Since the midterm elections, the movement has been working towards shifting the Overton window on climate policy to center the environmental program known as the Green New Deal.

Together with Justice Democrats and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the group organized a sit-in in the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, which brought Sunrise its first significant press coverage.

Sunrise organized a similar event in February 2019, bringing a group of young people to confront Senator Dianne Feinstein in her office.

In the summer of 2013, Evan Weber, Matthew Lichtash, and environmentalist Michael K. Dorsey used a $30,000 grant and free office space provided by the Sierra Club and the Wesleyan University Green Fund to draft a plan for climate action.

[4] Since the 2018 elections, the Sunrise Movement has focused on the climate change proposals collectively known as the Green New Deal, whose core principles have been described as "decarbonization, jobs, and justice".

[11] The national movement's initial statement consisted of a watery combination of no foreknowledge of the DC chapter's plans and general action in favor of Palestinians and against prejudice (including Islamophobia); after being widely castigated, the national leadership subsequently denounced the D.C. chapter's decision as "unacceptable and antisemitic" because it singled out Jewish groups without mentioning other participating groups with similar views on Zionism and Israel.

[17] Speaker Pelosi responded by welcoming the protest over Twitter, offering to reinstate the Committee on the Climate Crisis and noting that the already-promised infrastructure bill could address many of the Sunrise Movement's concerns.

[5] Instead, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer decided to recreate the Committee on the Climate Crisis, appointing Representative Kathy Castor as chair.

[5] In February 2019, several San Francisco Bay Area children along with their adult sponsors met with Senator Dianne Feinstein to urge her to vote to support Green New Deal legislation.

Feinstein told the children that she was working on an alternative bill and that she could not support the proposed legislation, which she believed was "unworkable" and had no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate.

[23][24] Sunrise also later posted the longer, unedited video on Facebook, resulting in controversy over whether the short version emphasized scenes intended to make Feinstein appear less sympathetic to the viewer.

[27] The tour was intended to garner support for the Green New Deal resolution, introduced in Congress by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey in February 2019.

The tour spanned 8 cities and over 200 town halls, featuring local politicians, activists, and leading figures in the climate movement speaking about the importance of a Green New Deal and how to achieve it.

The Road to a Green New Deal Tour kicked off in Boston with the lineup of speakers including Senator Ed Markey, Representative Ayanna Pressley, Sunrise co-founder Varshini Prakash, Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, and more leaders from the community speaking at the Strand Theater in Dorchester.

Speakers included Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, journalist Naomi Klein, and Justice Democrats co-founder Alex Rojas.

In early 2019, the Sunrise Movement defined one of its major goals as pressuring the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to hold a single-issue presidential debate on climate change.

[33] In the summer of 2020, the Sunrise Movement began performing Wide Awake demonstrations, in which a group of protestors would gather outside a politician's house and make noise early in the morning.

[34] Politicians who have been "woken up" during these demonstrations include Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Larry Hogan, Bill Barr, and Betsy DeVos.

The effort was led chiefly by Student Government Senator Meagan Lamey, a member of the Change Party representing Yulee Area, and Florida youth organizer Cameron Driggers.