Sean Eldridge, a gay rights activist
and husband of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, is eyeing a run for
Congress.
According to Bloomberg,
Eldridge filed paperwork on February 1 establishing the “Sean
Eldridge for Congress” campaign.
In a statement of candidacy submitted
to the Federal Election Commission, the campaign lists the 19th
District in New York currently held by two-term Republican Chris
Gibson as the candidate's district.
Gibson handily beat his 2012 Democratic
challenger, Ulster County Democratic Party chairman Julian
Schreibman. Gibson's campaign was endorsed by all the major papers
in the district and he won with 53 percent of the vote. Obama won
the district in 2012 with 52 percent of the vote.
The 19th District is located
in New York's Hudson Valley, which sits north of New York City.
Eldridge was heavily involved in
President Barack Obama's first presidential campaign. In 2010, he
joined Freedom to Marry, the nation's largest non-profit working
solely on expanding marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. He
currently serves as the group's senior advisor.
Eldridge is the president of Hudson
River Ventures, an investment fund focused on the Hudson Valley.
If elected to Congress, Eldridge could
become the youngest member of Congress at 27. (Illinois Rep. Aaron
Shock was elected at 27, and is now 31.) He could also help increase
the number of openly LGBT House members, of which there are currently
6.