As of Tuesday, 144 openly LGBT
candidates have won election in the United States in 2019.
With six races undecided and six
candidates heading to a runoff, 99 of the 200 known openly LGBT
candidates on the ballot Tuesday won their races.
The demographics were released Tuesday
by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to elect openly LGBT
candidates.
Seventy-four percent of Victory Fund
endorsed candidates won on Tuesday.
“By knocking on doors and speaking to
the issues most pressing in their communities, LGBTQ candidates are
winning elections in numbers and in parts of the country thought
unthinkable a decade or two ago,” said Annise Parker, president &
CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund and the former mayor of Houston. “LGBTQ
people are in every community – we are people of color, women,
immigrants, and people with disabilities – and we come from
families both liberal and conservative. This beautiful diversity
provides an opportunity to connect on some level with every single
voter in America. That is the reason LGBTQ candidates are winning in
unprecedented numbers, and this will only accelerate in the years
ahead.”
The Victory Fund also found that the
large majority (83.2%) of LGBT candidates in 2019 ran as Democrats.
LGBT Democrats were more successful than Republicans. Thirty-three
percent of out Republicans won their races, while Forty percent of
out Democrats were victorious.
With regard to gender identity, 12
queer candidates won in 2019, nine of whom are transgender women, one
who is gender non-conforming, and two who are genderqueer/non-binary.