Six Stories You Should Know About

1. Victory Fund Endorses 37 More LGBTQ Candidates!

The rainbow wave continues to gain momentum! Earlier this week, LGBTQ Victory Fund endorsed 37 more LGBTQ people running for office. We have officially endorsed 274 candidates in 2022! Read our full release and the see the latest endorsed candidates here.

Among the candidates include Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who is running to be the first out LGBTQ person ever elected to the U.S. Congress from Oregon. She was given Game Changer candidate status. We also elevated six candidates to Spotlight status due to the historic nature of their races. One candidate, Zelos Marchandt, will be the first out trans man elected to a state legislature in U.S. history! Learn more about our latest Spotlight and Game Changer endorsements here.

2. Transphobic Lawmaker Attacks State Rep. Stephanie Byers

A transphobic lawmaker in the Kansas state legislature went after Kansas state Representative Stephanie Byers. As if that wasn’t gross enough, the lawmaker stood firmly by her comments while defending a bill she co-sponsored that would make it a felony for doctors to provide hormones or do gender transition surgery for children under 18.

We condemned this ugly transphobic attack against Representative Byers, the first out trans Native American elected to office in the United States.

3. Celebrating Lesbian Visibility Day

Lesbian Visibility Day was April 26th! If you haven’t celebrated -- or are looking to keep the party going – here are some incredible lesbian candidates running to make LGBTQ history this year!

Recent polling shows that Tina Kotek is in a tight race to become one of the first out lesbians elected governor in the U.S. Earlier this week, she highlighted one of her trademark policies to solve the health care crisis in Oregon.

Maura Healy, who will also make history as one the first out lesbians to be elected governor in the country, released an aggressive plan to tackle climate change in Massachusetts.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel will be facing an election-denier in her reelection campaign. Matthew DePerno was Trump’s attorney who promoted false claims of election fraud. When jockeying for the nomination, DePerno actively pressured his opponent to be fired from his private job as a lawyer.

Becca Balint is officially the frontrunner in her race for the U.S. Congress! When she wins, she’ll be the first out LGBTQ person and woman to represent Vermont in Congress.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner is hard at work on the campaign trail to be the first LGBTQ person to represent Oregon in the U.S. Congress. Last week, she participated in a candidate forum. You can also watch her latest campaign ad here!

Michele Rayner is racking up endorsements from U.S. Congressmembers and other state leaders in her run to be the first out LGBTQ person to represent Florida in the U.S. Congress.

Spotlight candidate Jolanda Jones is in a runoff following the Texas primaries to be the first out LGBTQ Black woman elected to the Texas state legislature. She’s also running in the special election on May 7th – early voting is about to start!

4. Deja Alvarez Interviewed by The Hill

Victory Fund set up an interview for Deja Alvarez with The Hill to talk about the historic nature of her race and what policies she’s excited to enact for her hometown of Philly. She also announced a huge endorsement from EMILY’s List! If elected, Deja would be the first out trans Latina to ever be elected to a state legislature.

5. WATCH: Will Rollins’ New Campaign Ad

Pop quiz: which Game Changer candidate prosecuted insurrectionists? We’ll give you a hint – he's running for Congress in the great state of California!

On Tuesday, Will Rollins released his first ad highlighting his experience as a federal prosecutor. Will is running to represent a newly drawn Congressional district that includes Palm Springs. He's taking on one of America’s most anti-LGBTQ congressmen, Ken Calvert – and the latest poll has Will leading by one!

6. School Board Candidates on Protecting LGBTQ Kids

From book bans to “Don’t Say Gay” bills, schools are ground zero for anti-LGBTQ hate this year. We spoke with school board candidates to discuss why they were inspired to run for office, bigotry (and acceptance!) on the campaign trail, and the ins and outs of how school board members can protect LGBTQ kids and promote equality. Read the full interviews here in our latest Out on the Trail blog!

Paid for by LGBTQ Victory Fund. Your contribution may be used in connection with federal, state and local elections and be subject to federal, state and local laws. Contributions to LGBTQ Victory Fund are not tax deductible. Victory Fund members do not have governance participation rights.

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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