Not to be confused with the similarly named super PAC NextGen Climate Action Committee

Also see Steyer Network

NextGen America, formerly NextGen Climate Action is the advocacy and electoral arm of NextGen Education Fund, an environmentalist organization based in San Francisco, California. The network advocates in favor of political candidates that support left-of-center environmentalist policies. The group also organizes and releases campaign ads targeting key states and against other campaigns. The group also advocates for organizing supporting environmentalist protests. ¹

NextGen America was founded in 2013 by billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who retired in 2012 after making his fortune as the founder of Farallon Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm managing the capital of universities, endowments, and high-net-worth individuals. ²

Background

In 2010, Tom Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor signed the Giving Pledge created by Bill Gates, his then-wife Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett, agreeing to give half of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes. ³

Steyer joined the board of the now-defunct Center for the Next Generation in 2011. The group was co-founded by his brother, Jim Steyer, and supported environmental and children’s issues through nonpartisan research, policy development, and strategic communications. ⁴ In 2013, Steyer created NextGen Climate Action as a more politically oriented spinoff of the original organization. ⁵

NextGen America focuses on six issue areas: left-of-center economics, climate change, racial justice, democracy, human dignity, and abortion access. ⁶

NextGen America accepts donations through ActBlue Civics, a fundraising platform for left-leaning activist organizations. ⁷

Election Activity

NextGen America  launched in 2013 as NextGen Climate Action with an $8 million TV and digital ad campaign  to support then-Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) and more than $1 million to elect then-U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) to the Senate. ^{8 9}

During the 2014 election cycle, the group spent $74,032,090 (nearly $67 million of which was funded by Tom Steyer and his wife alone). The group’s efforts focused on six races: U.S. Senate contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and Colorado, and governor’s races in Maine and Florida. Led by chief strategist Chris Lehan, the group’s goal was to “be on the offensive as much as possible” to force Republicans and conservatives to react. Creative measures included rolling fake barrels of oil into New Hampshire to criticize then-Senate candidate Scott Brown (R-NH) and towing an ark around Florida to criticize then-Gov. Rick Scott (R). ¹⁰

During the 2016 election cycle, NextGen Climate Action spent $96,036,921. During that cycle, the group made seven endorsements of Democratic candidates, among them Hillary Clinton for President; Tammy Duckworth for U.S. Senate in Illinois, Catherine Cortez Masto for U.S. Senate in Nevada, Maggie Hassan for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, Deborah Ross for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, Ted Strickland for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Katie McGinty for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, and Roy Cooper for the Governor of North Carolina. ¹¹

In addition to supporting candidates and campaigning against Republicans, NextGen Climate Action also spent more than $25 million in polling, advertising, and canvassing to encouraging millennials to vote. ¹²

On August 9, 2018, representatives from NextGen Rising and NextGen Climate Action held a phone conference to discuss strategy and goals ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Jeremiah Chapman, Erin Carhart, Ben Wessel, and Tom Steyer were present and spoke on the call. The representatives revealed that NextGen Rising’s targets for the election include 33 House of Representatives races, 7 U.S. Senate races, and 8 gubernatorial races. Its voter mobilization goal was to register 100,000 voters by the election (75,000 by November 6, 2018), particularly college students and new voters under 35 years of age. To accomplish this, NextGen advocated to recruit roughly 15,000 volunteers nationwide. ¹³

That same year, NextGen Climate Action gave  $688,493 in grants to America Votes to promote mail in voting, $225,000 to Americans for Immigrant Justice for legal services to immigrants, $150,000 to California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation for legal services in rural California, $22,606,000 to Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona, $4,152,610 for Clean Energy Healthy Michigan, $100,000 to Community Water Center Action Fund to support lobbying efforts, $300,000 to Immigrant Legal Resources Center for campaign projects, $35,000 to the NAACP, $25,000 to Netroots Nation, $10,024,000 to Nevadans for a Clean Energy Future, $100,000 to Nevadans for Secure Elections to support a petition in favor of automatic voter registration, $393,750 to the Tides Advocacy Fund, and $128,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is administered by Arabella Advisors. ¹⁴

In the 2020 election cycle, NextGen America spent $3,278,757 on a national youth organization program in 16 states; $2,918,961 on digital operations to promote youth voting; $799,902 advocating for left-of-center public policy in California on student loans, illegal immigration, healthcare, environmentalism, and criminal justice; and $306,847 in grants to Nevadans for a Clean Energy Future. ¹⁵

That same year, NextGen America also provided $48,000 in grants to Student Debt Crisis, $250,000 to The Good Land Committee, and $430,711 to The Voter Participation Center to promote vote by mail. ¹⁵

In the 2022 election cycle, NextGen America gave $269,205 to MoveOn.Org Political Action and $2,350,000 to the NextGen Climate Action Committee for political campaign and lobbying activities. ¹⁶

During the 2024 election cycle, NextGen America claimed to have made 11,200,000 calls, sent 63,700,000 texts, obtained 2,000,000 pledges to vote, and registered 1,500,000 voters over the course of its existence. That year, the organization in particularly targeted get out the vote efforts in the swing or potential swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virgnia. ⁶

People

According to tax filings, the executive director and president of NextGen Climate Action is Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez. Ramirez also works as the executive director of NextGen Education Fund, is a contributor at media outlet ABC, and as an adjunct professor with the LBJ School of Public Policy based at the University of Texas at Austin. Ramirez was also the founder and executive director of Jolt Texas and the co-founder and executive director of Workers Defense Project. ^{17 16}

The managing director of NextGen Climate Action is listed as Katherine Lyon. ¹⁶

Board members of NextGen Climate Action include Gregory Serrurier, Edward White, Fleur Fairman, Zack Davis, Delilah Agho-Otoghile, Andrew Evans, Amy Freitag, Sarah Grady, Tamar Mokhtar, and Deepak Poteriya. ¹⁶

Tom Steyer was listed on tax filings as the president/director of NextGen Climate Action through 2019. Beginning with the organizations 2020 tax filing, Steyer was no longer listed as an officer of the organization and instead Ben Wessel was listed as the president/executive director. In 2021, Wessel left NextGen America to join Emerson Collective. Previously he had been a field director for the U.S. Senate campaign of Cory Booker in New Jersey, was a policy campaigns manager for 350.org, and was the New Hampshire youth vote director for Obama for America. ^{18 15 19}

1.  “Who We Are.” NextGen America. Accessed November 4, 2024. https://nextgenamerica.org/who-we-are/
2.  Lashinsky, Adam. “California’s Hedge Fund King.” Fortune , September 22, 2008. Accessed March 12, 2017. http://archive.fortune.com/2008/09/17/news/newsmakers/lashinsky_steyer.fortune/index.htm.
3. “Tom Steyer Biography – Founder, NextGen Climate.” NextGen Climate. Archived from the original July 28, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170728142608/https://nextgenamerica.org/about-us/tom-steyer/
4.  Strom, Stephanie. “Hedge Fund Chief Takes Major Role in Philanthropy.” New York Times, September 15, 2011. Accessed May 12, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/business/hedge-fund-chief-takes-major-role-in-philanthropy.html
5. Confessore, Nicholas. “Financier Plans Big Ad Campaign on Climate Change.” New York  Times, February 17, 2014. Accessed May 12, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/us/politics/financier-plans-big-ad-campaign-on-environment.html?_r=1.
6.  “NextGen America.” Nextgen America. Accessed November 4, 2024. https://nextgenamerica.org/.
7. “NextGen Climate Action.” ActBlue Civics. Accessed November 4, 2024. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nextgen-climate-action-1?refcode=website_footer.
8. Burns, Alexander. “Dem groups gang up on Cuccinelli.” Politico, November 4, 13. Accessed May 12, 2017. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/ken-cuccinelli-virginia-governor-2013-democrats-099255?o=0.
9. Restuccia, Andrew. “Billionaire’s Super PAC on Offense.” Politico, May 24, 2013. Accessed May 12, 2017. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/tom-steyer-super-pac-massachusetts-091836.
10. Sheppard, Kate. “Tom Steyer’s Green Super-PAC Has Spent a LOT of Money on This Election.” Mother Jones, October 1, 2014. Accessed May 10, 2017. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/tom-steyer-climate-change-superpac-2014-midterms
11. “NextGen Climate Endorsements — NextGen Climate.” NextGen Climate. October 20, 2016.  Archived from the original December 25, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161225190759/https://nextgenclimate.org/blog/elections/nextgen-climate-endorsements/
12. Stamm, Dan. “Climate Action Group NextGen PA Registers 80,000 College Students to Vote.” NBC 10 Philadelphia, October 10, 2016. Accessed May 12, 2017. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Millennial-Voters-Trump-Clinton-Pennsylvania-NextGen-396976091.html
13. NextGen Rising/NextGen Climate Action Phone Call (recording). August 9, 2018. https://www.influencewatch.org/nextgen-national-call-audio-08-09-2018
14. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). NextGen Climate Action. 2018.
15. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). NextGen Climate Action. 2020.
16. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). NextGen Climate Action. 2022.
17. ^[1] “Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez.” LinkedIn. Accessed November 4, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-tzintzun-ramirez-45944a71/.
18. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). NextGen Climate Action. 2019.
19. “Ben Wessel.” LinkedIn. Accessed November 4, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwessel/.