Sunrise Movement

The Sunrise Movement is a national youth-led grassroots organization founded in 2017 to build political power to stop the climate crisis and advance a Green New Deal. By 2026 it operates through more than 400 decentralized hubs across all 50 states and has expanded its core climate mandate into technology accountability — opposing AI industry expansion as both a climate and a democratic threat.

Founding and history

Sunrise was founded in April 2017 in Washington, DC by Sara Blazevic, Victoria Fernandez, Guido Girgenti, William Lawrence, and Varshini Prakash. The organization gained national prominence in November 2018 when more than 250 activists staged a sit-in at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional office, joined by Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demanding a Select Committee on a Green New Deal — an action that catalyzed the Green New Deal's elevation as a federal policy demand. The organization operates through a 501(c)(4) political arm and a 501(c)(3) educational arm alongside a political action committee (Sunrise PAC). Aru Shiney-Ajay succeeded Varshini Prakash as executive director in September 2023.

AI accountability work

By 2026, Sunrise local hubs had begun mobilizing against data center construction in Dallas, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Lansing, Michigan — framing AI infrastructure buildout as a direct climate threat. Executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay stated that unchecked AI data center expansion could "undo a huge amount of the progress that we made in terms of moving toward clean energy," situating AI as a fossil-fuel demand driver and therefore within the organization's existing climate mandate.

Sunrise was a lead organizer of the Dump Big Tech campaign in August 2026 — a coordinated week-of-action across more than 20 states during Congressional recess, co-organized with the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and QuitGPT. The campaign targeted OpenAI, Palantir, and Google offices; constituent visits to members of Congress across New York, New Jersey, California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania; and data center construction sites in Oregon and West Virginia. Three shared demands tied the actions: stricter AI regulation (specifically blocking federal preemption of state AI laws), an end to federal Big Tech partnerships (OpenAI's Pentagon surveillance contract, Palantir's federal data systems), and energy and water usage caps on data centers.

The campaign's highest-profile action was the occupation of OpenAI's Washington DC lobbying office ("The Workshop") on 10 August 2026. More than 30 student activists — organized by Sunrise, QuitGPT, and YDSA — held the lobby for two hours before police arrested 13 participants for unlawful entry; all were released within two days. Demonstrators carried banners reading "Stop Stealing Our Future" and signs reading "OpenAI Bought My Senator," directly targeting OpenAI's $140 million midterm super PAC spending and its campaign to preempt state AI legislation. Shiney-Ajay stated: "Tech billionaires are trying to rob us of our future."

On 2 September 2026, Sunrise UNC organized hundreds-strong protests at the G20 Innovation Ministerial at UNC Chapel Hill — a forum attended by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — calling for stronger AI regulation, data center accountability, and democratic governance of AI decisions.

Structure

The movement's hub model — over 400 local chapters organized by zip code — enables decentralized mobilization: local hubs entered the data center opposition campaigns independently while the national organization provided strategic coordination for the Dump Big Tech wave. Sunrise describes its membership as deliberately cross-class and multiracial, centering youth (under 35) while welcoming broader participation. The national organization is headquartered in Washington, DC.