Half of LGBTQ candidates sweep US state and local elections
The “rainbow wave” continues to make itself felt at the polls with almost half of the LGBTQ candidates that ran in the recent US state and local elections winning against their opponents.
These victories come after the wave made its first appearance at the 2018 midterm polls, when 38 percent of the candidates won.
LGBTQ candidates pull off major victories in 2019 polls
The LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee supporting LGBTQ candidates, reported that a total of 144 candidates won their elections.
Of the total of 382 candidates who ran, 176 were endorsed by LGBTQ Victory Fund
Breaking this down, 49.5 percent of the candidates won their races, of which 73.9 percent of Victory Fund endorsed candidates were successful.
The elections include gubernatorial polls in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as the regularly-scheduled state legislative polls in Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and New Jersey.
There were also special elections for seats in various state legislatures.
LGBTQ candidates showcase diversity against opponents
Of the total number of candidates running in the 2019 elections, 29.1 percent of candidates were people of color with 34.2 percent winning their races.
Annise Parker, President & CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said the diversity of the LGBTQ community “provides an opportunity to connect on some level with every single voter in America.”
She added that the LGBTQ community is “people of color, women, immigrants, and people with disabilities.”
“That is the reason LGBTQ candidates are winning in unprecedented numbers, and this will only accelerate in the years ahead,” she added.
“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,” she added.
Transgender candidate Danica Roem wins reelection bid
Even as 56.3 percent of known and out transgender women who ran in the 2019 elections won, Danica Roem also won her reelection bid, making her the first transgender person to be reelected.
Roem beat Republican candidate Kelly McGinn, 54-43, despite a particularly intense advertising campaign set up by the anti-LGBTQ Family Foundation Action hate group.
Parker said of Roem’s victory: “Her reelection proves that political revolution is a lasting transformation– not an aberration.”
For the whole of 2019, 37.7 percent of candidates won their races, of which 63.1 percent were Victory Fund endorsed candidates.
Interesting enough, LGBTQ men ran in much higher numbers than LGBTQ women in 2019, yet the women candidates won at a higher rate at 46.2 percent versus 36.9 percent.