to deliver electoral victories, so the power really lies with the people, and if you can out-organize the oligarchy, you can save the world," Thorndike told the outlet Canary Media when asked about her and Rewiring America's efforts negotiating the Inflation Reduction Act.
"I hope this takeaway resonates with our collective movements that are defending the wins of the Inflation Reduction Act and creating conditions for more ambitious, inclusive legislation, which still needs to continue," she continued. "We are, after all, still in a life-or-death situation for our planet and democracy."
And Rewiring America made headlines last year when it hired failed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as its senior counsel. Abrams said at the time that she was excited to join the group "to share the benefits of electrification and ensure families get their fair share."
The group, meanwhile, is a project of the Windward Fund, a pass-through organization that is, in turn, a key cog in the billion-dollar dark money network managed by the Washington, D.C.-based firm Arabella Advisors.
As a project of a separate entity, Rewiring America isn't required to file tax forms with the IRS, its total funding remains unknown, and its funders are largely shielded from public view. According to tax filings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, however, it has received significant funding from left-wing pass-through groups like the Sergey Brin Family Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Prior to joining Rewiring America, Thorndike ran Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I., Vt.) climate portfolio and worked for a number of climate activist organizations such as the Sunrise Movement.
Rewiring America and the Harris campaign didn't respond to requests for comment.