Friends,

Today we took a big step: for the first time 350 Action — the political arm of 350.org — endorsed a candidate for office. We’re putting our support behind Rep. Ed Markey in his primary race against Rep. Stephen Lynch for the Democratic nomination to replace John Kerry in the US Senate.

There’s a simple reason to be involved in this race: Rep. Markey is a strong advocate for tackling the climate crisis, and Rep. Lynch voted to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. That’s why from now until the election April 30th, I’ll be in Massachusetts working with the amazing organizers in the 350 network here to show Rep. Lynch that he can’t get away with supporting the pipeline.

This is new territory for us, but the goal is to do what 350 does best: use the beauty and creativity of people-powered movements to change the game. If we can get thousands of Bay Staters pledging to vote to stop the pipeline and big groups of people young and old out at Lynch’s events calling him out for backing Keystone, we’ll send an important message to Rep. Lynch and everyone else in Washington: there are consequences for pushing this pipeline.

The first step is to pledge to Vote No KXL in the election on April 30th. Click here to make your pledge: VoteNoKXL.org/pledge_to_vote

There are two goals of the Vote No KXL campaign. The first is to organize the climate movement across Massachusetts to get out and vote for Ed Markey on April 30th. The second is to confront Rep. Lynch for his pipeline vote in the media and in the streets.

With big oil trying to get the pipeline built with new legislation in Congress, adding a pro-pipeline vote to the Senate could be the difference between the pipeline being built or staying blocked.

We don’t neccesarily savor working in elections, but this race is too important to sit out — we need to show Rep. Lynch and all Big Oil politicians that their support for the pipeline is unacceptable, and that we will mobilize against them every chance we get.

We can also show President Obama that this movement has legs, and begin to demonstrate that politicians that don’t move to confront the climate crisis can be removed from office.

Over the next forty-seven days, we’ll be registering voters on campuses, gathering pledges from students to ensure they’ll vote, and making sure Bay Staters know: we can’t afford Stephen Lynch in the Senate. Click here to pledge to vote and to be a part of this campaign: VoteNoKXL.org/pledge_to_vote

Can’t wait to work with you,

Ben Wessel

P.S. Also, you can keep up with the Vote No KXL campaign by following us on Facebook and Twitter.