Among the record-number of winning LGBTQ candidates in this year’s election are more than 50 parents, across the LGBTQ spectrum, many of whom are the first LGBTQ people to hold their offices. Let’s meet them.
First, let me say that it’s notable when any LGBTQ people are elected, but since this is a parenting blog, I’m focusing on the ones who are parents, showing that it’s possible to balance life as an LGBTQ parent and a life of elected service. The officials below range from new parents with infants to those with adult children and even grandchildren. They span the LGBTQ spectrum and a range of other identities.
This is probably not a complete list, as results are still coming in (and not all candidates offer public details about their families). I will update this post as I learn more (and feel free to contact me if I’ve missed someone).
In the U.S. Congress
Vermont State Senator Becca Balint (D) won her race for the U.S. House, making her Vermont’s first woman and first out LGBTQ person in Congress. She’s also a mom, and her family is a clear inspiration for her work, as I wrote about her in August. Balint was already the first woman and first out LGBTQ person to serve as the Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore, after having been initially elected to the State Senate in 2014. Before that, she taught middle school for 14 years. She and her spouse, attorney and opera singer Elizabeth Wohl, have two children, ages 14 and 11, and “an adorable but incorrigible dog named Wheelie.”
Angie Craig (D), who in 2018 became the first lesbian mom elected to Congress, won reelection to the U.S. House from Minnesota. She and her wife now have four grown sons and one grandson.
A Governorship
Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) won reelection as governor of Colorado. In 2011, with the birth of the first child to him and spouse Marlon Reis, Polis became the first openly LGBTQ parent in Congress. He then became governor of Colorado in 2019, making him the first openly gay—and gay parent—governor. He and Reis, Colorado’s first First Gentleman, are raising two kids, ages six and four.
Other queer parents winning their elections include:
In State Legislatures
- Jennifer Armstrong (D) won election to the Alaska House, becoming the first out LGBTQ person elected to that state’s legislature (a title shared with Andrew Gray, below). She and her husband Ben have two young children.
- Imani Barnes (D) was elected to the Georgia House. She’s “a single mom to the world’s cutest 11 year old son,” her website says.
- Sam Bell (D) won reelection to Senate District Five in the Rhode Island Senate. He and his spouse Samantha Weise have a toddler.
- Patty Contreras (D) won election to the Arizona House. She and her wife have three grandchildren.
- Beth Doglio (D) was reelected to the Washington House. She and her husband Eddy Cates have two sons.
- Karla Drenner (D) was reelected to the Georgia House. She has four children.
- Elisabeth Epps (D) was elected to the Colorado House. She became a single parent at age 16; now her son is grown.
- Leigh Finke (D) won election to the Minnesota House, making her the first out transgender lawmaker in the Minnesota legislature. She has two grade school children.
- Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas (D), the first Latina, first person of color and first queer person to represent New York’s 34th Assembly District, won reelection. She identifies as a queer Latina mama and is the daughter of an immigrant father from Paraguay and a Puerto Rican mother. She and her partner Danny have a young son.
- Andrew Gray (D) won election to the Alaska House, becoming the first out LGBTQ person elected to the Alaska state legislature (a title shared with Jennifer Armstrong, above). He and his husband Jay have a son.
- Athena Hollins (D) won reelection to the Minnesota House, and remains the only Black out LGBTQ representative there. She and her husband have two kids.
- Megan Hunt (D) was reelected to the Nebraska Legislature. She has a sixth grader.
- Kathleen James (D) won reelection to the Vermont House. She has adult children.
- Julie Johnson (D) won reelection to the Texas House. She and her wife, Dr. Susan Moster, have one son in college and one who recently graduated. “No matter how busy life gets, we always make time for the next adventure together because family comes first,” she says on her website.
- Heather Keeler (D), the first Indigenous LGBTQ person elected to the Minnesota legislature, won reelection. “As mom of two boys, 16 and 6, she was done being a mom that was just upset, and became a mom that is able to look her kids in the eyes and tell them she is actively fighting to make this world a better place for them,” her Victory Fund profile says.
- Rebecca Kislak (D) won reelection to the Rhode Island House. She’s married to Dr. Joanna Brown and they have two children.
- Annie Menz (D) became the first Latina elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the first out LGBTQ Latina elected to the legislature. She says on her website, “As a single working mom, I’m often asked how I manage, but that question never enters my mind. I’m a listener and a hard worker, striving to be a servant leader.”
- Heather Meyer (D) was reelected to the Kansas House. She is a mother to two children, the youngest of whom is trans/enby, according to her Victory Fund profile.
- Emma Mulvaney-Stanak (P/D) won reelection to the Vermont House. She and her wife, Megan, have two small children.
- DeShanna Neal (D) was elected to the Delaware House. She has four school-aged children, including one who is trans and with whom they wrote the picture book My Rainbow.
- Laurie Osher (D) won reelection to the Maine House. She has twin sons.
- Jack Patrick Lewis (D) won reelection to the Massachusetts House. He and his spouse Brent have two sons. Lewis also helped create OUT MetroWest, an organization for LGBTQ youth in the Boston MetroWest area, in 2011.
- Jamie Pedersen (D) was reelected to the Washington State Senate. He and his husband, Eric Pedersen, have four sons.
- Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D), the first out LGBTQ woman elected to the New Hampshire State Senate, won reelection. She and her wife have two young children.
- Marie Pinkney (D), the first Black out lesbian in the Delaware State Senate, was reelected. She was foster mother to a teen mother and her young son for many years, her Victory Fund profile tells us.
- Liz Reyer (D) won reelection to the Minnesota House. She and her husband Jim have four adult children.
- Lee Snodgrass (D) was reelected to the Wisconsin State Assembly. She has two young adult children.
- Danielle Walker (D), the only Black elected official serving in the West Virginia legislature, won reelection to the West Virginia House. She is a single working mother who has raised two sons, including her eldest, who died of leukemia. She continues to help organize blood drives and raise funds for a nursing scholarship fund in his honor, her website says.
- Christopher Ward (D) was reelected to the California State Assembly. He and his partner Thom have two young children.
- Erin Zwiener (D) was reelected to the Texas House. She and her husband Quincy have a daughter, plus a dog, three horses, a mule, and a pot-bellied pig, says her Victory Fund profile.
In Other Offices
- Wendy Berry (D), the first openly queer person to run for and to serve on the West St. Paul City Council, was reelected. She and her wife Amelia have three kids.
- Pamela Boozer-Strother (D) was reelected to the Prince George’s County Board of Education. She and her wife Margaret have one son, in sixth grade. Before he was even in kindergarten, her website says, she was involved in the neighborhood school’s Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO).
- Karen Bushell (D) became Montgomery County clerk of the court in Maryland. She and her spouse Annie Shane have raised six children and now have six grandchildren. In 2017, their youngest son, was one of 10 U.S. Navy sailors who lost their lives when an oil tanker collided with the USS John S. McCain while in the Singapore Strait.
- Amie Carter (D) was elected superintendent of schools in Sonoma County, California, the first LGBTQ person in the role. She is the mother of five daughters.
- Satana Deberry (D) was reelected as district attorney in Durham County, North Carolina. She has two teenage daughters.
- Steve Duble (D) became justice of the peace in Harris County, Texas, the first out gay person in the role. He has three grown sons.
- Bryan Gatewood (D) was reelected to the Jefferson Family Court in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the first married, openly gay man appointed to the Jefferson Family Court, or any Family Court in Kentucky. He and his husband have three children, along with 41 sheep, one miniature donkey, seven chickens, four ducks, three Guineas, two Great Pyrenees, two cats and one Great Dane named Axle.
- Marybeth Lennox-Levins (D) was reelected to the Rutland County School Board in Vermont. She and her wife Kim have a daughter.
- Jamaal Maurice McCants-Pearsall (D) became an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Washington, D.C. On his website, he shares how his two sons have influenced his views on neighborhood safety and ensuring youth have access to services, resources, mentors, and safe places to play and learn.
- Dana Nessel (D) was reelected as Michigan’s attorney general. Nessel, who is raising twins with her wife, brought the 2010 case in which a Michigan court first held that a nonbiological parent in a same-sex couple could gain custody rights to their children. She also petitioned for the first second-parent adoptions in two counties. Most notably, in 2012, she led the case challenging the state’s bans on adoption and marriage for same-sex couples, a case later consolidated into Obergefell v. Hodges, which won federal marriage equality at the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Rob Reneau (D) won election to the Peoria County Board in Illinois, and has teen twin boys.
- Nick Resnick (D) was elected to the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education in California, becoming the first transgender man elected to a school board in California. He and his partner Kelly have two children.
- Kathleen Rivers (D) was elected to the Cotati City Council in California. She and her wife Jean have one child in college, one who just graduated, and one who is an active-duty U.S. Marine.
- Adam Rogers (D) was reelected to the La Habra City School Board in California. He and his husband, a public school teacher, have two children in the district.
- Valarie St. John became the first out LGBTQ person elected to the Grosse Pointe Board of Education.
- Nandini Sen (D) was elected to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission in Washington, D.C. and has two children.
- Liz Sheehan (D), who was the first out bisexual person elected in Kentucky, won reelection to the Lexington City Council. She and her husband Dan Sheehan have one daughter.
- Amanda Shelton (D) was elected Oakland County Circuit Court judge in California, the first out lesbian judge elected in Oakland County. She and her wife Kay have two children.
- Sandis Wright (D) won election to the Andover School Committee in Massachusetts, the first out LGBTQ person ever elected to the role. He and his husband have two daughters.
Also Notable
Maura Healey (D) became the first out lesbian governor in the nation when she was elected in my home state of Massachusetts. She’s not a parent, but I’m hoping her leadership can help us pass the Massachusetts Parentage Act next session.
Sharice Davids (D), who isn’t a parent but who wrote Sharice’s Big Voice, a great children’s book about becoming the first openly lesbian Native American elected to Congress, won reelection to the U.S. House from Kansas.
Thanks to the Victory Fund for details on many of these candidates, especially their “firsts.”
