Several LGBTQ candidates secured spots on Maryland’s November ballot following Tuesday’s primary elections, though a handful of history-making campaigns fell short.

Congresswoman April McClain Delaney, who is running for re-election in the 6th Congressional District, won in the Democratic primary with 43.65 percent of the vote. Her main opponent, former Congressman David Trone, lost with 37.33 percent of the vote.

When Trone was last in the U.S. House of Representatives, he was a staunch supporter of LGBTQ rights, backing legislation such as the Equality Act. However, Delaney has also supported LGBTQ rights in her position, with the Human Rights Campaign endorsing her for standing up for the LGBTQ community and for “stands ready to fight against MAGA-led attacks.” Robin Ficker won the Republican primary with 42.61 percent of the vote.

In the 5th Congressional District, voters chose who will replace retiring U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer.

Hoyer was a major advocate for LGBTQ rights during his time in office and opposed the Trump-Vance administration’s transgender military ban. He helped pass the state’s marriage equality law in a referendum in 2012, alongside his daughter, who came out as lesbian in the same year.

Adrian Boafo won the Democratic primary for Hoyer’s seat with 31.97 percent of the vote. Boafo is a former state delegate for Prince George’s County. Boafo had received endorsements from both Hoyer and Gov. Wes Moore.  The former state delegate will face Republican Chris Chaffee in November.

Queer candidate Evan Glass lost in the primary election for Montgomery County Executive to Will Jawando, an at-large member of the County Council, and Andrew Friedson, a councilmember for District 1 in Montgomery County.

Jawando is ahead as the final votes are counted.

Moore is running for a second term in office. He won the Democratic primary, alongside Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller with 87.79 percent of the vote. Moore and Miller will face off against Republicans Dan Cox and Rob Krop.

Cox ran against Moore in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

Josie Caballero, a candidate running for the at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council, lost with 9.24 percent of the vote. Caballero would have been the first trans woman elected to office in Maryland if she had won. Former Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich won the primary race with 14.62 percent of the votes.

For House District 4, voters can pick up to three candidates. In the Democratic primary, this included Andrew Duck, Jerry Donald, and Alleria Stanley. If elected in the general election as one of three House of Delegates members, Stanley would become the first trans person elected to the General Assembly. 

In the Republican race, all three candidates will advance to the general election.

Gay and lesbian candidates running for re-election to the General Assembly overwhelmingly won their Democratic primary races.

State Del. Joe Vogel, who is running for re-election to Montgomery County’s District 17, was one of three candidates chosen by the Democrats and will be on the ballot in November. He received 28.41 percent of the vote, with Ryan Spiegel receiving 28.45 percent. No Republicans ran in the primary, so none will be on the November ballot.

Christopher Reed, who also ran for the House in District 17, is openly queer but received only 10.93 percent of the vote. All three candidates who will move on to the general election are incumbents in the seat.

Also moving past the primary election is state Del. Ashanti Martinez, who represents House District 22 in Prince George’s County. He is the sole incumbent to run for re-election in the race.

State Del. Gabriel Acevero, who represents House District 39 in Montgomery County, will move on to the general election, along with state Del. Anne Kaiser of District 14 in Montgomery County and state Del. Kris Fair of House District 3 in Frederick County.

State Del. Luke Clippinger of House District 46 in Baltimore City will move on to the general election as well, earning 33.69 percent of the vote. The race for House District 46 includes three Democratic candidates who will advance immediately, as well as one Republican who will advance. 

State Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore County) won the Democratic primary unopposed. When she was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2010, Washington became Maryland’s first openly LGBTQ African American elected official. With no Republican opponent, she is expected to keep her seat in November.

Other LGBTQ candidates ran for local and state seats for the first time, with many hoping to make history in state politics.

Matt Menter, who was running in House District 41, will not advance to the general election. In a race with eight candidates, Menter failed to break into the top three. In the past, Menter served on Baltimore City’s LGBTQ Commission.

Spencer Dixon ran as a Democratic candidate House District 32 and will advance to the general election alongside incumbent Mike Rogers and J. Sandy Bartlett. Dixon is an openly gay man and has worked on Democratic political campaigns in Maryland in the past.

Jamar Day ran for an at-large seat on the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, but with 11.44 percent of the vote, he will not advance to the general election. If elected, he would have been the first openly queer member of the board, as he identified as pansexual.

Joe Toolan ran for the Anne Arundel County Council’s District 6 seat in the Democratic primary but fell short with 12.78 percent of the vote. Toolan previously served as the first chair of the Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs.

Gavin Buckley, the candidate who won the Democratic primary for Anne Arundel County Council District 6, is the former mayor of Annapolis.

Byron Macfarlane won the Democratic primary for Howard County’s Register of Wills with 61.79 percent of the votes. Macfarlane has held this position since 2010, when he became the first openly gay person elected in Howard County.

Gabrielle Zwi, a nonbinary candidate, ran for an at-large seat on the Democratic Central Committee in Montgomery County. The top eight candidates will advance to the general election in this race, and so far, according to the Maryland Board of Elections, Zwi is among them.

Jamie McGonnigal is running for the Prince George’s County Board of Education for District 3, but the primary for his election was canceled. Therefore, he will be on the ballot for the general election. If elected, he would be the first openly gay man to serve on the board. 

(Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part report on the race for Delaware attorney general. For last week’s interview with Democratic candidate Dwayne Bensing, visit washingtonblade.com.)

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings spoke to the Washington Blade to discuss why she should be elected to a third term. 

Born and raised in Wilmington, Del., Jennings’ career in criminal prosecution spans decades. Prior to being sworn in as Delaware’s attorney general in 2019, Jennings worked as a prosecutor under the Delaware Department of Justice for years before being named Delaware State Prosecutor.

As a prosecutor, Jennings worked to convict the serial killer responsible for the murders of five women in New Castle County. This case was the first that DNA analysis was used as evidence in a Delaware court.  

“My focus for years has been reducing violent crime in our state, in particular gun violence. Over the course of my tenure, we have seen a dramatic drop in violent crime,” said Jennings. 

According to the Criminal Justice Council, under Jennings’s leadership in 2024, Delaware saw its lowest violent crime rate on record. 

“We are seeing violent crime going down to historic lows in the state of Delaware, and in particular in our largest city, the city of Wilmington,” said Jennings. 

At the end of 2023, homicides had decreased in Wilmington by more than 50% and shootings in Dover had declined by 23%. Additionally, the state’s prison population fell by nearly 25% since 2019 and the recidivism rates declined by 60%. 

Jennings explained “This job takes commitment, dedication, and lots of experience in the criminal justice system, because it’s our job to make sure that the criminal justice system is fair and equal to everyone.”

Within her efforts to reduce violent crime, Jennings said that she has especially focused on fighting gun violence. 

“I have made a priority in my administration to go after the gun lobby and to make sure that the state of Delaware has gun safety laws that are effective in reducing violent crime and that also are effective in protecting people, most especially our children,” she said.

“The No. 1 cause of death for children in our country are guns, and as long as that’s the case, my work is not done,” she added. 

Jennings said that she wants to protect children in particular from gun violence and that this fight remains a work in progress.

“We are beating the gun lobby in the legislature and in the courts, and we are seeing dramatic results in terms of reductions in gun violence that takes a lot of work that is ongoing,” said Jennings. 

Fighting the Trump administration remains an integral part of Jennings’s work as attorney general, as she has sued the Trump administration more than 40 times. 

“The Trump administration’s lawsuits could have cost Delaware almost a billion dollars in federal funds if we had succumbed to their extortionist threats, and we didn’t do that.” said Jennings. 

“We sued opioid manufacturers and distributors, getting $250 million to this state to fight addiction as a result of that. We will continue to do all the work that Delawareans expect us to do,” said Jennings. 

“We’re successful, and we’re going to continue to be successful,” Jennings said regarding her legal battles with the Trump administration.

In terms of support for the LGBTQ+ community, Jennings has previously sued HHS for discriminating against transgender Delawareans. 

Last summer, Jennings sent a letter to Nemours Children’s Hospital imploring them to reconsider its decision to stop providing gender-affirming care services to new transgender youth patients. Her primary opponent, Dwayne Bensing, criticized this letter for not being strong enough in protecting the trans community. 

The Blade asked Jennings about how she plans to continue to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ in a third term. She responded by saying: “We need to keep fighting to ensure that there are constitutional amendments that further protect children and protect marriage equality in our state, and we’re fighting to make sure those amendments are on the way.”

“To discriminate against trans children, in my mind, is child abuse. That’s what we’ve been fighting in the courts,” said Jennings. 

Jennings emphasized the importance of protecting LGBTQ+ youth by noting, “Our children deserve an environment where they are treated with compassion and equality.”

“It’s going to take a very strong attorney general who knows what she is doing to continue this fight,” said Jennings. 

The Blade also asked Jennings about her oversight of the restructuring of OpenAI. Originally founded as a nonprofit corporation in Delaware in 2015, OpenAI announced its goal to transition to a for profit corporation in May of 2025. 

“It is the duty of the attorney general to ensure that a corporation is fulfilling its charitable purpose,” said Jennings. “OpenAI’s charitable purpose is to use it to benefit all of humanity. That’s a big mission.”

Jennings worked closely with California Attorney General Rob Bonta to oversee OpenAI’s transition from nonprofit to for profit. 

“We got deeply involved in Open AI’s restructuring process to make sure the charitable corporation would be capitalized well to fulfill their mission of benefiting humanity and that they would prioritize safety. Those two goals were achieved.”

The restructuring process was approved by Jennings and Bonta in October of 2025. They appointed three independent directors to oversee OpenAI’s actions. “These three are independent directors who report to us several times a year,” said Jennings.

“We achieved a far superior result, because we are in the boardroom, we’re able to see what [OpenAI] is doing.”

“We have the full ability to go after OpenAI if they don’t fulfill our urges and we get the ability to oversee them on an ongoing regular basis,” said Jennings.

Jennings reiterated her desire to continue her work as attorney general: “These fights have to continue uninterrupted by people who know what they’re doing.”

“It is an honor and a privilege to have been voted in by Delawareans these last two terms, and I’m asking them to put me in again. I’m fighting hard,” said Jennings.  

The primary election for Delaware attorney general is Sept. 15. 

A newly released report on the findings of a survey of 304 LGBTQ young people aged 18-30 who live in D.C. shows as many as 79 percent of those surveyed report they are struggling to pay rent or a mortgage.

The report, entitled Out and Counted: 2026 LGBTQ+ Young People Community Survey Findings, also shows at least 80 percent of those surveyed “feel isolated often or some of the time” and their reported use of tobacco-nicotine products, alcohol, and marijuana was “significantly higher” than that of the general adult population.

“Nearly one third of respondents have considered leaving the District, driven by housing insecurity,” the report says.

The survey and report were prepared jointly by the D.C.-based Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing and other support services for at-risk and homeless LGBTQ youth, and the Los Angeles-based Loyola Marymount University’s LGBTQ+ Politics Research Initiative.

The report says the LGBTQ young people completed the detailed survey in March and April of 2026 “thanks to multiple outreach strategies, including paid digital ads, in-person outreach, and other communication channels.”

Cesar Toledo, executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, said the survey included as many as 80 questions and a number of local LGBTQ organizations helped in arranging for the young people to take the survey.

“These findings suggest the District’s LGBTQ+ young people are being pushed to the brink,” Toledo said in a statement released by the Alston Foundation. “They are working hard, yet hitting an affordability cliff, deepened by a loneliness paradox and alarming health-risk behaviors,” he said.

He added, “To ignore these findings is to accept a ‘Queer Flight’ that will displace our LGBTQ+ community and drain the very lavender economic engine that Wells Fargo once famously noted as a secret sauce to economic growth.”

Gabriel Magni, associate professor of political science and Director of the LGBTQ+ Politics Research Initiative at Loyola Marymount University, said in the statement that the survey finding indicate that LGBTQ young people can be priced out of “traditional LGBTQ+ hubs” that have historically been important in advancing LGBTQ equality.

“These findings raise serious concerns regarding affordability and the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth in a city that has long welcomed the LGBTQ+ community,” he said in the statement.  

The report says about 41 percent of the survey respondents identified as gay, 17 percent as lesbian, 16 percent as bisexual, 14 percent as queer, 8 percent as pansexual, 1 percent as asexual, and 1 percent as demisexual.

The full report can be accessed here.