National
Gay Republican seeks to unseat Mass. congressman
Boston Globe poll shows Richard Tisei is ahead of incumbent Congressman John Tierney
Richard Tisei may become the first non-incumbent openly gay Republican elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. (photo courtesy of Tisei)
BOSTON – Massachusetts congressional candidate Richard Tisei remains confident that he will become the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress next month.
“I feel pretty comfortable and pretty confident at this point,” Tisei told the Washington Blade during an Oct. 4 interview near Copley Square. A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center conducted on behalf of the Boston Globe late last month shows that the former 2010 lieutenant gubernatorial candidate is ahead of incumbent Congressman John Tierney by a 37-31 percent margin.
Thirty percent of respondents said they remain undecided, but the survey further indicates that Tierney’s wife and brothers-in-law’s involvement in an illegal gambling ring has adversely impacted his re-election campaign. “A lot of people in the district are ready for a change and they are looking for a different type of congressman than we have right now. I’ve gotten a great reception from folks.”
Tisei, a former Massachusetts Senate minority leader who co-owns a real estate brokerage company in suburban Lynnfield, announced his candidacy against Tierney last November. He would represent Massachusetts’ Sixth Congressional District that includes portions of Middlesex and Essex Counties north of Boston if elected.
Tierney and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee continue to compare Tisei to a Tea Partier in an attack ad currently airing on local television stations. He quickly brushed aside the comparison.
“I’m the only gay, pro-choice Republican who wouldn’t sign the [Grover] Norquist pledge being called an extremist anywhere in the country,” said Tisei. “It’s funny because people who know me find it laughable. I don’t think he’s realized how much he’s damaged his own credibility. Rather than talking about what he’s done over a 16-year period. Trying to paint me as some type of Right Wing extremist is just so off-the-wall that it damages his own credibility.”
He further noted that the economy and jobs are among the top issues on voters’ minds.
“Most of the jobs are created by small business owners who employ 10 or less people and those are the people who don’t feel comfortable or confident hiring anybody right now because there’s so much uncertainty emulating from the government,” said Tisei. “We have a dysfunctional government so nobody knows when the next tax increase is going to be, the next regulation that comes out or how they’re going to be affected. I think a lot of people are just holding back right now hence the reason our economy really hasn’t jump started.”
Tisei would be the first non-incumbent openly gay Republican elected to the House of Representatives. Both former Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe and former U.S. Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Wis.) came out after being elected.
GOP establishment continues to back Tisei
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who volunteered for Tisei’s first state representative campaign in 1984, was among the first prominent Republicans to endorse his campaign. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio,) House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and the National Republican Congressional Committee have all backed Tisei’s candidacy in spite of their continued support of the Defense of Marriage Act.
“A good number of representatives here in Massachusetts support gay marriage right now and have seen that it’s not the end of the world. And both Democrats and Republicans and the body politic as a whole has evolved,” said Tisei in response to the Blade’s question about how he could spur Capitol Hill Republicans to no longer support DOMA if elected. He further noted he was among the first Massachusetts officials to applaud the state Supreme Judicial Court’s landmark 2003 ruling that struck down the commonwealth’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples.
“Being in Washington, being a member of the caucus, I can help be a catalyst or help bring that process along. I realize that the party as a whole has been a tougher nut to crack, but there are a lot of people within the party who want to see a chance to take place or they want different voices within the party and if an issue like DOMA comes up, somebody like me on the Republican side can stand up and say you know what, this is about fairness, it’s about treating people equally under the law and really appeal to the American ideals to make the argument. If I’m in a position to do that, I think I can change a lot of hearts and minds.”
Tisei, who has also been endorsed by the Victory Fund, further referenced this GOP support to dismiss retiring Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank’s claims last month that he would be “no use to us in Congress.”
“Barney’s a smart guy, but hearing that argument is so convoluted and most of the people I know within the gay community were baffled by it,” said Tisei. “It’s a bit far-fetched for him to make the argument that he did. I think most normal, rational people can understand that we’ll never have true equality in the country unless you have advocates on both sides of the aisle who are willing to stand up and say, you know what, everybody should be treated fairly.”
Romney “knows how the economy works”
Tisei spoke with the Blade hours after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama squared off in the first presidential debate in Denver.
He noted that he disagreed with Romney on marriage rights for same-sex couples, abortion, stem cell research and other issues. Tisei stressed he feels Romney “knows his stuff as far as what it takes to get companies to create jobs.”
“On economic issues, I think he knows how the economy works,” he said. “I’ve sat with him over the years in a lot of different meeting when he was the governor here and he really does have the knowledge of how the free enterprise system works. Last night he shows he has a depth. People probably see that he could be a good steward of the economy and help jump start the economy.”
Tisei predicted that Brown will ultimately defeat challenger Elizabeth Warren, but he said it will be “a really close election.” He also opposes a federal judge’s decision last month that ordered a taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery for convicted murderer Michelle Kosilek.
“Governor Patrick has come out against this, which should automatically tell people that just how off the charts that decision was,” said Tisei, who sponsored a bill while in the state Senate that would have added gender identity and expression to the commonwealth’s anti-discrimination law. Patrick signed the measure last November. “You’re talking about somebody who murdered another human being. I just don’t think that the state should be doing that.”
Florida
DeSantis signs emergency bill that restores Fla. ADAP funding
Temporary funds to last through June 30
After the Florida Department of Health made huge cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in January, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed emergency legislation restoring HIV access to more than 12,000 Floridians.
Two months ago, as the Washington Blade reported, the Sunshine State cut the vast majority of those in ADAP by shifting the income levels required for eligibility — without following standard procedure when changing government policy outside of legislative or executive action.
The bill, signed by DeSantis on Tuesday, passed both chambers of the Florida Legislature unanimously and appropriates $30.9 million in emergency bridge funding through June 30, 2026. It restores Florida’s ADAP income eligibility to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level — the level it was prior to the January cuts. The legislation also requires the FDOH to submit detailed monthly financial reports to legislative leadership beginning April 1.
Under the old policy, eligibility would have been limited to those making no more than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or $20,345 per year.
“For 10 weeks, 12,000 Floridians living with HIV did not know if they could fill their next prescription. Today, they can,” Esteban Wood, director of advocacy and legislative affairs at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said in a statement.
The detailed reports now required to be sent to legislative leadership must include all federal revenues and expenditures, including manufacturer rebates; enrollment figures by county and insurance status; prescription utilization by drug class; and any projected funding shortfalls. This is the first time the Legislature has required this level of financial transparency from the program.
DeSantis signed the legislation one day after a Leon County Circuit Court judge denied AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s request for an injunction to block the significant changes the DeSantis administration is making to the program, which it claims faces a $120 million shortfall for calendar year 2026.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a national organization focused on protecting and expanding HIV healthcare access and prevention methods, filed a lawsuit over the change in eligibility, arguing the Florida Department of Health did not follow the laid out path for formally changing policy and was acting outside established procedures.
Typically, altering eligibility for a statewide program requires either legislative action or adherence to a multistep rule-making process, including: publishing a Notice of Proposed Rule; providing a statement of estimated regulatory costs; allowing public comment; holding hearings if requested; responding to challenges; and formally adopting the rule. According to AIDS Healthcare Foundation, none of these steps occurred.
The long-term structure of ADAP will be determined by the 2026–2027 fiscal year state budget, something that lawmakers have until June 30 to finish.
Federal Government
Markwayne Mullin confirmed as next DHS secretary
Okla. senator to succeed Kristi Noem
The U.S. Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the next secretary of Homeland Security on Monday, as the agency continues to grapple with what lawmakers have described as a “never-ending” funding standoff, with Democrats attempting to withhold funding from one of the nation’s largest and most costly agencies.
Mullin — a Republican senator from Oklahoma, former mixed martial arts fighter, and plumbing business owner — was confirmed in a 54–45 vote. Two Democrats — U.S. Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — sided with Republicans in supporting his confirmation.
The new agency head is expected to follow the policy direction set by President Donald Trump, emphasizing stricter immigration enforcement. This includes proposals to support immigration agents at polling sites and to cut funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Mullin replaces Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month following a widely scrutinized 2-day congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.
During the hearing, Noem faced intense questioning over her response to several crises, including the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a $220 million border security advertising campaign that featured her on horseback near Mount Rushmore amid one of the largest federal workforce reductions in U.S. history, and the federal response to major natural disasters such as the July 2025 Texas floods and Hurricane Helene in 2024.
Noem had previously drawn criticism for a series of policy decisions in South Dakota that broadly focused on restricting the rights of LGBTQ individuals. In 2023, she signed House Bill 1080, banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. She also signed legislation and executive orders restricting trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports, as well as the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” which critics argued enabled discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Additionally, the state canceled contracts related to LGBTQ support services — including suicide prevention and health care navigation programs‚ and later agreed to a $300,000 settlement with trans advocacy group, The Transformation Project.
Despite her removal from DHS, Noem will remain in the Trump-Vance administration as a special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas,” an initiative aimed at promoting U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere, including efforts to counter cartel networks, reduce Chinese influence, and manage migration.
The new head of DHS has served in Congress since 2013, in both houses of the federal legislature. While in the Senate and a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mullin has been a vocal critic of policies aimed at expanding LGBTQ inclusion. He led a group of lawmakers in urging the Administration for Community Living to reverse a rule requiring states to prioritize Older Americans Act services based on sexual orientation and gender identity, arguing the policy could have unintended consequences.
Mullin also makes history as the first Native American — and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation — to lead the Department of Homeland Security. He was also among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results despite no evidence of widespread fraud, and was present in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber on Jan. 6.
Federal Government
Protesters say SAVE Act targets voters, transgender youth
Bill described as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’
Members of Congress, advocates, and people from across the country gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to protest proposed federal legislation that voting rights activists have deemed “Jim Crow 2.0.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require in-person proof of citizenship for anyone seeking to vote in U.S. elections.
President Donald Trump has also pushed for the proposed legislation to include a section that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, even with parental consent, and prohibit trans people from participating in school or professional sports consistent with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
In addition to changing voter registration requirements, the bill would limit acceptable forms of identification to documents such as a birth certificate or passport — records that the Brennan Center for Justice estimates more than 21 million Americans do not have — effectively restricting access to the ballot. It would also ban online voter registration, DMV voter registration efforts, and mail-in voter registration.
A 2021 investigation by the Associated Press found that fewer than 475 people voted illegally or improperly, a tiny fraction of the estimated 160 million Americans who voted in the 2020 election.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke at the event.
“It will kick millions of American citizens off the rolls. And they don’t even require you to be told,” the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate told protesters and reporters outside the Capitol. “If this law passes — and it won’t — you’re gonna show up in November … and they’ll say… sorry, you’re no longer on the voting rolls.”
He, like many other speakers, emphasized the bill in the context of American history, pointing to what he described as its racist roots and its impact on Black and brown Americans.
“I have called this act, over and over again, Jim Crow 2.0 … because they know it’s the truth.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was one of the lawmakers leading opposition to the legislation and spoke at the rally.
“It’s not just voting rights that are on the line — our democracy is on the line,” the California lawmaker said. “It’s not a voter I.D. bill. It’s a bait and switch bill.”
He added historical context, noting the significance of voting rights legislation passed more than 60 years ago. In 1965, Alabama civil rights activists marched to protest barriers to voter registration. Alabama state troopers violently attacked peaceful demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, using tear gas, clubs, and whips against more than 500 — mostly Black — protesters.
“61 years ago — not to the day — but this week, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol and addressed a joint session of Congress in the wake of Bloody Sunday and pushed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act,” Padilla said. “61 years later, Donald Trump and this Republican majority wants to take us backwards. We’re not gonna let that happen.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) also spoke, emphasizing that he views the effort as a Republican-led and Trump-backed attempt to restrict voting access, particularly among Black, brown, and predominantly Democratic communities.
“President Trump told Republicans when they were meeting behind closed doors that ‘The SAVE Act will guarantee Republicans win the midterms and ensure they do not lose an election for 50 years,’” Luján said. “The first time I think Donald Trump’s been honest … This voter suppression bill is only that. Taking away vote by mail? I hope my Republican colleagues from states that voted for Donald Trump or where vote by mail is popular have the courage and the backbone to stand up and say no to this nonsense, because their constituents are going to push back.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) also spoke.
“Our Republican colleagues have already cut Medicaid, Medicare, people don’t know how they’re gonna be able to afford energy,” she said, providing context for the broader political moment. “We’re in the middle of a war that they can’t even get straight while we’re in it and don’t have a way to get out of it. And we are now faced with defending our democracy?”
She then showed the crowd something that she said has been with her throughout her political journey in Washington.
“I brought with me something that I carried on the day that I was sworn into the House of Representatives when I was elected in 2016, and I carried it with me on the day that I was sworn in as United States senator. And I also carried it with me when I was trapped up in the gallery on Jan. 6 and all I could think to do was pray … This document allowed my great great great grandfather, who had been enslaved in Georgia, to have the right to vote. We took this and turned it into a scarf. It is the returns of qualified voters and reconstruction code from 1867. This is my proof of what we’ve been through. This is also our inspiration.”
“I got to travel between the Edmund Pettus Bridge two times. And even as I thought about this moment, I recognized that while we wish we weren’t in it, while we don’t know why we’re in it, I do know we were made for it … So I came today to tell you that, um, just like the leader said, that he calls it Jim Crow 2.0. I call it Jim Crow 2.NO.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S., also spoke, highlighting the impact of the bill’s proposed provisions affecting trans people.
“This bill is not about saving America. This bill is about stealing an election. This bill is about suppressing voters,” Robinson said. “This bill not only tries to disenfranchise voters that deserve their right to vote, it also tries to criminalize trans kids and their families … It tries to criminalize doctors providing medically necessary care for our trans youth.”
The SAVE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11 but has not yet been considered in the U.S. Senate.
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