The LGBTQ Victory Fund has put out its inaugural Out on the Trail report which offers an analysis of the diversity of the openly LGBTQ candidates who ran for office in 2020.
Among the report's findings:
“At least 1,006 openly LGBTQ people ran or are running for office in 2020 – the most in history – and a 41 percent jump since the last midterm election in 2018, when 716 openly LGBTQ candidates ran. At least 574 LGBTQ candidates will appear on the general election ballot in November, up from 432 in 2018, a 33 percent increase.”
“31 percent of LGBTQ candidates running in 2020 identify as people of color, with the LGBTQ candidate population continuing to be significantly more racially diverse than the general candidate population.”
“LGBTQ men of color are running in numbers proportional to men of color in the overall U.S. population in 2020, yet LGBTQ women of color are running at rates just half their proportion in the U.S. population.”
“The proportion of bisexual and queer candidates in the total LGBTQ candidate population grew significantly from 2018 to 2020, but the proportion of lesbian candidates dropped.”
“The number of transgender people running for office decreased between 2018 and 2020 (from 48 to 34), yet the number of genderqueer/non-binary/gender non-conforming candidates increased dramatically (from six to 25).”
“Alabama is the only state where zero known openly LGBTQ candidates ran in 2020, while California, Texas and Florida were the states with the greatest number of LGBTQ candidates running.”
Head on over to the Victory Fund for a deeper dive.
