In this year’s midterm elections, LGBTQ candidates are running in all 50 US states as well as the nation’s capital for the first time, as the community grows in strength as a voting bloc.
The achievement coincides with a boom in gay and transgender voters, which many predict will reshape the electoral landscape over the coming generation and shift the traditionally conservative US heartland toward a more liberal outlook.
According to a recent report from the LGBTQ Victory Fund, out of the 1,065 LGBTQ candidates who ran primary campaigns for the midterm elections in November, a historic 678 made it onto the ballot, an increase of 18% over the previous election year.
Former Houston mayor and current director of the LGBTQ Victory Fund Annise Parker said, “Voters are sick and weary of the constant attacks thrown against the LGBTQ community this year.
Bigots want us to remain at home and keep silent, but their actions are having the opposite effect, inspiring a new generation of LGBTQ leaders to run for office.
Democrats like Maura Healey and Tina Kotek, who are aiming to become the first lesbian governors of the country in Massachusetts and Oregon, make up nearly 90% of the LGBTQ candidates who joined this year’s primary elections.
In a race that is widely believed to be a toss-up, Healey has a comfortable lead, but Kotek is only slightly behind.
Becca Balint, a candidate for the Vermont House, would be the first lesbian ever sent by the state to Congress, among a number of other firsts that the LGBTQ community is anticipating on election night.
Award-winning author and professor Mary Louise Adams, who focuses on LGBTQ issues, applauded advancements made in the effort to guarantee that members of the community are “not just present but visible and vocal” in public life.
The professor at Queen’s University in Canada told the reporters, “As a voter, I would still be more interested in learning what the candidates’ overall policies are and what ways they offer to build and promote marginalized populations of all kinds.
