Eric Orts, a University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business professor, is the latest local contender to join the Democratic primary race for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, writes Julia Terruso for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Senate race already has several candidates from Montgomery County, including Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chair Val Arkoosh who is running in the Democratic primaries, and Lower Merion developer Jeff Bartos who is running on the Republican side.

Sixty-one-year-old Orts is a newcomer to politics who has joined ed the race as a significant underdog.

However, he plans to focus his campaign on the climate crisis in the hopes of winning but also to make the issue more central in the race.

“We’re in a climate emergency,” said Orts. “We have a second season of wildfires in the Northwest. In Pennsylvania, we set [heat] records in June. A lot of people have known scientifically this is a problem, and a lot of people are just ignoring it. The politicians are saying they’ll do something, but they never do something.”

Ort used the announcement of his candidacy to call on President Joe Biden to declare a state of national emergency.

Read more about Eric Orts in The Philadelphia Inquirer.