Dems lose control in the Senate, still have a chance to take control in the House
LISA KEEN | Keen News Service
lisakeen@mac.com
The U.S. Senate’s first — and soon its only — openly LGBTQ member appears to have won re-election. But Sen. Tammy Baldwin will now find herself as part of the minority party. Republicans won enough seats on Nov. 5 to take majority control over the Senate. And at deadline Republicans were leading in the race to keep their majority control over the U.S. House.
But in the House, about 64 seats — many in California — have yet to be decided.
Baldwin was one of two openly LGBTQ candidates for the U.S. Senate. The other was Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw. With 99 percent of the vote counted in Wisconsin Wednesday morning, Baldwin appears to have won re-election to a third term, with 49.4 percent of the vote. (Trump won 49.7 percent of Wisconsin’s vote to earn its 10 electoral votes.)
With 94 percent of votes counted, Bashaw had won 44.6 percent, but his Democratic opponent won 53.1 percent.
Sarah McBride
Baldwin’s race to retain the U.S. Senate seat from Wisconsin was one of several closely contested battles in the upper chamber of Congress. In 2012 and in 2018, Baldwin won by 10 points. This year, with the endorsements of the state’s three largest newspapers, she won with only 0.9 percent.
Baldwin’s opponent, businessman Eric Hovde, spent millions of dollars to air ads against Baldwin, and about a third of those ads underscored that Baldwin has a “girlfriend” who rakes in big money from her investment job.
Bashaw described himself as a “pro-choice married gay man.”
The U.S. Senate currently includes three openly LGBTQ members: Baldwin, Kyrsten Sinema (Independent — Arizona) and Laphonza Butler (D-California). But neither Sinema nor Butler ran for re-election.
The Senate’s current split 51-49 split has now flipped to 52 Republicans and 42 Democrats. (Baldwin’s seat and five others are still considered too close to call at deadline).
Before the election, Sinema switched from Democrat to independent and announced her retirement. But it appears that Democrat Ruben Gallego won the Arizona seat Sinema had held.
Democratic incumbents Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio both lost their re-election bids. Republicans ran anti-transgender ads against both candidates.
One group, called “Citizens for Sanity,” put up billboards saying such things as, “Help Charlie become Charlotte. Puberty blockers are a civil right,” “Protect Pregnant Men from Climate Discrimination” and “Vote to keep our borders, jails and bathrooms open. Vote progressive.”
Longtime anti-LGBTQ crusader Ted Cruz of Texas ran ads claiming his Democratic opponent, Colin Allred, “voted to allow boys in girls’ locker rooms.” The fine print on the ad indicated U.S. Rep. Allred voted for the Equality Act in 2021. The Equality Act seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the categories of discrimination prohibited by federal law.
In the House
At deadline, major media had not yet called four U.S. House races with LGBTQ Democratic candidates. Three of those are in California.
In the 41st District in the southern part of the state, challenger Will Rollins was trailing the Republican incumbent by 1 percentage point, with 69 percent of votes counted. In the 39th, incumbent Mark Takano appeared to have a 12-point lead over his Republican challenger, but only 54 percent of the vote has been counted. And in District 16, just west and south of San Francisco, Evan Low was trailing the incumbent by 20 points with only 53 percent of votes had been counted.
In Washington state, newcomer Emily Randall held a 14-point lead over her Republican opponent with 63 percent of votes counted. And Sarah McBride became Congress’ first openly transgender member with her victory in Delaware. McBride, who previously was an official at the Human Rights Campaign before serving in the Delaware state legislature, had earned the support and endorsement of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and LPAC, which promotes women and LGBTQ candidates.
“In addition to blazing a trail as our country’s first-ever out transgender Congressperson, [McBride] is a leader in championing healthcare, reproductive rights, environmental justice, racial justice and gun safety,” said LPAC Executive Director Janelle Perez. “We are lucky to have her in Congress, fighting for all of us.”
Openly LGBTQ members of the LGBTQ Congressional Caucus in the 2023-24 session totaled 12: three senators and nine members of the House. If Baldwin, Randall and Rollins win their races, the Senate will have one LGBTQ member, and the House will have 13.
In addition to Baldwin, Randall, and Rollins, the caucus will include Democratic LGBTQ incumbents Becca Balint of Vermont, Eric Sorensen of Illinois, Sharice Davids of Kansas, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Ritchie Torres of New York, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Robert Garcia of California, and first-termers McBride of Delaware, Julie Johnson of Texas, Emily Randall of Washington and, possibly, Will Rollins of California.
“I hope this win sends the message that this democracy is big enough for them, too,” said McBride in a post-election interview with MSNBC. “I ran to make a difference for my neighbors in Delaware.”
Only two LGBTQ candidates lost their bids for the House: Mondaire Jones in New York and Evan Low in California.
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