News
Big day for gay candidates in N.C.
Brandon, Aiken face uphill fight in bids for Congress
Marcus Brandon (left) and Clay Aiken are facing primaries today in North Carolina. (Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The outcome of today’s primary in North Carolina will determine whether gay candidates in the state will carry the Democratic banner heading into the congressional mid-term elections.
Two openly gay candidates are on the ballot in congressional races: State Rep. K. Marcus Brandon, who’s running to represent North Carolina’s 12th congressional district, and Clay Aiken, who’s seeking the seat for the state’s 2nd congressional district.
Aiken has faced significant challenges during his congressional bid. Despite the buzz over his celebrity status and distinction as a runner up on “American Idol,” Aiken has raised only $287,000. Meanwhile, his opponent in the primary, former North Carolina commerce secretary Keith Crisco, has raised $680,000.
Crisco has also been hitting Aiken with negative ads. Aiken has touted his work on behalf of children with disabilities, but one Crisco ad with the slogan “No Show Clay” questions his commitment.
The ad asserts that after Aiken was appointed in 2006 to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, the singer never showed up to meet with the group. Aiken, who notes his membership on the panel on his campaign website, reportedly said in response he showed up for the first meeting of the group.
Whoever wins the election in the Democratic primary will go on to face Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), who’s considered the favorite in the Republican district.
Also facing a challenging primary is Brandon, who if elected could become the first openly gay black member of Congress. He’s in a crowded primary among five Democratic candidates seeking to replace former Rep. Melvin Watt, who left Congress to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
State Rep. Alma Adams is considered the front-runner in the race. She’s raised $386,000 compared to the $254,000 that Brandon has raised, although he’s in second in terms of funds raised among the candidates in the crowded field.
The 12th congressional district is heavily Democratic, so whoever wins the Democratic primary will more than likely have the seat secured. But if no candidate secures 40 percent of the vote, which is likely, a run-off election for the top two vote-getters will take place on July 15.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund has endorsed Brandon, but Aiken received no endorsement from the group.
Another race of note is the primary for the Republican nomination to run for U.S. Senate in North Carolina. House Speaker Thom Tillis, obstetrician Greg Brannon, and Baptist pastor Mark Harris are vying for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C), who’s considered among the most vulnerable Democrats in the mid-term election.
All the Republican candidates have expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. Hagan, who spoke out against North Carolina’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, endorsed marriage equality last year.
As QNotes’ Matt Comer reports, gay representation in the state legislature is also at stake in the primary. Openly gay candidate Ty Turner is among a field of five candidates in the primary State Senate District 40, which is near Charlotte. Gay state candidate Derek Kiszely is running Kim Hanchette in House District 49.
But even if he wins the primary, Kiszely is unlikely to win the general election because he’s running in a Republican district. That means if Turner loses in the primary, the state General Assembly will likely have no gay representation for the first time in 10 years.
Polls opened today at 6:30 a.m. and will close at 7:30 p.m.
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
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