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.
by Carlos Santoscoy
Source – On Top Magazine
