LGBTQ+ leader: Dems should talk about ‘kitchen table issues, not about identity'

Politico

9 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO — The leader of the largest PAC dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ people to office says Democrats should talk about 'kitchen-table issues,' not gender identity.
Evan Low, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, said he has been advising candidates specifically to avoid talking about trans people in sports — a focus of President Donald Trump and a rallying cry for conservatives.
Arguing the issue affects few people, the former Democratic California state lawmaker said in an interview, 'This is not a top 1, top 5, top 10 or top 30 issue.'
'We want to talk about kitchen-table issues, not about identity,' Low said. 'We are running to serve the people, not to distract on issues that divide.'
Low's remarks come amid widespread debate within the Democratic Party about how to win back working-class voters following the party's drubbing in November — and about how much or little to highlight issues of identity. But LGBTQ+ advocates are in Trump's crosshairs. The Republican president made anti-transgender attacks a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign, while the GOP regularly mocks Democrats over the issue.
Low, who last year lost his congressional race in Silicon Valley, said the need for LGBTQ+ candidates to run pragmatic campaigns has been heightened as Trump leans into cultural wedge issues like banning the use of 'nonbinary' or 'other' options from federal documents, cutting federal funding to schools that let transgender students play on the sports teams of their gender identity and barring transgender people from serving in the military.
Low said a growing number of successful campaigns are following the 'kitchen table' formula, and his organization has numbers to back it up. The Victory Fund — in its annual 'Out in America' report expected to be released today, which it shared first with POLITICO — found that the number of openly LGBTQ+ people serving in public office — 1,334 — has nearly tripled since Trump's first term.
Most of those LGBTQ+ elected are serving in local offices, but the group has also made gains at the top of the ballot and even within the Trump White House.
In 2018, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis became the first openly gay candidate to win a governorship. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek followed in 2022. All three are Democrats. This year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent became the highest-ranking openly gay official in U.S. history, as part of Trump's Cabinet and fifth in the line to the presidency.
According to Victory Fund, less than 3 percent of LGBTQ+ officeholders across the country are Republicans, while 89 percent are Democrats.
Polis, a former member of Congress, said he's rarely felt the need to discuss his identity in his runs for governor, instead simply answering questions about his sexuality if people asked. His first statewide campaign in 2018 primarily focused on three policy issues: providing taxpayer-funded preschool and kindergarten, lowering health care costs and expanding renewable energy.
'You answer any questions, and then you move on and talk about what you want to do,' Polis said. 'It's similar to how you deal with your faith. You're not running just to represent that faith.'
LGBTQ+ candidates' gains in representation might seem like a paradox considering the harsher climate the community has faced nationally in recent years as large tech companies roll back their diversity programs and Pride festivals once awash in corporate logos struggle to attract sponsors.
But Polis is a potential 2028 presidential contender. Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride became the first transgender candidate elected to the House last year. There's California Rep. Robert Garcia, who is gay and a rising star in House Democratic leadership, and New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, the first member who is both Afro-Latino and openly gay. There are now transgender legislators serving in eight statehouses, including in red states like Iowa, Missouri and Montana.
'In spite of this narrative that the LGBTQ community and trans people are a liability (for Democrats), they are winning in red states,' Low said.
Elliot Imse, executive director of Victory Fund, said LGBTQ+ people running for office don't need to make their identity a focus to make progress for the community. He added, 'Being an LGBTQ person and running for office is a radical act in itself.'
He said much of the recent gains in representation stem from the 'Rainbow Wave' of the 2018 midterm elections, when dozens of LGBTQ+ people ran in response to Trump's first-term win. When many of them succeeded, he said, it showed others it was possible for them to run as out candidates.
Imse said many elected in that wave year ran on issues like education and affordability, noting that a recent Gallup poll showed only 9.3 percent of adults identify as LGBTQ+.
'We are not going to win elections by pandering just to the nine percent of voters,' Imse said.
Focusing on everyday issues, he said, helps blunt vitriol against candidates and 'really takes away from their opponents' ability to paint them as radicals who are somehow not fit for leadership roles.'
Iowa state Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, the first trans lawmaker elected to the Iowa statehouse in 2024, can relate to the pragmatic approach. During last year's campaign, she said her Republican opponent attacked her with mailers that sought to cast her as a dangerous predator.
She said she ignored the mailers and kept knocking doors, talking to voters about the work she had done to help small businesses as a member of the City Council in Hiawatha, Iowa, a suburb of Cedar Rapids.
''There was no need to respond to it. If you respond to it, you make it a thing,' she said. 'Iowans are fair people. They will give anybody a chance if you speak to them directly.'
Top state and local LGBTQ+ politicians on LGBTQ+ Victory Fund's watch list
Victory Fund provided POLITICO with a first look at its 'Top 25 Out Power List,' naming the top LGBTQ+ elected officials to keep an eye on at the state and local levels. The group included 26 people on its list.
They are Colorado Gov. Jared Polis; Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey; Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek; Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi; New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher; California Assemblymember Chris Ward; California state Sen. Caroline Menjivar; San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones; San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria; Vermont state Treasurer Mike Pieciak; Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin; Providence Mayor Brett Smiley; Guam Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio; Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones; Nashville Metro Council member Olivia Hill; Hawaii state Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto; Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel; Maine state House Speaker Ryan Fecteau; Washington state lawmakers Laurie Jinkins and Jamie Pedersen; Connecticut state Treasurer Erick Russell; Texas state Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons; Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr; Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes; Iowa State Rep. Aime Wichtendahl; and Illinois state Rep. Kelly Cassidy.