In every state in the United States, a candidate who identifies as belonging to the LGBTQ group is running in the midterm elections, the Victory Fund, a liberal organization that works to increase the number of openly LGBTQ officials at all levels of government, announced.
A detailed report on the gender identity and skin color of the candidates was published, according to which the majority of them are homosexual men and lesbian women, but the number of transgender and non-binary politicians has also increased. The organization called Victory Fund mapped in great detail the gender identity of the LGBTQ candidates running in the November 8 midterm elections in the United States of America. Based on their survey it was announced that for the first time LGBTQ persons will be running in all fifty states and in Washington DC: 678 of the 1,065 openly LGBTQ candidates running in the primaries will appear on the ballot, which represents an 18.1 percent increase over the 2020 compared to elections.
LGBTQ candidates of color ran in a larger number than ever before - it was highlighted on the organization's website - they make up 38.2 percent of all LGBTQ candidates.
The proportion of black LGBTQ candidates is 14 percent, Latin American 13.2 percent, and Asian 4.2 percent, they said.
According to their data, the proportion of LGBTQ candidates is 55 percent for homosexual men, 18.2 percent for lesbian women (26.7 percent in 2020), and 11.2 percent for bisexuals. The biggest increase is for queer candidates: the number of those who do not define themselves as male or female is 11.2 percent.
The number of non-cisgender-identified LGBTQ candidates (that is, those who define themselves differently than their birth gender) in 2022 increased significantly compared to 2020, and now stands at 13 percent. Among them, the proportion of transgender candidates rose slightly, from 4.4 percent in 2020 to 6.3 percent in 2022. The biggest increase was for non-binary candidates, who made up 5.3 percent of LGBTQ candidates, up from 2.2 percent in 2020 and just 0.6 percent in 2018.
Based on the exact analysis, among the LGBTQ candidates, cisgender men (ie homosexual) 580, cisgender women (ie lesbian) 303, transgender women 53, transgender men 11, non-binary persons 54, two-spirit 4, intersex woman 1, variable genderfluid 1, and those who do not conform to society's gender norms (gender nonconforming) 17.
LGBTQ candidates running by state: California (178), Texas (60), and Florida (52) have the most, Mississippi (1), Virgin Islands (1), Louisiana (2), Guam (2) have the fewest ), Wyoming (3) and Idaho (3). Of course, the vast majority of them (89.3 percent) run as Democrats, only 4.5 percent as Republicans, 2.3 percent as independents and 0.3 percent as Greens.
The organization also counts as a significant success the fact that more than ever - 77 - LGBTQ candidates are running for school councils.
According to its website, the Victory Fund works to achieve and maintain equality by increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government. Since 1991, the organization has empowered thousands of LGBTQ people.
An important milestone in the organization's history was when Annise Parker, supported by the Victory Fund, was elected mayor of Houston in 2009, making her the first openly LGBTQ politician to head a major American city. Parker became the organization's president and CEO in 2017.
The Victory Fund is proud to recall 2018, calling it a "rainbow wave" that saw a surge in the number of LGBTQ candidates, supporting 274 and investing more than two million dollars in campaigns from the US Senate to local school boards, ultimately 64 percent of them won. They also remind us that in November 2018, in Colorado, Jared Polis became the first openly gay governor of the USA, ten openly LGBTQ representatives were elected to Congress, and the number of transgender state legislators quadrupled.
The organization's connection to the network of open society politics is clear. A specific example: Victory Fund's "policy manager" Michelle Atwood, formerly of the Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a liberal research and advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. The president and CEO of CAP is Patrick Gaspard , who previously worked as the president of the Open Society Foundations for three years.
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