Rainbow Wave: The LGBTQ Election Winners 🎉

News
Written By Sonny Oram

Amazing news: A historic Number Of LGBTQ Candidates Won Primaries In 2018 Midterms! Over 100! We also won YES on 3 in Massachusetts, to protect transgender accommodations. Check out some of the LGBTQ winners below!

Tammy Baldwin

America’s first and only openly LGBTQ senator reelected

Teri Johnston

First-ever lesbian mayor of Key West

Brian Sims

Out Pennsylvania state legislator reelected

Jared Polis

First openly gay man elected to governor

 
 

Sharice Davids

First ever out lesbian Native America woman on Congress

 
 

Megan Hunt

First openly LGBTQ person, who is bisexual, to win State Legislature in Nebraska

 
 

Betsy Driver

The First Intersex Mayor of a U.S. City

Kate Brown

Openly LGBTQ person reelected to Governor of Oregon by just 7 votes

 
 

JD Ford

Indiana’s First Openly Gay State Lawmaker

Brandon Woodard

Openly gay candidate took a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives

 
 

Susan Ruiz 

Openly gay candidate took a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives

 
 

Gavin Newsom 

Next governor of California

 
 

Julie Johnson

Out lesbian Julie Johnson unseated the Republican rep. in Texas House of Representatives

 
 
 
 
 
 

And as a MAJOR bonus…

77-year-old Althea Garrison will become the first openly trans person to be seated on the Boston City Council

 
 

View all the winning LGBTQ candidates on NBCnews.com

This article was updated Nov 8, 2018 at 8:34 PM

Cover photo from: famousdc.com

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Sonny Oram

Sonny Oram is the founder of Qwear and a leading voice in the queer fashion movement. For over a decade, he has been documenting, writing about, and experimenting with queer fashion, amplifying the voices and stories of LGBTQIA+ individuals. His expertise has been featured in major media outlets like HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Design*Sponge, and QTYPE Magazine, and he spoke at South by Southwest for the first official queer fashion panel in 2016.

Through Qwear, Sonny has launched powerful campaigns, including the award-winning #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike with Yasmin Benoit, and continues to create spaces for underrepresented communities to be seen. He also utilizes search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to bring more diversity to online search results, ensuring that terms like “androgynous style,” “bisexual style,” and “asexual” reflect a broader range of experiences.

Sonny is also the author of the foreword for “Queer and Trans Fashion Brands: Resistance and Revolution in the 21st Century” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).

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