By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
It feels as if the solar industry talks a lot – a lot – about how important federal policy is to pushing the solar industry forward. Which is why, when you have the chance to vote for a strong solar advocate and add another voice to the Congress in favor of our industry, we should do it.
Meet Sam Jammal, who is running for the soon-to-be-open California’s 39th District (CA-39) in north Orange County.
Jammal comes from a solar background, having worked for Tesla/SolarCity, where he traveled the country speaking on solar issues. As he talked to people around the country, he realized how much the industry needed more vocal support on Capitol Hill. So when his current Congressman announced his retirement, Sam Jammal decided to run as a Democrat in what has traditionally been a pretty conservative county – in large part because he believes strongly that solar will be the way the country is powered in the future. And not some distant future, either.
“We have about 1,500 solar employees in the district,” Jammal says. “We can’t have enough allies in the halls of Congress to fight for them, and I’m planning on being one of them.”
It won’t be an easy task for Jammal to win the race – and not just because he’s a Democrat running in a traditionally conservative county. Under the election rules in California, it’s an open primary and a Top 2 system. What that means practically is that all voters, no matter what their party affiliation, will vote in the same election. And only the top two vote-getters – again, regardless of party – will face off against each other in the fall.
Jammal says the key to winning in this situation will be turnout, so he asks all of us to get behind him and spread the word about his pro-solar candidacy. And if you live in his district and are one of those 1,500 solar employees, spread the word among your colleagues and, and we can’t stress this enough, VOTE.
You should listen to the entire podcast because Sam Jammal has a lot of interesting things to say, and we believe he’ll make a strong candidate in the fall if he gets into that Top 2. Visit his website to learn more about him.