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Former Victory Fund president among N.Y. 18th Congressional District candidates

Aisha Mills’ fundraising numbers lag behind other Democrats.

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Aisha Mills (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

New York’s 18th Congressional District is widely seen as one of a handful of seats that will determine which party secures control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterm elections.

The district has established itself in recent years as reliably Democratic, having been held for the last decade by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Sean Patrick Maloney. 

Following a challenge to the state’s redistricting process in 2020, however, maps that had been drawn by the New York State Legislature were ruled unconstitutional by state courts that determined they were the result of partisan gerrymandering.

The process eventually caused Maloney, who is openly gay, to instead announce his election bid for the state’s 17th Congressional District in which he now resides.

“While the process to draw these maps without the legislature is against the will of voters, if the newly-announced maps are finalized, I will run in New York’s 17th Congressional District,” Maloney tweeted. “NY-17 includes my home and many of the Hudson Valley communities I currently represent.”

The congressman further justified his transition in a follow-up tweet in which he noted that he was the only current House member to live in the new 17th Congressional District.

Maloney’s established presence in the district had allowed him to maintain steady leads over several election cycles, routinely besting Republican challengers by more than 10 percentage points in each election since 2016.

With Maloney’s departure, however, the race that the Cook Political Report rates as a R +1 is now seen as a tossup that will help determine whether Democrats can maintain their congressional majority.

With Maloney’s seat now vacant of an incumbent, multiple Democratic challengers have stepped up in hopes of taking his place in Congress. They include former LGBTQ Victory Fund President Aisha Mills.

Mills, the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, would be the first Black lesbian member of Congress if elected.

“We launched this campaign a short month ago when it became clear that this seat would be open due to redistricting,” Mills wrote on Facebook after announcing her run in July. “We are excited to hit the campaign trail to bring our progressive messaging directly to the voters of the 18th Congressional District.”

Mills will face off against Moses Mugulusi, digital designer Michael Berean and Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan in her bid for her party’s nomination. The winner of the Democratic primary will go on to face Republican state Assemblyman Colin Schmitt in the November general election.

Past polls conducted in the district suggested Maloney’s ability to hold on to his seat. It is unclear, however, how Mills and the new wave of Democratic candidates in the district may fair in their primary or in the general election later this year.

Campaign finance data also suggests that Mills faces an uphill battle in both the primary as well in a potential matchup against Schmitt.

Schmitt’s campaign boasted $601,065 on hand compared to Mills’ $11,979 as of June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission. Ryan had similarly amassed $575,501 by the end of June, although much of his messaging focus thus far has been targeted at the special election for New York’s 19th Congressional District for which he is also running.

Despite the uncertain political landscape of the district, Mills has maintained public optimism that she will be able to prevail in keeping the seat in Democratic hands and making history along the way.

“I will fight for working families and organize with local leaders on issues that matter to all of us within Orange, Dutchess, and Ulster Counties,” Mills tweeted. “I know that if we work together, we can elect the first Black gay woman to Congress.”

The Washington Blade has reached out to Mills for comment about her campaign.

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Congress

Congress passes ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ with massive cuts to health insurance coverage

Roughly 1.8 million LGBTQ Americans rely on Medicaid

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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” heads to President Donald Trump’s desk following the vote by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, which saw two nays from GOP members and unified opposition from the entire Democratic caucus.

To partially offset the cost of tax breaks that disproportionately favor the wealthy, the bill contains massive cuts to Medicaid and social safety net programs like food assistance for the poor while adding a projected $3.3 billion to the deficit.

Policy wise, the signature legislation of Trump’s second term rolls back clean energy tax credits passed under the Biden-Harris administration while beefing up funding for defense and border security.

Roughly 13 percent of LGBTQ adults in the U.S., about 1.8 million people, rely on Medicaid as their primary health insurer, compared to seven percent of non-LGBTQ adults, according to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute think tank on sexual orientation and gender identities.

In total, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts will cause more than 10 million Americans to lose their coverage under Medicaid and anywhere from three to five million to lose their care under Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.

A number of Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the bill reasoning that they might face political consequences for taking away access to healthcare for, particularly, low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid. Poorer voters flocked to Trump in last year’s presidential election, exit polls show.

A provision that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation — reportedly after the first trans member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and the first lesbian U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), shored up unified opposition to the proposal among Congressional Democrats.

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Congress

Ritchie Torres says he is unlikely to run for NY governor

One poll showed gay Democratic congressman nearly tied with Kathy Hochul

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U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Gay Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York is unlikely to challenge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in the state’s next gubernatorial race, he said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“I’m unlikely to run for governor,” he said. ““I feel like the assault that we’ve seen on the social safety net in the Bronx is so unprecedented. It’s so overwhelming that I’m going to keep my focus on Washington, D.C.”

Torres and Hochul were nearly tied in a poll this spring of likely Democratic voters in New York City, fueling speculation that the congressman might run. A Siena College poll, however, found Hochul leading with a wider margin.

Back in D.C., the congressman and his colleagues are unified in their opposition to President Donald Trump’s signature legislation, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which heads back to the House after passing the Senate by one vote this week.

To pay for tax cuts that disproportionately advantage the ultra-wealthy and large corporations, the president and Congressional Republicans have proposed massive cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.

A provision in the Senate version of the bill that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation, reportedly after pressure from transgender U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and lesbian U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).

Torres on “Morning Joe” said, “The so-called Big Beautiful Bill represents a betrayal of the working people of America and nowhere more so than in the Bronx,” adding, “It’s going to destabilize every health care provider, every hospital.”

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House Democrats oppose Bessent’s removal of SOGI from discrimination complaint forms

Congressional Equality Caucus sharply criticized move

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

A letter issued last week by a group of House Democrats objects to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s removal of sexual orientation and gender identity as bases for sex discrimination complaints in several Equal Employment Opportunity forms.

Bessent, who is gay, is the highest ranking openly LGBTQ official in American history and the second out Cabinet member next to Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary during the Biden-Harris administration.

The signatories to the letter include a few out members of Congress, Congressional Equality Caucus chair and co-chairs Mark Takano (Calif.), Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), and Becca Balint (Vt.), along with U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams (Ga.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), and Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas).

The letter explains the “critical role” played by the EEO given the strictures and limits on how federal employees can find recourse for unlawful workplace discrimination — namely, without the ability to file complaints directly with the Employment Opportunity Commission or otherwise engage with the agency unless the complainant “appeal[s] an agency’s decision following the agency’s investigation or request[s] a hearing before an administrative judge.”

“Your attempt to remove ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ as bases for sex discrimination complaints in numerous Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) forms will create unnecessary hurdles to employees filing EEO complaints and undermine enforcement of federal employee’s nondiscrimination protections,” the members wrote in their letter.

They further explain the legal basis behind LGBTQ inclusive nondiscrimination protections for federal employees in the EEOC’s decisions in Macy v. Holder (2012) and Baldwin v. Foxx (2015) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020).

“It appears that these changes may be an attempt by the department to dissuade employees from reporting gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination,” the lawmakers wrote. “Without forms clearly enumerating gender identity and sexual orientation as forms of sex discrimination, the average employee who experiences these forms of discrimination may see these forms and not realize that the discrimination they experienced was unlawful and something that they can report and seek recourse for.”

“A more alarming view would be that the department no longer plans to fulfill its legal obligations to investigate complaints of gender identity and sexual orientation and ensure its
employees are working in an environment free from these forms of discrimination,” they added.

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