“Facing a showdown vote as early as this month over the embattled ‘Green New Deal,’ Senate Democrats are preparing a counteroffensive to make combating climate change a central issue of their 2020 campaigns — a striking shift on an issue they have shied away from for the past decade,” the New York Times reports.

“Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outlined the new strategy in an interview last week, casting it as a way to mobilize millennial voters, a key part of the Democratic constituency that the party will need to turn out to win in swing states.”

“With progressives pushing Democrats to embrace the Green New Deal — and Republicans ridiculing the idea as socialism — Mr. Schumer is effectively trying to turn a weakness into a strength. He is planning daily floor speeches attacking Republicans for inaction and a proposal for a special Senate committee focused on the issue, which he intends to announce this week.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has decided not to run for president, declining to join a crowded race that includes a half-dozen of his Senate colleagues, the Washington Post reports.

Said Merkely: “I’ve got this limited number of years of life on this planet — how can I have the biggest impact? That’s what I’ve been weighing. And I’ve reached the conclusion that the biggest impact I can have is here in the Senate.”