BY LISA KEEN
Nine of 12 openly LGBT candidates won their primary races Tuesday; but, lesbian Maryland State Delegate Heather Mizeur was not one them.
In a six-person race for the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor, Mizeur won 22 percent of the vote, two points behind the state attorney general Doug Gansler, with 24 percent, but well behind Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown with 51 percent, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.
The statewide LGBT group Equality Maryland endorsed Brown early on, but Brown had several advantages other advantages over his competitors: He is well-positioned to become the state’s first African American governor in a state with a 30 percent African American population, and, as lieutenant governor to a popular Democratic governor, he is better known and better funded.
Mizeur, who eschewed the intraparty attacks that Brown and Gansler engaged in, emphasized the “positive” throughout her campaign and maintained that strategy in commenting on her third place finish.
“There were a lot of skeptics who said I would never make it this far,” she told supporters in an email Tuesday night. But, she said, “This campaign will go down in history as one of the greatest grassroots campaigns ever run in Maryland.”
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on the Daily Rundown Tuesday morning noted that some political observers felt Mizeur “outshined her male opponents” during the campaign. One Baltimore Sun commentator said, prior to the voting, that Mizeur had proved it was “possible to win a campaign but lose an election” and that she proved herself to be “an assertive, confident and unapologetically liberal candidate with a bright future in state and maybe even national politics.”
She performed well in a televised debate with the top two candidates, staying above their jousting and bringing the focus back onto issues such minimum wage and the virtues of legalizing marijuana.
First-term incumbent Maryland Democratic Delegate Luke Clippinger was the third of three winners in his Democratic primary to represents House District 46. First-term incumbent Democrat Bonnie Cullison was the second top vote getter out of three winners in her Democratic primary for District 19. Incumbent Democratic Delegate Maggie McIntosh was the top vote-getter of three winners in the primary for District 43.
Openly gay Montgomery County Councilman Evan Glass’ bid for re-election fell short just one percentage point behind another candidate seeking the Democratic nomination. Byron Macfarlane was unopposed in the Democratic primary for register of wills for Howard County, Maryland.
In a non-LGBT race of special interest to the LGBT community, U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna easily won the Republican nomination for another term, even though he was one of just a few Republican members of Congress recently to express support for marriage equality. New York State Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, a candidate supported by the National Organization for Marriage, challenged Hanna. She does not support same-sex couples marrying. Hanna received backing from the pro-gay American Unity PAC.
© 2014 Keen News Service. All rights reserved.
Get Towleroad Headlines Daily.
News daily from one of the most trusted, independent, lgbtq owned and operated media outlets. Covering news, entertainment, science, media, art and more for almost 17 years.