Seven Stories You Should Know About

1. 7 Candidates WIN BIG

On Tuesday, Alex Ruggiers won his election for the Norman School Board in Oklahoma by a landslide! He soundly defeated the 25-year incumbent with 63.6% of the vote. “Many people said a 28-year-old former teacher couldn’t win against an entrenched, 25-year incumbent. But thanks to the incredible effort of every volunteer and supporter, we knocked on nearly 10,000 doors and proved that voters were ready for change.” Victory Fund raised over $3,000 for Alex’s election, provided campaign consulting and helped him score national media wins.



We also had incredible results in Wisconsin! Larry Palm won his election to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, Vered Meltzer and Nate Wolff won their elections to the Appleton City Council and Phillip Bailey won his election to the Glendale Board of Aldermen.

Other important wins -- Kyle Bueno won their election to the Fairhaven School Committee in Massachusetts, Timothy M. Cusick won their election to the University City Council in Missouri, and Georgette Gomez advanced to a runoff which will be June 7. Georgette will be the first queer Latina elected to the California state legislature from San Diego!

2. 10 LGBTQ Women to Watch This Year

There are currently only 415 out LGBTQ women serving in public office, with only 40 of those being trans women. This year, let’s do something about that!

Victory Fund was excited to pen an article in LGBTQ Nation about some of the most exciting out LGBTQ women making herstory this year, including Becca Balint, who would be the first woman and first out LGBTQ person ever elected to Congress from Vermont, Jolanda Jones, who would be the first Black out LGBTQ woman to serve in the Texas state legislature and Deja Alvarez, who would be the first out trans Latinx person ever elected to a state legislature in U.S. history!

3. When She Didn’t Have a Seat at the Table, She Brought Her Own Darn Chair!

Precious Brady-Davis is mounting a historic run for Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Commission. She will be the first trans person ever elected in the history of Chicago!

Victory Fund recently secured an interview for Precious with LGBTQ Nation to talk about her race, how her experience positions her to make unprecedented changes in Chicago and what it means for Precious to “stand on the shoulders of so many great trancestors” that came before her. Check out the full interview here!

4. Moving the Needle in Texas

 

Earlier this week, Victory Fund held a fundraiser with the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas for Spotlight candidate Venton Jones, who is running for the Texas state House. Mayor Annise Parker headlined the event, which ultimately brought in close to $30,000 for Venton! His runoff election will be held on May 24th.

If elected, he will be one of the first Black out LGBTQ members of the Texas state legislature! Learn about all three Texas candidates on the verge of history here.

5. Surprise! State Legislatures are Still Homophobic and Transphobic

This week brought another slew of anti-LGBTQ bills passed in state legislatures. The Georgia legislature sneakily passed an anti-trans sports ban. The deceptively named ‘Save Girls Sports Bill’ was passed minutes before the state legislature adjourned for the year, meaning many legislators didn’t have the chance to read the bill in its entirety before voting.

The neighboring Alabama legislative committee passed an anti-trans bathroom bill which specifically targets trans students. The sponsor of the bill used fear mongering tactics as a guise to introduce and support this bill. Our very own Neil Rafferty -- the only out LGTBQ person serving in the state legislature -- raised opposition to this bill when it was in the State House. Watch his full remarks here.

6. WATCH: Megan Hunt Leads Filibuster to Protect Women’s Choice in Nebraska

Nebraska state Senator (and first LGBTQ person elected to the state legislature) Megan Hunt led the charge to kill a bill that would outlaw abortion in the state following a presumed overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The bill, LB 933, would have criminalized healthcare providers who perform abortions, but notably not charge the woman receiving care. With the stakes high, Senator Hunt led an eight-hour filibuster on the floor of the Nebraska state House in order to kill the bill. On the floor, she called the legislation a bill brought by “religious extremists."

Because of Rep. Hunt’s bravery and resolve, the anti-equality legislators could not cobble enough votes to bring the bill to a full chamber vote – effectively killing the legislation.

 

7. Homophobic Perpetuator of Election Fraud Claims... Committed Election Fraud

Matt Mowers, the anti-LGBTQ candidate challenging out LGBTQ Congressman Chris Pappas, voted twice in the 2016 election. Is this the very same Matt Mowers who pontificates that “nothing is more sacred than each American’s right to vote” and that “we need to ensure that elections are secure” you ask? Sure is!

Well, he does learn from the best. Mowers was the director of Chris Christie’s presidential campaign and then worked for Donald Trump.

This November, history will repeat itself – Rep. Pappas beat Mowers back in 2020. One thing we hope will not repeat – Mowers' homophobic attacks, which we quickly condemned and squashed last time and will do so again.

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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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