She said that people in North Carolina “are making that connection between the storm and climate change” given the severity of extreme weather and sea-level rise in recent years. Indeed, climate change increased the storm’s peak rain totals by 10%, according to from a multinational team of scientists affiliated with the World Weather Attribution group. There haven’t been polls on the issue since Helene’s destructive fury hit the state in late September, but more than half the respondents in the state to a 2023 survey said they recognize the rise in extreme weather events (59%) and the link to climate change (53%).
Still, Hanson said she doesn’t know if growing climate concern will affect voting behavior or get people to make different choices at the polls in this battleground state. Many of the races in North Carolina’s elections on Nov. 5 will have a climate impact — beyond the razor-thin presidential race. Voters will select a new governor, who will set the state’s climate agenda; pick an attorney general, who will enforce environmental laws; and choose an insurance commissioner, who will determine the rates for homeowners impacted by Helene and future storms.
In the high-profile governor’s race, there is a clear divide on climate, with Mark Robinson, a Republican, supporting the expansion of fossil fuel extraction and the Mountain Valley Southgate natural gas pipeline project. Democratic candidate Josh Stein currently serves as attorney general. He has worked to get the state’s utilities to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to prioritize renewable energy, and has committed to get North Carolina on a path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
But whether Helene moves the needle on climate at the ballot box is an open question.
“It’s a little bit too early for that conversation,” said Jon Council, a house framer who is running for the Watauga County Board of Commissioners as an independent in western North Carolina. “Right now, we’re all focused on recovery.” His home near the Chautauqua River was flooded, and he’s been busy with volunteer crews rescuing neighbors and getting them to safety.
“But I’m very hopeful, holding out hope that having a hurricane in the middle of Appalachia will at least move some people to see that this is clearly caused by human intervention.”
One challenge for voters in North Carolina is containing the flood of misinformation about the hurricane that has inundated the region.
“The biggest battle is this misinformation being put out by our leaders and by influencers on social media — using doctored and AI-generated videos, that Democrats or the government have seeded the storms and control the weather,” Hanson said. “It would be laughable if it wasn’t being taken seconspiracy theories have caused people “not to come arou
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