Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), has described Tuesday's election
results as a victory for opponents of marriage equality.
“Marriage won an overwhelming
victory,” Brown said in a blog post. “In red states and blue,
candidates who supported marriage as the union of one man and one
woman won election and those who didn't were rejected by voters. The
Republican Party should take note that their nominees who favored gay
'marriage' were opposed by NOM and they were resoundingly defeated.”
This year, NOM launched a super PAC,
the NOM Victory Fund, which targeted the re-election campaigns of
Democratic Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who lost to Tom Cotton,
and Kay Hagan of North Carolina, who lost to Thom Tillis.
The group attacked Pryor's opposition
to marriage equality, which NOM called unconvincing, and linked Hagan
to a federal judge who struck down North Carolina's restrictive
marriage ban.
(Related: Gay
marriage foe NOM targets Senators Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan.)
NOM also opposed two Republican House
candidates who are openly gay, Carl DeMaio of California and Richard
Tisei of Massachusetts, and one Republican Senate candidate who
backed marriage equality, Monica Wehby of Oregon.
Tisei and Wehby lost on Tuesday, while
DeMaio's race against Democrat Scott Peters remains too close to
call.
NOM said that it opposed Tisei and
DeMaio because of their support for same-sex marriage, not their
sexual orientation.
“It's time for the GOP elite and
consultant class to wake up and realize that marriage is a winning
issue, in red states and blue,” Brown said. “Traditional
marriage amendments have received 50 million votes across America,
and candidates who embraced marriage this election won, while
Republicans who rejected marriage were themselves rejected. The
election results tonight were a stunning rebuke of those who wish to
redefine marriage. We look forward to working with Congress to
advance the cause of marriage.”
Brown has yet to comment on a federal
ruling striking down Kansas' marriage ban, which was handed down
Tuesday.
(Related: Federal
judge strikes down Kansas' gay marriage ban.)