LGBT advocates hope for a ‘rainbow wave’ this fall
The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people nominated to run for Congress is four times higher than it was in 2010, a leading advocacy group said, spurred by greater social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities and a surge of liberal energy powered by opposition to the Trump administration.
This year, there are 21 openly LGBT people nominated for Congress and four for governor, all Democrats, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a nonpartisan group that supports and tracks gay and transgender political candidates.
Eight years ago, the first year the group started tracking candidates, there were only five openly LGBT people nominated for the U.S. House or Senate — again, all Democrats — and none for governor.
Annise Parker, the group’s president and a former mayor of Houston, said the numbers represented a potential “rainbow wave” that she hoped could “transform the U.S. Congress and our governors’ mansions come November.”
“It represents an evolution in American politics,” Parker said, “with voters choosing out LGBTQ candidates as the solution to the divisiveness and dysfunction we see in Washington and in many of our state capitals.”
Overall, there were more than 430 openly LGBT people running for office at all levels of government at the start of this year’s primary season. Now that the primaries are over, at least 244 of them have advanced to a ballot in November, including some independents and candidates for nonpartisan positions, the Victory Fund said.
More LGBT women than men are running for Congress this year, the group said, including both of the LGBT people running for U.S. Senate — Rep. Krysten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.
Four LGBT candidates, all Democrats, were nominated in governors’ races. For the first time, they collectively represent what the Victory Fund called “the full LGBT acronym”: Lupe Valdez, a lesbian, in Texas; Jared Polis, a gay man, in Col-