Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

LGBT candidates positioned to help Democrats take back House and Senate majority
by Lisa Keen, Keen News Service
2018-04-15

This article shared 1012 times since Sun Apr 15, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


The following is the first in a series of articles examining how LGBT candidates and organizations are positioned to help Democrats take back the majority of the U.S. House and Senate this year.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan stunned many people with his announcement April 11 that he would "retire" from office next January. But he was just following a crowd of Republicans in Congress ( more than three dozen ) who had already decided they would not run again. Their mostly unspoken motivations seemed clear: They either felt they could no longer support their party's leader —President Trump— or feared they could not be re-elected.

Ever since President Trump took office, polls have ( www.pollingreport.com/2018.htm ) shown that voters would prefer that Democrats controlled the House and Senate. Asked which party's candidate they would support in a Congressional election, they said Democrat. Even the Fox News poll said so.

The implications for LGBT people of having Democrats win control of even one chamber are profound. The Republican majority Congress has completely blocked any consideration of pro-LGBT legislation, has approved anti-LGBT judicial nominees, and advanced bills with language that eliminates many protections for LGBT people. For example, the House approved a funding bill that included language reaffirming an executive order from President Trump that allows religious exemptions to federal non-discrimination policies. And Republican leadership in the House orchestrated the defeat of a funding bill with pro-LGBT language. The Senate confirmed a U.S. Supreme Court nominee ( Neil Gorsuch ) and 11 federal appeals court nominees opposed by LGBT legal groups.

LGBT candidates vying to be part of Congressional change are all Democrats, but one.

Some quick numbers:

Republicans currently hold 237 of the House's 435 seats; Democrats hold 193; and there are five vacancies.

More than 10 percent of House Republicans ( 27 ) have announced, like Ryan, that they will not seek re-election in November. ( That compares to five percent of Democrats ( 11 ). ) Four Senate seats are being vacated by incumbent Republicans ( compared to one Democrat ).

To become the majority in the House, either party needs 218 seats. So, for Democrats to become the majority, they need a net gain of 25 in November.

There are 18 LGBT Congressional candidates this year—four incumbents and 14 newcomers. All but one of the newcomers are Democrats; none are Republicans; one is Green Party.

The chances for success by the newcomers can be calculated on such things as whether they are running to fill a vacant seat or against a strong incumbent, what the demographic and political make-up of their district is, whether they have put together a strong and well-funded campaign; and whether they have run for or held elective office before. So far, at least seven of the 14 show a strong chance of winning in November:

Matt Heinz, Arizona ( 2nd district )

Katie Hill, California ( 25th )

Lauren Baer, Florida ( 18th )

David Richardson, Florida ( 27th )

Angie Craig, Minnesota ( 2nd )

Chris Pappas, New Hampshire ( 1st )

Gina Ortiz Jones, Texas ( 23rd )

While the other seven have significant obstacles to overcome, most have developed impressive campaigns and are still very much in the running:

Jim Gray, Kentucky ( 6th )

Pat Davis, New Mexico ( 1st )

Rick Neal, Ohio ( 15th )

Lorie Burch, Texas ( 3rd )

Mary Wilson, Texas ( 21st )

Eric Holguin, Texas ( 27th )

James Partsch-Galvan, Texas ( 29th )

The next primary coming up is Rick Neal's, in Ohio May 8. A newcomer to politics and a former Peace Corps worker, he's raised an impressive $396,000, according to the Federal Elections Commission. His Democratic opponent has not reported any income yet to the FEC. But whoever wins the primary faces incumbent Republican Rep. Steve Stivers, who is unopposed in the GOP primary and has already raised more than $2 million for his re-election. Stivers is only a two-termer, but he's already chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Neal has an uphill battle.

Six LGBT candidates have important primary races May 22. Five of them are in Texas, where they each won the most votes in the first primary but not enough to win the nomination outright. Of those five, Gina Ortiz Jones has the best odds of winning. She won 41 percent of the vote, while her nearest competitor ( and May 22 opponent ) won only 17 percent. Her latest report to the FEC showed almost $600,000 but in November, she'll be up against an incumbent Republican who has raised twice that. But she —and Minnesota's Angie Craig— have also caught the attention and support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's efforts to win over Republican-held districts.

Two other LGBT Texas primary candidates May 22 are going into their run-offs having won the largest percentage of vote in the original primary. Lorie Burch won 49.6 percent of the vote and the endorsement of the Dallas News.

Eric Holguin came in second in his original Democratic primary, but the configuration of his district in Texas ( the 27th ) is in the unusual position of being challenged in an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court April 24. Plus, the incumbent Republican resigned April 6 due to a sex scandal. Lots can happen between April 24 and May 22 to affect that primary.

The fifth Texas LGBT candidate is James Partsch-Galvan, running as a Green Party member.

Also, facing a primary opponent May 22 is Jim Gray, the openly gay Mayor of Lexington, Kentucky. Gray ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by Rand Paul two years ago and lost by a significant margin. But he's probably the best known among the six Democrats on the May 22 primary ballot. If he wins, he'll face a Republican incumbent, Andy Barr, and the Cook Political Report ( www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/kentucky-house/ky-06-grays-entry-moves-barr-lean-republican ) predicts Gray could give Barr a "tough reelection race."

What all these candidates need is money. Some of them are getting small contributions from several LGBT political action committees. A very few, like Craig and Jones, are getting help from the Democratic Party.

Individual citizens from any state can contribute to these campaigns. For donations of $200 or more, the candidate must report the name, address, occupation, and employer of the individual contributor to the Federal Elections Commission.

Federal law limits how much any one person can give to any one candidate: $2,700 per primary and $2,700 per general election.

Individuals can also give $5,000 per year to a political action committee, and that committee can then give $5,000 per primary and $5,000 per general election to individual candidates.

If five or six newcomer LGBT Congressional candidates win this fall, they will comprise the largest number of openly LGBT members of Congress in history. Currently, there are six such members in the House; but two of those, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, are running for other offices ( Polis for governor and Sinema for the U.S. Senate ). The newcomers, if successful, will join the existing four LGBT incumbents, who are all running for re-election and have strong chances of returning to office:

David Cicilline of Rhode Island

Sean Patrick Maloney of New York

Mark Pocan of Wisconsin

Mark Takano of California.

© 2018 by Keen News Service. All rights reserved.


This article shared 1012 times since Sun Apr 15, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill
2024-03-27
On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event
2024-03-25
Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Chicago alder proposes renaming street after Obama
2024-03-22
Openly gay Black Chicago Ald. Lamont Robinson has proposed renaming Columbus Drive after former U.S. President and city resident Barack Obama, media outlets noted. The street stretches through the Loop from East Grand Avenue to DuSable ...


Gay News

Congressional Equality Caucus on FY24 bills passing the house
2024-03-22
--From a press release - WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), released the following statement after the House successfully passed the final funding bills for Fiscal Year ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds
2024-03-21
It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist
2024-03-21
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ candidates Marcelino Garcia, Precious Brady Davis win primary elections to keep MWRD seats
2024-03-21
Marcelino Garcia and Precious Brady-Davis, the two openly LGBTQ+ incumbents in the race to keep their seats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), won their primary elections and will move on to the general this ...


Gay News

Small LGBTQ+ candidate pool nevertheless scores some important victories March 19
2024-03-20
Relatively few openly LGBTQ+ candidates were running in the March 19 Illinois Primary Election. But there were some significant contests in play at the local, state and federal levels. Openly gay Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) ...


Gay News

Gay Irish prime minister to step down
2024-03-20
In a surprise move, openly gay Irish Prime Minister (or Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar has announced his resignation, citing "personal and political, but mainly political reasons," according to CNN. Varadkar said he felt he was no longer ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

Almost 8% of U.S. residents identify as LGBTQ+
2024-03-16
The proportion of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+ continues to increase. LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as LGBTQ+, according to the newest Gallup poll results that ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

PASSAGES: Former Chicago Commission on Human Relations chair Clarence Wood
2024-03-13
LGBTQ ally and former Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) Chair and Commissioner Clarence N. Wood died March 5. He was 83. Wood was born April 14, 1940, in Alabama. While primarily raised in Alabama, Wood ...


Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.