National
Gay House, Senate candidates running strong
Numbers show Baldwin, others winning fundraising battles
U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Gay and lesbian candidates for the U.S. House and Senate are competitive with — and in some cases besting — their straight opponents when it comes to raising money.
Fundraising numbers for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the year in total became public earlier this month after candidates submitted their campaign filings in accordance with federal election law.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who’s seeking to become the first openly gay U.S. senator, made a particularly impressive showing in the final quarter in her bid to represent Wisconsin in the Senate by taking in $1.16 million.
The fourth quarter haul means the Democrat and seven-term House member raised $2.5 million last year for her Senate campaign. She has $1.8 million in cash on hand.
Phillip Walzak, a Baldwin spokesperson, said the number demonstrates the strength of her campaign.
“These figures demonstrate the strength of Tammy’s grassroots campaign, and the depth of support for her message to stand up for our shared values, and put the people ahead of right-wing radicals and corporate special interests,” Walzak said.
Nathan Gonzales, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, said Baldwin won’t “lose the Senate race because she doesn’t have enough money,” although it remains a toss-up and could be “one the top general elections in the country.”
Gonzales added he doesn’t think Baldwin’s sexual orientation will factor into the race heading into the general election.
“I see Republicans talking about her just being from Madison and how being a liberal Democrat from Madison puts her out of touch with the rest of the state rather than making her sexuality an issue,” Gonzales said.
Republican candidates in the race don’t come close to Baldwin in fundraising. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson raised $657,000 and has $544,000 in cash on hand. Former congressman and gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann raised $826,000 and has $552,000 in cash on hand.
Denis Dison, spokesperson for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, said Baldwin has “lapped everybody in the field” of Republicans.
“They’re going to be spending that money in the primary,” Dison said. “This is going to be a pretty ugly primary on the Republican side. They’re really going to have to spend all the way to win their nomination.”
Democrat Mark Takano, a gay public school teacher and member of the Riverside Community College District’s Board of Trustees, is also on top in fundraising for the race to represent California’s newly created 41st congressional district — although by a much slimmer margin.
Takano has raised $288,000 in total and has $212,000 in cash on hand. The Republican in the race, Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione has raised $275,000 and has $177,000 in cash on hand.
Gonzales said he thinks the race will be “competitive” in the general election, but added that Takano has the advantage.
“I think Republicans looking at numbers think there may be an opportunity there in a mid-term election,” Gonzales said. “In the presidential race where the president is going to do very well in the state, overall, I think, Takano has the edge.”
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Rep. David Cicilline, whom many thought would face a tough re-election campaign because of his unpopularity in the polls, is also outraising his Republican opponents and faces no Democratic challenger.
The Rhode Island Democrat has raised a total of $949,000 and has $518,000 in cash on hand. Republican businessman and former law enforcement official Brendan Doherty has raised $617,000 and has $482,000 in cash on hand.
Cicilline nose-dived in the polls last year because he was seen as less than forthcoming about the troubled finances of Providence, R.I., during his tenure as mayor prior to his election to the U.S. House.
The city of 178,000 faced a $110 million projected budget deficit and the rainy-day fund diminished from more than $22.3 million three years ago to less than $221,000, according to a report last year from Politico.
Gonzales said Cicilline’s problem in the general election won’t be money, but his approval rating, and predicted the race will be competitive even though Rhode Island is considered a Democratic state.
“If voters are focused on Cicilline’s record in Congress, then he’ll probably be fine for re-election, if they’re focused on his time as mayor and how they feel about how he described his tenure when he was running for Congress, then his re-election becomes a much dicier proposition,” Gonzales said.
Dison said he thinks Cicilline will do better than expected in the fall because his district was altered during the redistricting process to become even more Democratic.
“It would be very tough for a Republican to win that seat, unless there is a Republican wave out there,” Dison said. “But even in the last election, which was obviously a Republican wave, he won the district pretty handily.”
Other gay candidates aren’t ahead in fundraising, but are still doing well enough to remain competitive in their races.
U.S. House candidate Mark Pocan (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Democrat Mark Pocan, a gay member of the State Assembly seeking the U.S. House seat Baldwin is vacating at the end of the year, has raised $274,000 and has $204,000 in cash on hand.
But it’s less money than David Worzala, another Democrat and the Dane County Treasurer. The candidate has raised $278,000 and has $252,196 in cash on hand.
Dison said Worzala’s lead in fundraising is misleading because the candidate loaned himself $170,000 and Pocan actually doubled and tripled what the other candidate raised.
“In terms of fundraising, he’s not doing very well raising money from individual donors, whereas Pocan is doing very well both from political action committees and individuals,” Dison said.
Dison added that Pocan’s endorsements are “overwhelming” and said every major Democrat and union has backed the gay candidate in the race.
Both candidates in this race are ahead of Kelda Roys, another Democratic member of the State Assembly, who’s raised $147,000 and has $128,828 in cash on hand.
In Massachusetts, gay Republican Richard Tisei, a former member of the Massachusetts Legislature and former candidate for lieutenant governor, is behind in his bid to unseat Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), but still has sizable funds.
Tisei has raised $311,559 and has $260,000 in cash on hand, but the incumbent Tierney, running in the strongly Democratic state, raised $577,545 and has $546,000 in cash on hand.
But looking just at the fourth quarter, Tisei bested Tierney in terms of fundraising. The Republican raised $311,558, almost all the fundraising for his campaign, in that quarter, while Tierney raised $161,105. Another Republican in the race, attorney and businessman Bill Hudak, dropped out of the race after the fundraising totals were announced.
Gonzales said the Democrat is favored and that it will be tough for any Republican, but said there may be a chance to do better than expected in the race.
“It’s still a Democratic district, but because of questions, ethical questions surrounding Tierney, or more specifically, his family, I think there’s an opportunity,” Gonzales said.
Dison said the seat became more winnable for a Republican with redistricting and the major question in the race is the extent to which the Republican Party rallies behind Tisei in the general election.
“The question will be whether the Republican committees here in town see that as a possible pick up, and if they do, then they’re going to get behind him and spend a lot of money there,” Dison said.
According to Politico, Tierney’s brother-in-law, Daniel Eremian, was convicted of federal racketeering charges related to his operation of an illegal offshore casino. Additionally, Patrice Tierney, the lawmaker’s wife and Eremian’s sister, last year was sentenced to one month in prison and five months of house arrest after pleading guilty to charges that she aided in the filing of her brother’s false tax returns.
Gay Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) has raised $353,ooo and has $166,000 in cash on hand. He’s not expected to face serious competition in his heavily Democratic district.
National
Man charged in Mall of America shooting plot inspired by Pulse massacre: report
Suspect exchanged hundreds of messages, pledged loyalty to ISIS
The U.S. Department of Justice charged Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, of Richfield, Minn., on Oct. 7 with one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition in order to commit a federal crime of terrorism. Mohamud allegedly planned to carry out a mass-casualty attack in support of ISIS, inspired in part by the Pulse nightclub massacre that took place on June 12, 2016 when then-29-year-old Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and wounded 58 – one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, and the deadliest targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a DOJ statement release, Mohamud was arrested on Oct. 6 by the FBI, which had arranged to sell him an AK-47 assault rifle, magazines, and ammunition through an undercover FBI employee. Mohamud was arrested shortly after paying $600 in cash and taking possession of those items; he reaffirmed his intention to shoot people at the Mall of America during the transaction.
“Mohamud allegedly sought to carry out a mass-casualty shooting at the Mall of America, expressing a desire to emulate some of the most horrific ISIS-inspired attacks in the United States, including the atrocities at Pulse Nightclub and 2025 New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg in the statement by the DOJ. “The National Security Division will continue to work closely with the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force to track down and prosecute ISIS-inspired terrorists in the United States.”
According to the complaint, beginning on or about December 2024, Mohamud had exchanged hundreds of messages through multiple social media and messaging apps with a confidential source, and expressed a desire to travel to Somalia to join a designated foreign terrorist organization to fight on their behalf.
The defendant stated many times that if he was unable to travel overseas because of a lack of funds, he planned to carry out a mass-casualty event in Minnesota in support of ISIS.
According to the DOJ, “In July 2026, Mohamud sent messages discussing his intent to carry out a mass-casualty shooting attack at the Mall of America because he claimed it was owned by Jews. He wrote that [he] wanted to kill 30 to 60 people so no one would go there.”
“During the course of his communications, Mohamud stated that he wanted to commit an attack similar to those of the Pulse Nightclub mass-shooting in Orlando, the Bondi Beach mass-shooting in Australia, and the New Year’s Day vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans.”
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ryan White of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar for the District of Minnesota.
California
Calif. GOP gubernatorial candidate ad ‘disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy’
Activists, anti-LGBTQ religious leaders criticized Steve Hilton spot
Two women sit on a bed, a Pride flag hanging behind them. One is nervous; the other tells her to be calm and that she’ll do “all the work.” The music swells. The two hold hands and — fill out a ballot voting for Steve Hilton?
This is the new advertisement from the Hilton gubernatorial campaign that is drawing rebuke from both sides of the aisle, but for very different reasons.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, the communications director at Equality California, said the ad was an insult to the queer community.
“This ad is a disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy for political attention,” he said. The advertisement plays on media tropes that Salinas says “reduce lesbian and bisexual women … to sexual entertainment,” rather than showing them as well-rounded characters. “Any group of the LGBTQ+ community deserves the same dignity and respect as everyone else,” he said.
The ad is truly hyper-sexualized. It ends with one woman telling the other, “Now lick it.” The two pause and stare before she reveals an envelope to send the ballot, and large text pops up saying, “Just try it!”
Salinas characterized the ad as a desperate attempt to get attention from a candidate who is trailing far behind in the polls in heavily Democratic California. The Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, who is endorsed by Equality California, holds a 25-point lead over Hilton according to recent polling by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
Conservatives have also criticized the ad.
Influential evangelical Pastor Jack Hibbs thought the ad was distasteful and said, “lesbianism among college girls and some high school girls that right now is an actual pandemic of social ill.” Republican attorney general candidate Michael Gates said it undermines “the sanctity of the relationship between parents and their children.” This criticism is rather confusing because although the ad features two relatively young women, they both appear to be adults, not minors.
“The comments from Pastor Jack Hibbs should be criticized because there is nothing wrong with two women being attracted to each other,” Salinas said. “We’re calling out the ad’s stereotypes, while also rejecting the homophobia in the response to it … by other Republicans.”
The backlash from Hilton’s own party and supporters shows that an advertisement full of queer innuendo was ill-considered, considering the national GOP’s attacks on LGBTQ people in recent years. Hilton himself has been campaigning against transgender girls and women competing in school sports and using locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. This context might be why Hilton’s political base responded to the ad just as poorly as the liberal voters he was attempting to court.
Hilton says the ad is part of a new series rolling out before Election Day, showing stereotypical California liberal archetypes voting for Hilton. He claims these ads are authentically filmed with real actors, as opposed to being A.I. generated, like many of his previous ads. One other advertisement has been released so far by the campaign showing a man at a spiritual retreat also being swayed to vote for Hilton, although it is notably absent of sexual innuendo.
Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
2026 Midterm Elections
Trump uses anti-trans slur against Democratic Senate candidate
President mocked Annie Andrews
President Donald Trump used an anti-trans slur against Democratic South Carolina Senate candidate Annie Andrews on Monday as he sought to rally support for Republicans in the state’s Senate race.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump attacked Andrews three times, referring to her as “trannie” while promoting U.S. Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.)’s campaign.
Andrews is running against Graham for a Senate seat in the solidly Republican state.
Earlier this year, Graham was specially appointed to the seat following the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate from 2003 to 2026.
Andrews, the Democratic nominee from the state, is a pediatrician that lives in Charleston with her three children. She told NBC News that she will “work with anyone to put South Carolina first.”
“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” Andrews said, adding that “lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together.”
Andrews used the attention from the president’s attack to emphasize what she described as a focus on policy issues rather than the culture wars that have dominated much of the political debate.
“If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you,” she added.
Trump’s remarks have drawn criticism from leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) condemned Trump’s words Monday night on social media, calling his attacks on Andrews “despicable.”
“Annie Andrews is a mom and pediatrician who’s always put her community first — and she’s exactly who South Carolina needs representing them in the Senate,” Schumer said on X.
Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican, also criticized the president’s attack on Andrews, urging voters to “reject politics based on division and hate.”
“This is abhorrent. Elections don’t have to be about cruelty and lies. South Carolina deserves better,” Beasley wrote Monday night on X.
South Carolina has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly three decades.
Andrews’s campaign website does not mention her positions on LGBTQ issues.
The Washington Blade reached out to Andrews’s campaign for comment on Trump’s attack and her positions on transgender rights but did not hear back by time of publication.
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