How Helene changes the election

Hello, and welcome back to State of Emergency. My name is Zoya Teirstein. We’ve heard it time and again: Despite what the science says, climate change does not rank high among Americans’ priorities in the ballot box. When we launched this series in August, however, we made the case that climate disasters can influence voting and elections — not just locally, but nationally. We’ve just seen proof of that in Hurricane Helene.

Two weeks ago, the Category 4 storm carved a deadly path through the U.S. Southeast ...