'Worth it,' say protesters arrested after entering Biden Wilmington campaign HQ

Members of a youth-led climate-focused group have been accepting plea deals offered to them after their February arrests for entering and protesting inside President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign headquarters in Wilmington.

Sunrise Movement members told Delaware Online/The News Journal that they all considered the possibility of being arrested and charged before entering Biden's campaign headquarters, but the potential blotch on their record was better than not calling attention to climate change issues.

"For me, it was like worth it, just because I couldn't imagine not doing anything," said Maddie Young, of Evanston, Illinois, after she took a plea Wednesday. She said she's been seeing "the worse and worse climate disasters hitting people around the U.S. and to not do anything is worse than to have something on my record.

"And yeah, it might impact me down the line, but I did what I felt I had to do in the moment."

Original story: Climate protesters who entered Biden campaign headquarters arrested in January

The youths' willingness to be arrested shows the commitment young people have in fighting for climate reforms — even if there's been a slight drop in the number who believe this is a "very serious" problem, according to a Monmouth University poll published last month.

"Support for climate action remains relatively high in absolute terms, but it has softened due to a drop in the sense of urgency on this issue, particularly among younger adults," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Waning support for action to reduce climate change

The percentage of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 who see climate change as a very serious problem has fallen by 17 points in the past three years — 50% now, down from 67% in 2021, the poll found. There have been smaller declines among those who are 35 and older.

Support for government action to reduce climate change activities stands at 62% among those aged 18 to 34, which is similar to current support levels among older Americans (55% age 35 to 54 and 60% age 55 and older), the poll found. But support among younger adults has dropped significantly from prior polls, in which 80% believed this in 2021, 82% in 2018 and 75% in 2015.

The support has remained fairly stable among Americans ages 35 and older during the past decade.

Monmouth's poll suggests the dip in climate concern occurred between late 2021 and the fall of 2022.

President Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 with a climate action platform where he proposed spending $2 trillion on green energy technology, infrastructure improvements, wind turbines and millions of new solar panels. The goal was to reach 100% carbon-free power generation by 2035.

The World Resources Institute, a research organization, earlier this year said the Biden administration's most important climate action to date was signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022 — "the most comprehensive climate legislation the U.S. has ever seen."

One of the ways in which the bill aims to fight climate change is with home energy rebates and tax credits, making it more affordable to access clean energy.

What is the Inflation Reduction Act?: Everything to know about one of Biden's big laws

But as Biden hits the campaign trail this time around, he and his operation are being confronted by young voters wanting more done about the "climate crisis."

Stevie O'Hanlon, a Sunrise communications director, agreed that Biden has accomplished more on climate than any other president. But more needs to be done, she said.

Biden has overseen a boom in oil and gas production — the exact opposite of what scientists say we need, O'Hanlon said.

"He also has not used every tool at his disposal," O'Hanlon added. "We're calling on him to declare a climate emergency to prepare our communities from disaster, create green union jobs, and stop the build-out of new oil and gas projects."

As for the polls pointing to waning interest, O'Hanlon said there are many issues facing her generation.

"It's hard to choose just one or two," she said. "And, as climate disaster season heats up in the summer and fall, more and more people will be thinking about the climate crisis."

'No one's vote is secure'

Members of Sunrise Movement had discussed the possibility of being arrested prior to entering the Brandywine Building on North West Street on Feb. 12.

Several believed it was worth it as nearly two dozen members entered the first floor of the building, signed the security desk ledger and took elevators to the eighth floor where Biden's 2024 campaign headquarters is housed, protestors told Delaware Online/The News Journal.

Members began taking off their coats, displaying their Sunrise Movement shirts, hand signs and banners demanding that a climate emergency be declared, said Erika Brown who took the plea deal on Wednesday.

"Biden, Biden. Can't you see? This is an emergency," Brown said they chanted at campaign workers. Protestors also told their stories about what they felt was important.

Brown, a 21-year-old Philadelphia resident, said not enough is being done about the environment in marginalized communities. Residents of low-income neighborhoods and communities may be more vulnerable to air pollution because of the proximity to air pollution sources such as factories, major roadways and ports with diesel truck operations, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These people may also be more susceptible to air pollution because of social and economic factors.

More needs to be done in these communities and quickly, Brown said as she brought up the destruction of a portion of I-95 in Philadelphia last year after a gasoline delivery truck caught on fire, killing the truck driver and disrupting transportation along the interstate for weeks.

"It got fixed like that overnight," she said. "We just had a library get shut down in North Philly, in one of these red-line neighborhoods, and now they're saying it's not going to be fixed until the end of summer."

Faster repairs to things people can actually use to shelter from the environment was Brown's message to Biden campaign workers in February.

"No one's vote is secure. No one's vote is locked up," she said, adding that for Biden to get her vote, the president has to tell young people what he will be doing for them — as he did during the 2020 run.

"But he hasn't been saying that," she said. "He hasn't been saying 'Young people, this is what I'm gonna do for you.'"

Worth it?

Brown said they wanted to talk to campaign officials during their protest, but instead, the officials called police on them.

Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt did not immediately respond to an email sent to her Thursday morning asking for comment about the pleas and the group's motives.

As they protested, Wilmington officers began removing the 21 protesters and later charged them with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.

As of Wednesday, 14 cases had been resolved with plea offers made to each protester: If a protester accepts the disorderly conduct charge, they receive probation before judgment. This means the misdemeanor comes off their record once their yearlong probation is successfully completed.

They must also have no contact with the Brandywine Building, Market West Building and the courtyard between the two downtown buildings.

Brown said her dad asked if she'd learned her lesson. She believes she has by sending a message to the president.

"We sent a clear message to Joe Biden," she said Wednesday. "We know he saw it. We know his campaigners saw it."

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Protesters charged after entering Biden campaign HQ taking plea deals