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Meet the LGBTQ candidates running in key races from U.S. Senate to state houses

Baldwin in tight contest; McBride poised to make history in Delaware

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LGBTQ candidates to watch this election include (from top left, clockwise): former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (D), U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas), U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorenesen (D-Ill.). (Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) became the first openly LGBTQ senator with her election in 2012, having previously served as U.S. representative from Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District as the first non-incumbent LGBTQ member elected to the chamber. She is running against Republican mega-millionaire Eric Hovde, whose campaign has targeted her sexual orientation with negative advertising, in a race that Cook Political Report considers a toss-up.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride (D) became the first openly trans state senator and the highest-ranking trans official in U.S. history with her election in 2020, having previously worked in LGBTQ advocacy and authored a memoir. She is running for Delaware’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she would be the first transgender Member of Congress. She is favored to win her race.

Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (Washington Blade file photo by Daniel Truitt)

Mondaire Jones served as U.S. representative for New York’s 17th Congressional District from 2021 to 2023, during which time he was often described as a rising star in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, serving on the Progressive, Black, and Equality Caucuses. Jones was one of the first two openly gay Black members of Congress. He is running to reclaim his seat representing NY-17.

Mondaire Jones (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Gay Democratic U.S. attorney Will Rollins is gunning for U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert’s (R-Calif.) seat after narrowly losing to the GOP incumbent in 2022. His victory is key for Democrats to retake control of the House, with Cook Political Report characterizing their race as a toss-up and POLITICO writing it will be one of the most “closely watched and expensive battleground slugfests in the country.”


U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D) is the first LGBTQ member of Congress from Minnesota and the first lesbian mother to serve in either chamber. In the House, Craig has opposed Republican-led efforts to implement anti-LGBTQ policies, especially in schools. She is facing off against Republican Joe Teirab in a race that, according to Cook Political Report, is shaping up in her favor/lean Democratic.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D) is a former meteorologist and the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois. While he is the first Democrat to represent portions of the state’s 17th Congressional District in decades, particularly the towns of Rockford and Peoria, Sorensen’s race is “likely” Democratic, per Cook Political Report. He is running against Republican Joe McGraw, a judge and former prosecutor.

U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids is a former mixed martial artist and attorney serving as the first Democrat to represent a Kansas congressional district in Congress in more than a decade. She is also the first LGBTQ Native American and one of the first two Native American women (along with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland) elected to the chamber. Her race is “likely” Democratic according to Cook Political Report.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D) is the first openly gay man from New Hampshire to serve in Congress following his election in 2018 and reelection in 2020 and 2022. He is running against Republican Russell Prescott in a race that Cook Political Report expects will be “likely” Democratic. New Hampshire Public Radio called Pappas the 1st Congressional District’s most successful Democrat in more than four decades.

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

There are four other openly LGBTQ members of Congress, all serving as co-chairs of the Equality Caucus under chair Mark Pocan, Democratic U.S. representative from Wisconsin: U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia and Mark Takano, Democrats from California, Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), and Becca Balint (D-Vt.). They are all expected to win their bids for reelection.

Gay Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D) is running for auditor general of the Keystone State, squaring off next week against incumbent Republican Tim DeFoor and three third-party candidates. Appointed by President Joe Biden to chair the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans, Kenyatta is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Tampa native and mother of two teen boys, Ashley Brundage has built programs to help educate people and facilitate economic empowerment for entrepreneurs, earning a “Spirit of the Community Award” for her work from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And if she wins her race next week to serve in the Florida House of Representatives, Brundage would be the state’s first out transgender elected official.  

Aime Wichtendahl is the first transgender official elected in the state of Iowa, serving on the city council of Hiawatha, a suburb northwest of Cedar Rapids, since 2015. Her work has focused on expanding infrastructure, reducing property taxes, and helping small businesses. If elected to the Iowa House of Representatives next week, Wichtendahl would be Iowa’s first openly trans state legislator.

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Congress

Top Congressional Democrats reintroduce Equality Act on Trump’s 100th day in office

Legislation would codify federal LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination protections

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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Democratic members reintroduce the Equality Act, April 29 2025 (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)

In a unified display of support for LGBTQ rights on President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, congressional Democrats, including leadership from the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, reintroduced the Equality Act on Tuesday.

The legislation, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, codifying these protections into federal law in areas from jury service to housing and employment, faces an unlikely path to passage amid Republican control of both chambers of Congress along with the White House.

Speaking at a press conference on the grass across the drive from the Senate steps were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), who is the first out LGBTQ U.S. Senator, U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (Calif.), who is gay and chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (N.H.), who is gay and is running for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.).

Also in attendance were U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), who is the first transgender member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (Nev.), U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.), and representatives from LGBTQ advocacy groups including the Human Rights Campaign and Advocates 4 Trans Equality.

Responding to a question from the Washington Blade on the decision to reintroduce the bill as Trump marks the hundredth day of his second term, Takano said, “I don’t know that there was a conscious decision,” but “it’s a beautiful day to stand up for equality. And, you know, I think the president is clearly hitting a wall that Americans are saying, many Americans are saying, ‘we didn’t vote for this.'”

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday showed Trump’s approval rating in decline amid signs of major opposition to his agenda.

“Many Americans never voted for this, but many Americans, I mean, it’s a great day to remind them what is in the core of what is the right side of history, a more perfect union. This is the march for a more perfect union. That’s what most Americans believe in. And it’s a great day on this 100th day to remind our administration what the right side of history is.”

Merkley, when asked about the prospect of getting enough Republicans on board with the Equality Act to pass the measure, noted that, “If you can be against discrimination in employment, you can be against discrimination in financial contracts, you can be against discrimination in mortgages, in jury duty, you can be against discrimination in public accommodations and housing, and so we’re going to continue to remind our colleagues that discrimination is wrong.”

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which was sponsored by Merkley, was passed by the Senate in 2013 but languished in the House. The bill was ultimately broadened to become the Equality Act.

“As Speaker Nancy Pelosi has always taught me,” Takano added, “public sentiment is everything. Now is the moment to bring greater understanding and greater momentum, because, really, the Congress is a reflection of the people.”

“While we’re in a different place right this minute” compared to 2019 and 2021 when the Equality Act was passed by the House, Pelosi said she believes “there is an opportunity for corporate America to weigh in” and lobby the Senate to convince members of the need to enshrine federal anti-discrimination protections into law “so that people can fully participate.”

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Politics

George Santos sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud case

Judge: ‘You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.’

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Former U.S. Rep. George Santos (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)

Disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos was sentenced to 87 months in prison on Friday, after pleading guilty last year to federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. 

“Mr. Santos, words have consequences,” said Judge Joanna Seybert of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. “You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.”

The first openly gay GOP member of Congress, Santos became a laughing stock after revelations came to light about his extensive history of fabricating and exaggerating details about his life and career.

His colleagues voted in December 2023 to expel him from Congress. An investigation by the U.S. House Ethics Committee found that Santos had used pilfered campaign funds for cosmetic procedures, designer fashion, and OnlyFans.

Federal prosecutors, however, found evidence that “Mr. Santos stole from donors, used his campaign account for personal purchases, inflated his fund-raising numbers, lied about his wealth on congressional documents and committed unemployment fraud,” per the New York Times.

The former congressman told the paper this week that he would not ask for a pardon. Despite Santos’s loyalty to President Donald Trump, the president has made no indication that he would intervene in his legal troubles.

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Congress

Democratic lawmakers travel to El Salvador, demand information about gay Venezuelan asylum seeker

Congressman Robert Garcia led delegation

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Andry Hernández Romero (photo credit: Immigrant Defenders Law Center)

California Congressman Robert Garcia on Tuesday said the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador has agreed to ask the Salvadoran government about the well-being of a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela who remains incarcerated in the Central American country.

The Trump-Vance administration last month “forcibly removed” Andry Hernández Romero, a stylist who asked for asylum because of persecution he suffered because of his sexual orientation and political beliefs, and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.

The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.” President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.”

Garcia told the Washington Blade that he and three other lawmakers — U.S. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) — met with U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan and embassy staffers in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital.

“His lawyers haven’t heard from him since he was abducted during his asylum process,” said Garcia.

The gay California Democrat noted the embassy agreed to ask the Salvadoran government to “see how he (Hernández) is doing and to make sure he’s alive.”

“That’s important,” said Garcia. “They’ve agreed to that … we’re hopeful that we get some word, and that will be very comforting to his family and of course to his legal team.”

The U.S. Embassy in El Salvador in 2023. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Embassy of El Salvador’s Facebook page)

Garcia, Frost, Dexter, and Ansari traveled to El Salvador days after House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) denied their request to use committee funds for their trip.

“We went anyways,” said Garcia. “We’re not going to be intimidated by that.”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on April 14 met with Trump at the White House. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) three days later sat down with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who the Trump-Vance administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador on March 15.

Abrego was sent to the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT. The Trump-Vance administration continues to defy a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered it to “facilitate” Abrego’s return to the U.S.

Garcia, Frost, Dexter, and Ansari in a letter they sent a letter to Duncan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday demanded “access to” Hernández, who they note “may be imprisoned at” CECOT. A State Department spokesperson referred the Blade to the Salvadoran government in response to questions about “detainees” in the country.

Garcia said the majority of those in CECOT who the White House deported to El Salvador do not have criminal records.

“They can say what they want, but if they’re not presenting evidence, if a judge isn’t sending people, and these people have their due process, I just don’t understand how we have a country without due process,” he told the Blade. “It’s just the bedrock of our democracy.”

President Donald Trump greets Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House on April 14, 2025. (Public domain photo)

Garcia said he and Frost, Dexter, and Ansari spoke with embassy staff, Salvadoran journalists and human rights activists and “anyone else who would listen” about Hernández. The California Democrat noted he and his colleagues also highlighted Abrego’s case.

“He (Hernández) was accepted for his asylum claim,” said Garcia. “He (Hernández) signed up for the asylum process on an app that we created for this very purpose, and then you get snatched up and taken to a foreign prison. It is unacceptable and inhumane and cruel and so it’s important that we elevate his story and his case.”

The Blade asked Garcia why the Trump-Vance administration is deporting people to El Salvador without due process.

“I honestly believe that he (Trump) is a master of dehumanizing people, and he wants to continue his horrendous campaign to dehumanize migrants and scare the American public and lie to the American public,” said Garcia.

The State Department spokesperson in response to the Blade’s request for comment referenced spokesperson Tammy Bruce’s comments about Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador.

“These Congressional representatives would be better off focused on their own districts,” said the spokesperson. “Instead, they are concerned about non-U.S. citizens.”

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