Congressional candidate accuses opponent of ‘politicizing’ storms

(The Center Square) – Illinois congressional candidate and retired Judge Joe McGraw is accusing incumbent Congressman Eric Sorenson of politicizing hurricanes to win his race.

On MSNBC, Sorensen, D-Moline, said Project 2025 would get rid of the technology and forecasters doing weather modeling work. In a social media post he urged voters to vote against policies like Project 2025.

“We as Americans don’t bat an eye for the benefit of [the National Weather Service]. Just imagine if that were to go away,” Sorensen said on MSNBC. “What would it mean for people to not get the warning ahead of time? What would it mean for air travel if we didn’t have forecasters understanding turbulence?”

Democratic candidates, including Sorensen, have warned of the “Project 2025” agenda and have said the policy wishlist was written by Trump’s advisors. Former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document that was authored by The Heritage Foundation.

McGraw, a Republican from Rockford, said Sorensen discussing Project 2025 is a distraction.

"The federal government has no intention of disassembling any of the services that are currently available. [Vice President Kamala Harris] has politicized it and played a phone game with [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis]; they've been slow to respond to North Carolina because that's a red-voter area,” said McGraw. “Rather than talking about their own failure to intervene, now they are putting up a straw-man about Project 2025.”

DeSantis is not taking calls from Harris about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene hammered parts of his state.

Sorensen said the hurricanes are developing faster due to “heat energy.”

"They’ve got to make plans faster than ever before because these tropical storms and hurricanes are developing faster because of that heat energy,” said Sorensen.

McGraw said Sorensen is using the crisis to talk about climate change policies and pointed out that America has reduced its CO2 emission more than any other country in the world.

“Is there a measurable change in climate? Yes. But what causes it? Can we affect it? To think that what one country can do as opposed to the rest of the world like China and India, who aren’t abiding by any climate change standards, that somehow we, through our efforts, can somehow affect the weather is dubious at best,” said McGraw.