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The Sunrise Movement<\/span> is leaning into its roots in climate activism with a congressional endorsement of Saikat Chakrabarti<\/a>, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and one of the architects of the landmark environmental legislation known as the Green New Deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n The youth climate group shared its endorsement with The Intercept with early voting underway in California and less than a week to go before primary day. Chakrabarti will face off against State Sen. Scott Weiner and San Francisco supervisor Connie Chan, both Democrats, in a heavily contested primary race to succeed Democratic former House speaker Nancy Pelosi in California\u2019s 11th Congressional District.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years, the Sunrise Movement has shown us the power that people like all of us have when we organize strategically,\u201d Chakrabarti wrote in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cTogether with Sunrise, we pushed Washington to respond to the needs of working people when most Democrats (and of course Republicans) refused to do so. We were able to change political reality in Washington, and we\u2019ll do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chakrabarti rose to national prominence after co-founding Justice Democrats in 2017 alongside other former presidential campaign staffers for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,\u00a0to support progressive primary challengers to establishment Democrats. He has been a thorn in the side of moderate Democrats ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chakrabarti became Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s first <\/strong>chief of staff after her upset victory over longtime incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018, a win that helped put Justice Democrats on the map and ushered in the first members of the progressive Squad in Congress.\u00a0In Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s office, he worked with the Sunrise Movement and other stakeholders to draft the Green New Deal. Elements of the bill were later included in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which invested $369 billion in fighting climate change, but ultimately fell short of progressives\u2019 loftiest ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chakrabarti has long espoused progressive views and is expected to vote with Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the Squad if elected to Congress. But despite his prominent role in Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s early rise<\/a>, his former boss has not endorsed Chakrabarti, driving speculation of a rift, which the candidate has continuously denied. Progressive Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have endorsed Chakrabarti, as has former Rep. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y. Justice Democrats, the group he helped found, is also backing his campaign.<\/p>\n After leaving Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s office, Chakrabarti went on to lead New Consensus, a progressive environmental policy think tank that recently released the Mission for America, which he bills as a<\/a> \u201csuccessor\u201d to the Green New Deal. The policy proposal seeks<\/a> to \u201crapidly slash emissions\u201d and \u201cbuild a new, clean economy\u201d to protect workers against the threat of job cuts driven by the rise of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re proud to endorse Saikat Chakrabarti. Saikat has spent years fighting for the Green New Deal, taking on corporate power, and delivering for working people, not billionaires and special interests,\u201d wrote Aru Shiney-Ajay, Executive Director of the Sunrise Movement, in a statement to the Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n The climate justice group pivoted this cycle to emphasize its explicit opposition to President Donald Trump and presented Chakrabarti as a candidate \u201cready to fight back with courage and vision,\u201d Shiney-Ajay added. \u201cWe know he\u2019ll be instrumental in helping build a Democratic Party that is unapologetically for working people, serious about confronting the climate crisis, and ready to take on authoritarianism head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n