Decisive wins by Will Lawrence (MI-07), Dr. Randy Villegas (CA-22), and a historic flip of the Georgia Public Service Commission mark a transformative turning point for grassroots political power, energy justice, and community self-determination.
November 5, 2026 – In a historic midterm election, voters across the United States have delivered a scathing rebuke to the politics of corporate extraction, fossil fuel handouts, and regulatory rollbacks by handing pro-climate majorities control of both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
Crucially, this national mandate was catalyzed from the ground up by the decisive victories of frontline champions endorsed by U.S. Mobilizing for Urgent Sustainable Transformation (USMUST), proving that when organized communities reject corporate PAC money and run on unapologetic protection for working people, systemic transformation is achievable.
USMUST Endorsed Champions Break Through in Pivotal Battlegrounds
USMUST proudly celebrates the election of our endorsed candidates whose grassroots campaigns defeated entrenched corporate incumbents and rewrote the political map:
- Will Lawrence Wins Michigan’s 7th Congressional District (MI-07): In one of the most critical and watched congressional battlegrounds in the country, organizer Will Lawrence defeated Republican incumbent Tom Barrett (51% to 48%). Fueled by record voter mobilization across Ingham County (Lansing and East Lansing), working-class families sent a lifelong tenant organizer to Congress who refused corporate PAC, fossil fuel, and utility money—delivering a decisive blow against speculative data center grid drain and monopoly utility shutoffs.
- Dr. Randy Villegas Flips California’s 22nd Congressional District (CA-22): In an extraordinary upset across the Southern Central Valley, educator and community advocate Dr. Randy Villegas unseated entrenched Republican incumbent David Valadao. The son of Mexican immigrant farmworkers, Dr. Villegas mobilized farmworker and immigrant communities across Kern, Tulare, and Kings counties to declare that the Central Valley’s children and agricultural families will no longer be treated as an acceptable sacrifice zone for corporate agribusiness and toxic industrial pollution.
- Historic Flip of the Georgia Public Service Commission (Districts 3 & 5): In a seismic victory for energy justice, Peter Hubbard (District 3) won statewide re-election against Fitz Johnson, and Shelia Edwards (District 5) captured the open seat defeating Josh Tolbert. Alongside sitting commissioner Alicia Johnson, their statewide victories create a 3–2 consumer-first majority on the Georgia Public Service Commission for the first time in 20 years. This breaks Georgia Power’s two-decade streak of rubber-stamping compounding rate hikes, establishing immediate democratic oversight over utility bills and forcing hyperscale AI data centers to pay for their own grid demand rather than balancing their budgets on the backs of everyday households.
Standing in Covenant: Honoring Justin J. Pearson’s Unbroken Movement
While we celebrate monumental breakthroughs nationwide, USMUST also acknowledges with heartfelt disappointment the outcome in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, where our endorsed brother Justin J. Pearson fell short of victory on Tuesday night.
At USMUST, our endorsement is never a fair-weather transaction; it is an enduring covenant. We know that real transformation is not measured solely by a single night’s election tally, but by the generational courage required to contest for power in the most gerrymandered and disenfranchised corridors of the South. We fiercely celebrate Justin’s unyielding commitment to environmental justice, Black life, clean drinking water, and the sacred inheritance of the ballot. From stopping the Byhalia Pipeline in South Memphis to standing unbowed in the state legislature, Justin has reminded our entire nation what moral clarity looks like. His leadership has forever shifted the soil in Tennessee, and USMUST looks forward with deep pride and anticipation to walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him in his continued organizing for our people, our land, and our collective survival.
What These Victories Mean for the Broader Justice Movement
These victories transcend individual ballot tallies; they demonstrate a structural realignment in American politics. For decades, conventional political wisdom insisted that frontline communities must moderate their demands, accommodate fossil fuel lobbyists, and rely on top-down party machines to remain competitive. The 2026 midterm results dismantle that fiction:
- The Power of Principled Independence: Candidates who unequivocally refused corporate, utility, and fossil fuel PAC contributions outperformed national projections. Financial independence created unshakeable moral trust with working-class voters weary of transactional politics.
- Connecting Climate Directly to Kitchen-Table Survival: By framing environmental defense around skyrocketing electricity bills, clean tap water, and children’s respiratory health, these campaigns met people where they live. The historic flip of the Georgia PSC proves that utility commissions and down-ballot regulatory bodies are frontline battlegrounds for economic survival.
- From Defense to Co-Governance: Sending movement-rooted organizers into the halls of Congress and statewide regulatory commissions provides the environmental and climate justice movement with authentic partners in governance—leaders who carry our people’s prayers and struggles directly into legislative chambers.
The Immediate Federal Mandate for the Incoming Congress
With incoming majorities in the House and Senate, federal lawmakers hold a non-negotiable obligation to deliver tangible relief to everyday Americans reeling from crushing utility bills, soaring property insurance premiums, extreme weather, and the systematic rollbacks of the past two years.
The incoming Congress must immediately execute an aggressive political offense:
- Launch Rigorous Congressional Oversight & Investigations: Utilize subpoena power and committee gavels to investigate transactional corruption between the executive branch and fossil fuel donors, halting corporate handouts that sacrifice public health.
- Deliver Real Energy Affordability & Reinstate Frontline Programs: Protect consumers by passing national utility shutoff moratoria, expanding community solar, and restoring programs like Solar for All that cut electric bills in disinvested neighborhoods.
- Establish Guardrails on Hyperscale Data Centers: Enact federal standards ensuring Big Tech and AI facilities pay the full cost of their energy and water consumption rather than passing infrastructure costs onto residential ratepayers. Data Center developers should also be required to be accountable to the communities they impact and have a robust process of community engagement to ensure they meet the demands prior to siting their buildings.
- Restore Bedrock Public Health Protections: Re-establish vital clean air and toxic protections, including the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), and codify cumulative impact assessments for industrial permitting in frontline corridors.
- Uphold International Climate Commitments: Re-engage global climate mechanisms to support communities on the frontlines of catastrophic loss and damage, recognizing that isolationism leaves domestic families vulnerable to rising global supply chain shocks.