Five Stories You Should Know About

1. Three Victory Fund Candidates Succeed in Wisconsin Primaries

On Tuesday, three Victory Fund endorsed candidates advanced in their primaries!

Larry Palm won his primary for Dane County Supervisor. He will now go on to the general election on April 5th! Larry was appointed as Dane County Supervisor in 2020 and has been a strong advocate for equality ever since. He previously served as an Alderman in Madison for 12 years and has worked in public education for 28 years. He is also a co-founder of GSAFE Wisconsin, an organization committed to building just schools in Wisconsin for LGBTQ youth and their families.

Vered Meltzer is continuing onto the April 5th general election after an uncontested primary. First elected to the Appleton City Council in 2014, he was the first out trans man to be elected to public office in Wisconsin! During his time on the city council, he helped pass a local ban on conversion therapy and dramatically improved the city’s equality score. He also volunteers with a local queer anti-violence organization and serves on the Board of Directors for Rainbow Over Wisconsin.

Nate Wolff (@NateWolff2) has only one challenger in his reelection campaign to continue representing District 12 on the Appleton City Council. As such, he automatically qualified for the general election on April 5. Nate helped improve the city’s pro-equality scorecard from 70 to 90 in less than two years. Before his election, he lobbied elected officials to ban conversion therapy in the city.

2. David Campos Headed to a Runoff

David Campos (@DavidCamposSF) received 35.5% of the vote to represent California Assembly, District 17. Vote totals show that David received the highest percentage of Election Day votes by 10%. This runoff election was called to fill the vacancy created when the incumbent assembly member resigned to become the San Francisco City Attorney. He now continues to a runoff against Matt Haney, which is set for April 19.

David has a long record of serving the people of San Francisco within his capacity in the office of the District Attorney and his term on the Board of Supervisors.

 

3. Celebrating Black History Month

Simone Bell won her race for the Georgia House of Representatives in 2009, becoming the first Black out lesbian ever elected to a state legislature in the U.S. She was reelected three times. In 2015, she resigned to become the Southern Regional Director for Lambda Legal. Yet the 58th district seat became an LGBTQ legacy seat, when out LGBTQ Rep. Park Cannon won a special election to replace Bell in the state legislature. Bell encouraged Cannon to run for the seat. Read more about historic Black LGBTQ political leaders in Pride and Progress, the only comprehensive timeline recording LGBTQ political power.

 

4. Anti-Trans Comments Made by Gay Candidate

Gay candidate Christopher-Aaron Felker (not endorsed by Victory Fund, of course) is being called to drop out of the race for the Burlington (VT) City Council after old, deleted anti-trans tweets resurfaced. Felker replies to other twitter users saying, “you seem to think that a cheap wig & fist full of hormones makes you a woman – You're wrong there too.” He goes on to use harmful language that disenfranchises transgender people’s place in the LGBTQ community.

Felker has gone out of his way to defend his comments saying, “we are all created in the image of God, and none of us are born in the wrong body.”

Incumbent LGBTQ candidate Joe Magee (@joemageebtv), who we have endorsed, has called for Felker to drop out of the race:

 

Joe was elected to the City Council last year after a vacancy arose. He defeated Felker and another opponent by nearly a 50% margin. Election Day is March 1st.

5. Tina Kotek’s Opponent Disqualified

The Oregon Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the decision of the Secretary of State disqualifying Nicholas Kristof from running in the upcoming May primary due to his lack of residency. Tina Kotek (@Tina4Oregon), longtime Oregon resident and current Speaker of the Oregon House, is running to be one of the first out lesbian governors in the country. The news is a considerable boost for her campaign.

Tina responded to the ruling, tweeting:

 

Last month Tina raised $1 million for her bid for governor; however, she still faces opposition from half a dozen other Democratic candidates.

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LGBTQ Victory Fund is the political arm of the LGBTQ community. Since our founding in 1991, we’ve supported and elected LGBTQ candidates like U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin, Governors Jared Polis and Kate Brown and all nine LGBTQ members of U.S. Congress. We've boosted out candidates running for state and local government, including California Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Florida Senator Shevrin Jones, Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, Colorado state Representative Leslie Herod, Pennsylvania state Representative Brian Sims, Hawaii state Representative Adrian Tam, Oklahoma Representative Mauree Turner, and so many more (meet all of our current candidates here)! We’ve shattered rainbow ceilings in all 50 states and broken election year records. You can power our work and the next Rainbow Wave with a donation today!

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