Almost 100 LGBTQ Candidates Won Elections In ‘Rainbow Wave 2.0’

A total of 99 LGBTQ candidates claimed victory in their races on Tuesday.

The 2018 election’s “rainbow wave” continued on Election Day 2019. Out of 200 openly LGBTQ candidates who ran, 99 won their races on Tuesday. When added to elections from earlier in 2019, this brings the year’s total to 145 LGBTQ victories, according to the Victory Fund.

The Victory Fund endorsed 111 LGBTQ candidates for Tuesday’s election. Of those, 83 were successful.

Most of the candidates were LGBTQ men. However, many gay and trans women also ran, and they had a higher success rate, with 46.2 percent of women winning their races and only 36.9 percent of men.

LGBTQ women even claimed victories in historically conservative states like Virginia, which turned blue on Tuesday for the first time in over 20 years. All five sitting LGBTQ lawmakers were reelected in Virginia.

Virginia’s Rep. Danica Roem made history as the first trans woman to be re-elected to a state legislature. Other important wins include N.J. Akbar, one of the first gay Muslims to be elected to any office in the U.S., and Alison Brown, the first openly LGBTQ woman to be elected to the Indianapolis City Council.

Some races have yet to be called. In Texas, lesbian Eliz Markowitz won about 40 percent of the vote against six Republicans. However, she still has to compete in a runoff election against Republican Gary Gates.

Still, almost two-thirds of the Victory Fund’s endorsed candidates have won so far in 2019 — a cause for celebration.


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