The area with perhaps the least candidate diversity was political affiliation. Just 5 percent of LGBTQ candidates ran as Republicans, while 86 percent ran as Democrats. Less than 2 percent ran as a third party candidates or as independents. Republican LGBTQ candidates fared poorly: just 17 percent won their races, compared to 61 percent of LGBTQ Democrats.
While the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer elected officials across the U.S. will increase in January — once this year’s “rainbow wave” of candidates take office — LGBTQ people will still only make up about 0.1 percent of all elected officials, despite comprising an estimated 4.5 percent of the U.S. population.
“While the Rainbow Wave of LGBTQ candidates who ran this year was the most diverse ever, there is still a long way to go before equitable representation for our entire community is achieved,” Mayor Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said of the report’s overall findings. “It is vital we recruit and train more LGBTQ people of color, women and trans candidates because America needs their voices in the halls of power.”
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