Al Gore at Vanderbilt University on Wednesday
In general, former Vice President Al Gore thinks young people should lead on combating climate change and climate-based progressive primary challenges are a good thing.
But when it comes to his “close personal friend” and congressional successor, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville), Gore still has his back, despite a recently announced primary challenge from young activist Justin Jones, whose support includes members of the Sunrise Movement, a group Gore praises.
“In general, students around the world are way more aware and concerned than folks my age, generally speaking,” Gore told reporters Wednesday at Vanderbilt University, where he was leading "a global conversation on the climate crisis and its solutions.” "I think this movement of young people is bound to grow."
“I'm kind of biased on Jim’s race because he's such a close personal friend, so you catch me revealing my bias in his favor,” Gore added. “I also like his brother, Mayor John Cooper.”
Gore, as establishment a Democrat as Tennessee has, does not dismiss primary challenges out of hand, though.
“In general, I have been supportive of progressive challenges around the country when they're based on the climate issue,” he said. “My impression is that Jim has been pretty good on the climate issue.”
Sunrise Movement activists have been pushing for months for someone to primary Cooper in part because he has not sponsored the Green New Deal, a suite of nonbinding policy proposals championed by prominent liberals around the country. Cooper says it’s too vague, and he prefers to focus on actionable legislation. Though Gore said Wednesday that he supports the Green New Deal, he implied that a competitive primary could change how Cooper sees the issue.
“The campaign's not until next year, and you can't ever tell how the campaign itself will affect the positions these candidates have,” Gore, who now votes in a different congressional district, said.
Gore’s support for Cooper will come as no surprise to Jones, who told supporters at his campaign kickoff earlier this week that “the people whose families have been running Nashville for years” tried to discourage him from running, without naming names. Both Cooper and Gore come from long lines of political leaders: Cooper's father even tried to primary Gore's dad.
