A record number of LGBTQ people have run for office in 2022, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s Out on the Trail Report.
The report found that at least 1,065 LGBTQ people either ran or are running this year. That is not only the most in history, but it is also a 5.9 percent increase since the 2020 presidential election.
What’s more, for the first time ever, LGBTQ candidates are running for office in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia this year.
There is also an 18.1 percent increase in the number of LGBTQ candidates that will be on a general election ballot in the midterms on November 8th. The report states that a whopping 63.7 percent of known LGBTQ candidates won their primaries. In 2020, that number was 57.1 percent, and in 2018, 60.1 percent.
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Other growing demographics include LGBTQ candidates of color – 38.2 percent of all LGBTQ candidates in 2022, compared to 30.9 percent in 2020 – and candidates who are not cisgender – 13.9 percent in 2022 compared to 7.9 percent in 2020.
And accounting for 14 percent of all LGBTQ candidates, Black candidates outnumbered all racial and ethnic groups other than white people for the first time in a presidential or midterm year.
In 2018, there were also only four nonbinary and/or genderqueer candidates, while this year, there are 54.
Gay men remain the highest number of candidates, with 55% identifying as such. Candidates who identify as queer grew significantly, from 6.8 percent in 2020 to 11.2 percent in 2022. Additionally, 18.2 percent of 2022 candidates identified as lesbians, and 11.2 percent identified as bisexual.
“As politicians in state legislatures and on school boards levied unprecedented attacks on our community and our kids, LGBTQ leaders responded, running for office in record numbers,” said Mayor Annise Parker, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, in a statement.
“We saw more LGBTQ candidates of color, trans candidates, nonbinary candidates, and bisexual candidates than in any other election year. And in November, more voters than ever before will receive a ballot with the name of an LGBTQ candidate.”
Many of those candidates have spoken with LGBTQ Nation about their races, including Tiara Mack, Robert Zimmerman, Celia Israel, Will Rollins, and Rafael Mandelman.
