A quick note from Ben before we get in to the amazing writeup by my guest writer Jess: It’s not too late to register for my annual winter webinar Home for the Holidays! The event has been moved by one week to give folks a bit more time to sign up. We’ll be talking about boundary-setting, support planning, mental health, and how to get into juicy, productive political discussions if you want to and how to get out of them if you don’t!
Tickets are available on a sliding scale, and I would love it if you’d send this event to anyone who might benefit! Coworkers, fellow church-goers, book clubs, and family members are all invited!
I am now in the final month of writing my new book (!!!) before my publisher’s deadline of December 1st, so while I am a hermit I am so thrilled that Jess stepped up to write an incredible roundup of all the amazing stuff that happened in the midterms. I’m really excited by all the great guest post submissions I’m getting, and I’m so stoked for the future of Good Queer News. Hope just keeps getting bigger, y’all! I am so grateful for your support that allows me to keep expanding this work!
Let’s jump in to Jess’s amazing roundup!
Hey y’all! This is Jess, back in for Ben with this wonderfully BLUE post-election roundup. WOW!!!!! I am a bit stunned writing this up the morning of November 4. There are a LOT of wins to cover, so let’s dig right in. (Pre-apology for the excessive use of exclamation points in this article—I’m ecstatic ok!!!!)
Races with LGBTQIA Candidates
Let’s kick off this special Good Queer News roundup with all the LGBTQ candidate wins that I could find! If your local LGBTQIA elected official wasn’t mentioned here, by all means, let us know in the comments!!!
In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas became the first openly gay US Senator elected! New Hampshire has the misfortune to represent the slip of transgender rights in the New England region, so it’s great to see the first out Senator rise from this state in particular.
Some other firsts—Indiana’s 5th district elected JD Ford in what The Advocate called a “longshot” unseatting of the state’s GOP incumbent. Ford is also Indiana’s first openly gay member of Congress!
Jeremy Moss of Michigan’s 11th district is the state’s first openly gay man elected to US House. Michigan also elected it’s first transgender legislator with Joanna Whaley of MI House District 2. Her campaign involved her opponent’s challenge to invalidate her run for office due to a completely legal name change. Sweet revenge is winning with over 60% of the votes.
Other states’ first trans legislators include Washington LD-37’s Jaelynn Scott, the country’s very first elected out Black transgender woman!! Georgia elected Bentley Hudgins in a landslide race for GA HD-90 and is the state’s first openly trans and nonbinary legislator. (She received over 90% of the vote!) Wisconsin also elected its first openly trans legislator with Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford in WI AD-76. Alabama elected trans woman Allison Montgomery for HD-25 in a stunning win for a district that shifted over 20 points toward Democrats since the 2022 election.
And I can’t forget to mention the US Virgin Islands is sending an out queer woman to DC, Delegate Janelle Sarauw!
Other queer wins from the midterms:
JoAnna Mendoza won her race in Arizona District 6, a queer marine vet and single mom.
Ritchie Torres of NY-15 became the first out gay Afro-Latino elected to US Congress in 2020, and he won his re-election by a landslide.
Lesbian Cait Conley withstood vicious anti-trans attack ads and won her district of NY-17 for US Congress.
Bisexual Marni von Wilpert of CA-48 won her race.
Scott Wiener, a gay congressman of CA-11 is likely to win.
Progressive queer and trans woman Alexis Hoffkling won the election for Colorado’s House in district 23.
Out gay Democrat and son of Peruvian immigrants, Illapa Sairitupac won in NY AD-65.
David Siffert won unopposed to represent NY AD-66.
Minnesota’s first trans legislator Leigh Finke was re-elected for a third term in MN-66A (and she won by a lot).
Tina Kotek, Oregon’s first lesbian governor, won her race for a second term.
Gay man and immigrant Robert Garcia won re-election for CA-42. He sent a powerful warning to Trump and GOP in Congress with just two words after securing his spot in the House: “lawyer up.”
Additionally, several LGBTQ US Congresspeople won their relelections, including Emily Randall, Eric Sorensen, Mark Pocan, Mark Takano, Sarah McBride, Becca Balint, and Sharice Davids.
You are looking at the queerest legislation in US history!!
Notable Senate Races
We have some very noteworthy US Senate races. You’re likely to have already heard about the Senate flipping blue, but here’s why it’s worth a queer celebration:
Maine: Troy Jackson beat out incumbent Susan Collins. This was a race with heavy spending from Elon Musk’s America PAC, which fueled many anti-transgender attack ads against Jackson. Well, the people of Maine saw right through that gimmick.
Michigan: Abdul El-Sayed stayed true to his support for transgender people throughout his campaign and beat GOP opponent, Mike Rogers, in this purple state that elected Trump in two out of three election cycles. Rogers was an anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ candidate who used anti-trans messaging to attack El-Sayed.
Minnesota: Peggy Flanagan defeated Michele Tafoya, an anti-trans GOP candidate. Flanagan wore a trans equality T-shirt to Walz’s signing of gender-affirming care protections for the state in 2024 and held her ground on support for trans people.
Texas: In perhaps one of the most exciting wins this week, Democratic candidate James Talarico beat out opponent Ken Paxton, the state’s Attorney General who implemented and enforced some of the worst anti-trans attacks in recent years. Paxton’s attack ads included an AI-generated Talarico saying “God is nonbinary,” and the people of Texas still chose Talarico.
Other Democratic Senate seat flips include:
In Kansas, Adam Hamilton defeated incumbent Roger Marshall, making this Kansas’ first Democratic Senator since 1932. What!!!!!
Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina all unseated a Republican Senator.
Notable US House Rep Races
These races in particular focused heavily on anti-trans attack ads, but the people were not fooled. It’s long overdue for the GOP to rethink their scapegoating strategy.
Arizona: The winning Democratic candidate of AZ-06, JoAnna Mendoza, opposes trans sports and bathroom bans. Mendoza is also a single mom and immigrant from Sonora who unseated GOP incumbent, Juan Ciscomani.
Iowa: In response to anti-transgender attack ads, Christina Bohannan didn’t buckle. Instead, she responded by pointing out her opponent’s affiliation with Big Pharma, and she won this IA-01 rematch race from 2024.
Montana: Sam Forstag stood by trans constituents during his campaign by declaring politics should not meddle in people’s medical decisions, and won his race against anti-trans talk show host, Aaron Flint. Now, MT-01 sends a Democrat to the House for the first time in twenty years, all without capitulating on trans rights!
Pennsylvania: Paige Cognetti stuck by transgender people during her campaign in purple Pennsylvania. She flipped this PA-08 back to the Democrats after voters elected GOP Representative Rob Bresnahan (and Trump) in 2024.
Results from the states
Here we’re looking at particularly noteworthy governor wins, states with new Democratic trifectas, and states that lost their Republican supermajorities.
Many states have managed to slide numerous anti-LGBTQ bills state governments when the legislature and governor work together to scapegoat minorities. But with these new disruptions to that agenda, governors like Arizona’s Katie Hobbs can veto anti-trans legislation without an override, and fewer anti-LGBTQ bills will make it to the floor in general. Plus, blue trifectas have the power to pass more pro-LGBTQ legislation, like Michigan’s name change package during the last dem trifecta the state held.
Arizona: I know I already mentioned Governor Hobbs, but she won her re-election after spending her entire term vetoing anti-transgender bills. What a great reminder that the people of Arizona don’t actually support anti-trans laws. Arizona is also close to a trifecta, but these races haven’t been called yet.
Georgia: In a historic moment, Georgia elected the country’s first every Black woman to the governor’s seat with Keisha Bottoms. And she won without scapegoating trans Georgians.
Kansas: Voters in Kansas elected enough Democrats to state legislature that the GOP supermajority is broken, meaning lawmakers in Kansas can no longer override a governor veto. Also noteworthy, is Chris Mann is currently beating out Kris Kobach for Kansas Attorney General in a race with votes still coming in. This would be a massive win, as Kobach was instrumental in the invalidating trans Kansans’ driver’s licenses.
Michigan: This Great Lakes State locked in another few years of a Democratic trifecta. Leading the state will be Jocelyn Benson, the former Secretary of State. In this role, she helped implement Michigan’s first X gender marker on state IDs and driver’s licenses, which is now a very simple box-checking process.
Minnesota: With a flip of at least 3 state senate and 7 state house seats, Minnesota is returning to dem trifecta status.
Missouri: Voters here also broke up the Republican supermajority with pickups in the state senate and state house. If you’ve been a longtime reader, you know this was Ben’s home for quite some time, and he’s thrilled to see this change!
Nevada: A freshly flipped governor and state assembly leads Nevada into another dem trifecta. (They also flipped a US House seat this election, right on!)
Pennsylvania: This election gained enough seats in Pennsylvania’s state senate to flip control, securing their Democratic trifecta.
Texas - Again, Texas COMING THROUGH with a blue win in their race for governor. Gina Hinojosa beat out Greg Abbott, a brutal anti-trans governor. Hinojosa is the first Latina woman governor, is pro-trans, and waved a trans flag from the Texas House floor back in 2021. And with the flip of at least 12 seats in state house, Texas has split control over their government. What a moment of relief for queer and trans Texans!
Wisconsin: Democratic candidate David Crowley overcame anti-trans attack ads in a purple state, now secured with a Democratic control in both state senate and assembly for another dem trifecta.
Ballot Measures
Vermont’s proposal 4 passed with an overwhelming majority to add an equal protection clause to the state constitution, including for sexual orientaiton and gender identity. Virgina voters removed a same sex marriage ban from their state constitution. And in Missouri, a proposal attempted to ban abortion and trans-affirming care for minors in the same measure, but it failed!
Some losses, some hugs, and some closing thoughts
Despite all the gains, incredible voter turnout, and some truly amazing wins, we had a few losses, some with blows hitting close to home for the first time. Colorado and Washington had anti-trans ballot measures pass, including sports bans for trans girls in school with required gential inspections for all girls on sports teams. A second ballot measure in Colorado restricts gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth.
These are painful losses, and we should be kind to ourselves while we mourn them. If you have trans friends or family in Colorado, Washington, or Arizona, reach out and check on how they’re doing. And also keep in mind that these ballot measures are likely to face legal challenges, especially in states with pretty strong protections for LGBTQ residents.
In parting, I’d like to point out that the extortionate amount of money the Republican party spent on anti-transgender attack ads failed. Yes, they won a handful of ballot measures, and those will undoubtedly cause harm to members of our community. But those measures were also in part designed to get conservative voters out to the polls and elect GOP candidates, and that largely fell flat.
Instead, a record number of LGBTQ candidates were elected, we had states flip blue that haven’t done so in decades, and the abundance of hope this election has inspired cannot be understated. I’ve seen reports of anywhere between $180-230 million in spending of anti-trans attack ads simply didn’t work, especially when most of this money went to senate races like Texas and Michigan, and the anti-trans candidates failed. The GOP wasted hundreds of millions of dollars because people like us sent postcards, made phone calls, protested, talked to our friends and neighbors, and we showed up when it counted.
Now it’s our job to keep that ball rolling!
That’s all we’ve got for today! I hope everyone takes some time to breathe, celebrate, gather, and then we will get back to work making this country safe, welcoming, and affordable for all the amazing people who call it home.
Lots and lots of love,
Ben
wonderful writeup thanks so much!
So much good news! One more race of note, Rep. Aime Wichtendahl (trans woman) ran unopposed to continue in her seat representing House District 80 in the Iowa House.