Politics
EXCLUSIVE: Behind the scenes with LGBTQ staff working on Biden’s re-election campaign
Senior advisers say contrast between Biden and Trump will sharpen in 2024
(Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series profiling senior LGBTQ staff working on President Biden’s re-election campaign. Part one was published on Nov. 21 and part two was published on Nov. 29.)
WILMINGTON, Del. — Last month from campaign headquarters, the Washington Blade spoke with Sergio Gonzales, senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden-Harris reelection campaign, along with senior campaign adviser Becca Siegel.
On the importance of LGBTQ representation in the presidential campaign, Gonzales said, “When it comes to policies that affect the lives of millions of people in our communities across the country, having people who have that experience and that background really does matter.”
Moving into next year, he said, the team is working “to ensure that we have people from across the spectrum of America who are able to both bring their own personal experiences and lives into these roles, but also bring a lot of relationships across the country and being able to engage with the community, talk to the community, persuade the community, turn out the community.”
Gonzales has worked for Harris since she was elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate, and he said her record supporting and defending the LGBTQ community throughout her career was one of the major factors leading to his decision to join the campaign.
“Especially when it comes to issues related to LGBTQ rights and freedoms, this is something [Harris] has such a long history on,” he said. “She has always — both in her office and externally — formed these strong relationships with people in the LGBTQ community and those relationships have always been very, I think, important in not only ensuring her office and the work that she has done reflects the various things that we as a community need, but also just in the way she supports people of color and LGBTQ folks who have worked for her.”
In an election where, as the vice president says, so much is at stake for our fundamental freedoms and rights,” Gonzales said, “that is especially true for LGBTQ Americans. If you look at the number of attacks by GOP leaders at the local, state, and federal level across the country, so much is on the line in this election.”
On the right, Gonzales said, “We have a lot of leaders and a party in this country who are doing their best to try to attack fundamental rights and freedoms of a lot of different folks, including people in the LGBTQ community — and, in some ways, who are trying to turn back the clock on a lot of the progress we’ve made.”
Voters are aware of the fact that, for instance, Republicans elected “a new Speaker of the House who has a very, very alarming and disturbing record of attacking people in our community, including trying to outlaw you know, being gay,” he said.
“Both as senior adviser and personally as a very openly and proud gay man,” Gonzales said, next year’s election “is one of the most important if not the most important election of our lifetime,” because “I see what sits on the other side; I see all of these different states who are trying to attack our rights, who are banning books, who are passing ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws, who are attacking trans people and trying to undo gay marriage, who are — both through policy and through rhetoric — making the country more dangerous for people like me and our community.”
“I’m glad and proud to work for a principal and work for a campaign that is about continuing the progress and ensuring we don’t turn back the clock and we don’t go back on these things,” he said.
Gonzales noted the Biden-Harris administration’s appointment of record-breaking numbers of LGBTQ folks in senior positions in the White House and across the federal government, but stressed that the commitment to equality runs deeper.
“This administration is an administration that has ensured that not only is there representation for the LGBTQ community, but also has actually driven multiple policy wins, both through the executive level and through Congress, that ensure and afford greater rights and freedoms for people in our community,” he said.
Helping voters see the contrast between this and what Republicans — like the party’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump — would do if elected will be an important part of the campaign’s work moving into next year, Gonzales said. “As things become much more clear and what we are up against, and Donald Trump comes more into focus, I truly believe that we’re going to see a lot of different parts of the country start to engage in this election,” he said.
Voters will also remember “the specific things that [Trump] did in his last administration,” Gonzales said. “They tried to erase LGBTQ people from the census. They imposed a ban on transgender individuals in our military, which this administration undid. They undid protections for LGBTQ Americans, including transgender individuals, in the workplace, and more broadly,” so, “this is not just bluster.”
And the Biden-Harris administration “has so much to run on” with respect to LGBTQ matters, Gonzales said, “whether we’re talking about health care, whether we’re talking about the Respect for Marriage Act, whether we’re talking about, you know, some of the ways that we’ve addressed bullying in schools — these are very real policy wins for our community.”
Like Gonzales, Siegel has “worked on many presidential campaigns.”
“Your whole life is here when you’re working on a campaign,” she said. “This is your work, but also your social life and your friends,” so “if you are not bringing your whole self to this community, you’re not bringing it anywhere in your life.”
Our job is to persuade and engage with voters,” Siegel said, “and we have to have a campaign that reflects the voters we are trying to engage with.”
“Core to my approach to this work is respect and empathy for voters,” she said. “That’s what we should think about every day. I think we are much better prepared to do that when we have a staff that looks like those voters.”
Siegel added, “It’s not just so that you walk into the office and it looks like it is a diverse place to work. That’s important, too. But it’s actually about the work.”
With respect to her individual role within the campaign, she said, it comes down to “let’s take that strategy” of using data to find a pathway to victory “and then make sure we are executing a campaign that reflects it.” When it comes to “travel, comms, which radio stations we’re on, what our TV ads say, where we’re allocating our money, where we’re hiring staff — do those things align with the strategy to get us to 270 electoral votes?”
The importance of representation, LGBTQ and otherwise, may not seem self-evident in data-centric roles, but Siegel noted, for instance, the persistent challenge of combatting bias within datasets.
Like Gonzales, Siegel stressed the contrast between the Biden-Harris administration and campaign and those run by the Republican opposition. “LGBTQ rights feel more under attack now than they have in the past,” she said, “and so that rises to the top of concerns for voters — and our policy and position on this is really far away from the Republicans’.”
“That’s a clear contrast between us and the opposition,” she said, adding, “It’s at the top of people’s minds. It’s something they care about, and we have a pretty unimpeachable record on it compared to the opposition.”
It is not necessarily so simple, however.
“We who work in politics feel like, of course, this is a choice between, most likely, Donald Trump and President Biden and Vice President Harris,” Siegel said, “but voters, especially the voters who are most persuadable, don’t feel that way right now, necessarily.”
The choice voters will face will crystalize and the contrast between the campaigns will deepen moving into next year, she said.
On lots of LGBTQ issues, Americans are on our side. And when it becomes a choice between, ‘there’s this version of America and then there’s Trump’s version of America,’ — then, that is really clear,” Siegel said.
The campaign is working to reelect the president and vice president to represent the people, the voters, who “have day-to-day things that prevent them from, like, reading Politico,” she said. “They have kids, they have to pay their bills, they have to worry about all kinds of things.”
Siegel added, “I have a lot of faith in voters. They care about their families. They want a good life. They care about people who are different than them. I think most people care about other people.”
For those working on the campaign, she said, “it’s really on us” to make sure to “explain and show and demonstrate to them what you are getting from this administration, from these candidates.”
“We get to run on issues that help people and are popular,” Siegel said. “That’s a great place to start from.”
Politics
Pro-trans candidates triumph despite millions in transphobic ads
Election results a potential blueprint for 2026 campaigns
Activists and political observers say the major Democratic victories on the East Coast last week prove anti-transgender attacks are no longer effective.
Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York who defended transgender rights directly — Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, and Zohran Mamdani — won decisively, while Republicans who invested millions in anti-trans fearmongering were rejected by voters.
This contrasts sharply with the messaging coming out of the White House.
The Trump-Vance administration has pursued a hardline anti-trans agenda since taking office, from attempting to ban trans military members from serving to enforcing bathroom and sports bans. But this winning strategy may not be as solid for their voters as it once seemed.
The Washington Blade attended a post-election meeting hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, where LGBTQ advocates and political leaders reflected on the results and discussed how to build on the momentum heading into 2026 — as the Trump-Vance administration doubles down on its anti-trans agenda.
Among those on the call was U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly trans person ever elected to Congress. Having run one of the nation’s most visible pro-trans campaigns, McBride said voters made their priorities clear.
“Voters made clear yesterday that they will reject campaigns built on hatred. They will reject campaigns that seek to divide us, and they will reject candidates that offer no solutions for the cost-of-living crisis this country is facing.”
McBride cited the Virginia governor’s race as a clear example of how a candidate can uplift trans people — specifically when their opponent is targeting kids — but also refocus the conversation on topics Americans truly care about: the economy, tariffs, mortgage rates, and the preservation of democracy.
“We saw millions of dollars in anti-trans attacks in Virginia, but we saw Governor-elect Spanberger respond. She defended her trans constituents, met voters with respect and grace, and ran a campaign that opened hearts and changed minds,” McBride said.
“That is the future of our politics. That is how we win — by combating misinformation, caricatures, fearmongering, and scapegoating.”
She added that the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York offer a “blueprint” for how Democrats can effectively respond to GOP attacks and win “in the face of hatred.”
“When you dive into the data and you look in New Jersey, Virginia — you see the progress that pro-equality candidates have made in urban, suburban, and rural communities, among voters of every background and identity,” McBride said. “You see that we can compete everywhere … When we perform a politics that’s rooted in three concepts, we win.
“One is a politics of affordability — we prioritize the issues keeping voters up at night, the cost-of-living crisis. Two, we are curious, not judgmental — as candidates, we meet people where they are, hold true to our values, but extend grace so people can grow. And three, we root our politics in a sense of place.”
“All of these candidates were deeply committed to their districts, to their state, to their city,” she continued. “Voters responded because they were able to see a politics that transcended partisanship and ideology … about building community with one another, across our disagreements and our differences. When we as pro-equality candidates embody that type of politics — a politics of affordability, curiosity, and community — we win.”
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson echoed McBride’s sentiment — once again moving away from the bogeyman Republicans have made trans children out to be and refocusing on politics that matter to people’s everyday lives.
“Anti-trans extremists poured millions into fearmongering, hoping cruelty could substitute for leadership — and once again, it failed,” Robinson said. “Fear can’t fill a prescription. Division doesn’t lower rent or put food on the table. Voters saw through the distraction.”
Robinson then detailed how much money Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican who challenged Spanberger, spent on these ads — showing that even with money and a PAC standing behind her (like the Republican Governors Association’s Right Direction PAC, which gave her $9.5 million), success isn’t possible without a message that connects with constituents.
“In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger made history defeating Winsome Earle-Sears and more than $9 million of anti-trans attack ads. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t hide from her values. She led with them — and Virginians rewarded that courage.”
Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman went into further detail on how the Republican nominee for Virginia’s governor leaned into transphobia.
“Winsome Earle-Sears spent more than 60 percent of her paid media budget attacking transgender kids — an unprecedented amount — and it failed.”
Rahaman continued, saying the results send a message to the whole country, noting that only 3 percent of voters ranked trans issues as a top concern by the end of October.
“Virginia voters sent a resounding message that anti-trans fearmongering is not a winning strategy — not here in Virginia, and not anywhere else,” Rahaman said. “Candidates who met these attacks head-on with messages rooted in freedom, safety, and fairness saw overwhelming success. Attacking transgender youth is not a path to power. It is a moral dead end — and a political one too.”
Virginia state Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg), who was also on the call, put it bluntly:
“Republicans have now become champions of campaigning on bullying kids — and we saw last night that that was a losing tactic.”
“Virginians came out en masse to say we believe in protecting our neighbors, protecting our friends — and standing up for everybody.”
That message rang true well beyond Virginia.
In New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill pushed back against GOP efforts to weaponize trans issues, telling voters, “When you really talk to people, they have empathy. They understand these are kids, these are families, and they deserve our support.”
And in New York, state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani released a pre-election ad honoring trans liberation icon Sylvia Rivera, declaring, “New York will not sit idly by while trans people are attacked.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney died of complications from pneumonia and cardio and vascular disease, according to a family statement released Tuesday morning. He was 84.
Cheney served as vice president under President George W. Bush for eight years and previously as defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush. He also served as a House member from Wyoming and as White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” his family said in a statement. “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
Cheney had a complicated history on LGBTQ issues; he and wife Lynne had two daughters, Liz Cheney and Mary Cheney, who’s a lesbian. Mary Cheney was criticized by LGBTQ advocates for not joining the fight against President George W. Bush’s push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. She later resumed support for LGBTQ issues in 2009, including same-sex marriage, after her father left office in 2009. She married her partner since 1992, Heather Poe, in 2012.
In 2010, after leaving office, Cheney predicted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would “be changed” and expressed support for reconsideration of the law banning open military service.
In 2013, the Cheney family’s disagreements over marriage equality spilled into the public eye after Liz Cheney announced her opposition to same-sex couples legally marrying. Mary Cheney took to Facebook to rebuke her sister: “Liz – this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree – you’re just wrong – and on the wrong side of history.” Dick and Lynne Cheney were supporters of marriage equality by 2013. Liz Cheney eventually came around years later.
Cheney, a neo-con, was often criticized for his handling of the Iraq war. He was considered one of the most powerful and domineering vice presidents of the modern era. He disappeared from public life for years but re-emerged to help Liz Cheney in her House re-election bid after she clashed with President Trump. Dick Cheney assailed Trump in a campaign video and later Liz announced that her father would vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
New Hampshire
John E. Sununu to run for NH Senate seat
Gay Congressman Chris Pappas among other candidates
Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu on Wednesday announced he is running for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)’s seat in 2026.
“Washington, as anyone who observes can see, is a little dysfunctional right now,” Sununu told WMUR in an interview the New Hampshire television station aired on Wednesday. “There’s yelling, there’s inactivity. We’ve got a government shutdown. Friends, family, they always say, ‘Why would anyone want to work there?’ And the short answer is it’s important to New Hampshire. It’s important that we have someone who knows how to get things done.”
Sununu, 61, was in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997-2003 and in the U.S. Senate from 2003-2009. Shaheen in 2008 defeated Sununu when he ran for re-election.
Sununu’s father is John Sununu, who was former President George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff. Sununu’s brother is former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.
John E. Sununu will square off against former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in the Republican primary. Gay U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) is among the Democrats running for Shaheen’s seat.
“As a small business owner and public servant, I’m in this fight to put people first and do what’s right for New Hampshire,” said Pappas on Wednesday on X. “I’m working to lower costs and build a fair economy. Washington should work for you — not corporate interests.”
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