A record number of LGBT candidates will
be on the ballot next month.
According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund,
which is dedicated to electing LGBT leaders to public office, at
least 574 LGBT candidates will appear on the November 3 ballot. The
Victory Fund has endorsed a record 387 LGBT candidates this election
cycle.
“A historic number of openly LGBTQ
people are running for office this year and we have the opportunity
to elect an unprecedented number on Election Day,” said Mayor
Annise Parker, President & CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund. “We
can double the LGBTQ members of Congress, elect out LGBTQ state
legislators in key states for the first time and elect the first out
trans state senator in U.S. history.”
“But this is not about breaking
records or making history. When LGBTQ people are in the halls of
power, it changes the hearts and minds of colleagues, transforms the
legislative debates and leads to more inclusive legislation. LGBTQ
elected officials advance equality and that is why we must secure a
Rainbow Wave of LGBTQ victories in November,” she said.
If you add the primary elections, at
least 1,006 openly LGBT candidates ran or are running for political
office in 2020.
High profile candidates this election
cycle include Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend,
Indiana. Buttigieg made history as the first openly gay married
presidential candidate. He has since endorsed former Vice President
Joe Biden for president.
In 2019, voters in Chicago, the
third-largest city in the United States, elected Lori Lightfoot as
mayor. Kansas Representative Sharice Davids was also elected in 2019.
Looking forward to November 3, Sarah
McBride, who is running in Delaware, is expected to become the first
out transgender state senator in the United States. Four of the five
states that have never elected an out LGBT person to their state
legislature – Alaska, Delaware, Mississippi, and Tennessee – have
openly LGBT candidates on the ballot. The fifth state, Louisiana,
does not have state legislative elections this year.