A record number of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender candidates are running for office in November.

According to The New York Times, more than 400 LGBT candidates are running for office this fall. Roughly half of these candidates are running for state offices.

Annise Parker, CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said that state representation is crucial to defeating anti-LGBT laws. According to the Human Rights Campaign, more than 120 such bills were introduced across 30 states in 2017.

“We have seen a clear correlation between the presence of our legislators and passage of that legislation,” Parker told the Times.

The rainbow wave of candidates comes after the Trump administration has made several attempts to roll back protections for the community, including an attempt to ban transgender people from serving openly in the military and the Department of Justice's recent decision to create a task force on so-called religious freedom, which is widely seen as an attempt to discriminate against LGBT people.

(Related: Jeff Sessions announces “religious freedom” task force.)

High-profile candidates include Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is seeking re-election; Colorado Representative Jared Polis, who is running for governor of Colorado; and Representative Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate.

The Times profiled several state candidates, including Sharice Davis, a lesbian and a Native American who will be on Tuesday's primary ballot.

“I am sure there are going to be older people who are concerned about my being out or being a woman or being a pro-choice candidate or something,” said Davis, a House candidate from Kansas. “But I wouldn't be running if I thought that number was so high that it was unrealistic to be elected.”

“Having LGBT people sitting in the room while decisions are being made, and sitting there as peers, will shift the conversation,” she added. “I think it's important that the lived experiences and the point of view of LGBT folks be included in conversations that affect all of us.”

Most of the candidates are Democrats. Peter Boykin, the founder of Gays for Trump, is running for North Carolina's Legislature as a Republican.

“The LGBTQ community have been brainwashed that the Democratic Party is for their best interests, and it's not the case,” Boykin, 40, said, noting that former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton initially opposed marriage equality. He added that it's better to work from inside the party to increase acceptance.

There are about 500 openly LGBT elected officials in the United States, or 0.1 percent of elected officials.