About Elected Officials to Protect America 

Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) is a network of current and former elected officials who care deeply about protecting our planet and people. EOPA is committed to solving the climate crisis, ensuring environmental justice, and protecting our lands and waters. We educate through value-based storytelling, training lawmakers, and connecting elected officials to inspire strong environmental leadership.

Led by representatives from frontline communities and lawmakers who are veterans, EOPA has a consistent track record of successfully organizing elected officials to promote bold climate action. In New York, our network of more than a thousand lawmakers played a key role in banning fracking statewide and divesting the state from fossil fuels. In California, we organized 400+ elected officials to help prompt Governor Newsom to declare an end to oil and announce 3,200-foot setbacks on oil and gas drilling. At our nation’s capital, we organized veterans who are lawmakers from 50 states to secure permanent funding for the U.S. Land and Water Conservation Fund. We organized hundreds of elected officials to advance the Green New Deal and phase out fossil fuels.

Extraordinary times require extraordinary leadership. With the accelerating climate emergency, environmental injustices, and ecological crises, the window of opportunity to protect our planet and people is shrinking. With President Biden elevating climate as a key national security priority, we are expanding our work to inspire public officials to leverage our collective power to protect our communities and nation.

Our work has been covered in hundreds of news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, CNN, ABC News, and BBC News. Our video production arm, Code Blue, has exposed Saudi Arabia buying up American water, which was later covered in The Guardian.

Now, we are organizing thousands of state and local lawmakers, led by lawmakers who are veterans and represent frontline communities, to mobilize our nation to enact a federal Climate Emergency Plan to create a rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy, and take imperative action at state and local levels to protect our public health, communities, and ensure environmental justice.

Our Core Principles:

• Public Stewardship. Elected officials are publicly entrusted to steward our communities, democracy, and future. We believe it is the responsibility of our elected officials, who take a constitutional oath of office to protect the general welfare, to represent and act to secure the common, long-term interests of all who they represent, including marginalized peoples, children, future generations, and all life.
• Courageous Leadership. Extraordinary challenges require extraordinary leadership. When a problem threatens our public welfare, it is the responsibility of our elected officials to step up and lead the solution. The consequences of failing to address the climate and ecological emergencies are so severe that it threatens our survival as a nation.
• Collective Power. We have the power to join together and collectively lead, no matter the challenge. When a problem crosses jurisdictional boundaries, our elected officials must come together to provide collective leadership to solve the problem. We must provide the collective leadership necessary to protect our people and communities and restore our environment and democracy.

Elected Officials to Protect America is committed to centering, connecting, and supporting leadership of public servants who represent frontline and historically marginalized communities. Veterans, indigenous people, people of color, women and LGBTQ+ people, and people from immigrant and working-class backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

Available Positions: 

Elected Official Fellowship

National Fellowship (part and full-time)
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Elected Official Fellowship

Elected Officials to Protect America seeks public servants at every level of office who are talented organizers and policy advocates to organize elected officials across the country to become our democracy’s champions on the climate emergency, environmental justice, and land and water protection.

EOPA is led by representatives from frontline communities and lawmakers who are veterans. Our national goal is the enactment of a federal Climate Emergency Plan to create a rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy. We work to advance federal, state, and local policy to restore a safe climate, ensure environmental justice, and protect our land and water.

The ideal candidate is an elected official with a talent in peer-to-peer organizing, and has a track record of leading effective campaigns or policy change initiatives, communications savvy, and a passion for climate and environmental justice.

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National Fellowship (full-time or part-time)

Elected Officials to Protect America’s National Campaign Fellowship gives aspiring and emerging campaign professionals an opportunity to gain real-world experience as a regional, state, or national coordinator, work directly organizing inspirational climate justice champion elected officials across the country, and be trained and mentored by current and former elected officials.

Fellows have gone on to win elected office, become senate staffers, and manage electoral and policy campaigns. We have also hired outstanding Fellows onto our team as staff.

We are seeking highly motivated, dedicated, and passionate changemakers to lead a variety of roles and projects in the startup phase, including research, outreach, strategy, partnerships, fundraising, and communications. If you want to contribute to a high-leverage start-up campaign and make a national difference, this fellowship is for you. 

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HOW TO APPLY

Apply online here: National Fellowship Application

If the form is not accessible or for troubleshooting questions, please email: talent@protectingamerica.net

In your cover letter, tell us what’s motivating you to apply, and what talents, skills, and expertise you have that will be most important in this role.

Our hiring process is thorough. In addition to a screening interview and competency interview, we will conduct a chronological career history interview in which we ask about your entire career and professional development. Finalists are asked to arrange reference calls with some of your former managers, supervisors, and others.