Six transgender and nonbinary candidates made history on Election Day by winning races in states that have never elected a trans person into their legislature before. These candidates will expand LGBTQ+ political power at a time when their rights are increasingly under attack nationwide. All races are called according to projections by Decision Desk HQ.
Georgia
Bentley Hudgins will be Georgia’s first nonbinary and first Japanese-American lawmaker after winning their bid to represent State House District 90 in east Atlanta. They easily defeated their opponent, Republican Samantha Boston, in the deep-blue district.
Hudgins, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, spent the last three years advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in the Georgia statehouse through their work with the Human Rights Campaign. But LGBTQ+ issues were not core to their campaign: They ran on affordability, expanding healthcare access and broadly protecting civil rights. Those issues are personal for them. As they had told The 19th, Hudgins faced homelessness and barriers to accessing care for cluster headaches and seizures. They were diagnosed as legally deaf at 19, and had to have their eardrums rebuilt.
Many of Hudgins’ campaign goals, like raising the state minimum wage to $20 an hour or creating an earned income tax credit to give money to lower-income Georgia families, depend on whether Democrats gain enough leverage in the state House to influence policymaking. The party needs to gain 10 seats in the chamber to reach a majority — and as of Wednesday morning, that feat looks possible.
Michigan
(Courtesy of Joanna Whaley Campaign)
Joanna Whaley, a hospital chaplain, will be the first trans person elected to Michigan’s state legislature after winning her race for House District 2, outside Detroit. A former megachurch pastor who has spoken openly about surviving years of “conversion therapy” as a young adult, Whaley acknowledged after winning her primary in August that her victory was “a defining moment for state history,” but added that her campaign “has never been about history.”
She handily defeated her opponent, Republican Ron Kokinda, with 63 percent of the vote.
Whaley ran on securing fair wages for workers, supporting statewide job training programs and lowering the cost of utilities and medical debt. She was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the only trans member of Congress, and Abdul El-Sayed, who became the nation’s first Muslim senator on Tuesday. She was also backed by progressive advocacy groups and Democrats in the state legislature.
Whaley’s primary was contentious at times. In April, her Democratic opponent, former Michigan state Rep. Frank Liberati, claimed Whaley had violated state campaign law by omitting her deadname, or the name she used before transitioning, from the affidavit of identity she submitted to run for office. A county clerk denied Liberati’s challenge to Whaley’s candidacy in May.
In an interview with The 19th on Wednesday, Whaley said she was grateful to voters who crossed party lines to support her campaign. She heard from some Republicans that she was the first Democrat they had ever voted for.
“Our community has been so wonderful. They are just the most kind, good-hearted people who didn’t care who I was — they cared that I wanted to work for them,” she said. “To have Republicans voting for me means the world, and to have people all across the political spectrum believing in what we can do has been really awesome.”
Alabama
(Courtesy of Allison Montgomery campaign)
Allison Montgomery will be Alabama’s first trans lawmaker after winning her bid for state House District 25, defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Phillip Rigsby. A software engineer and lifelong Alabamian, Montgomery ran on broadening access to healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights and eliminating the state’s grocery tax.
“I know the headlines tomorrow are gonna be provocative and catchy, but let’s focus on the most important part of this victory: we showed that a truly grassroots campaign that stands on its policies and its principles has a real shot in Alabama,” Montgomery said in a statement on Tuesday after her race was called. “We the people are tired of attempts to distract us with culture war issues, whether we’re in a minority group or not. We the people know corporate interests use these issues to pit us against one another while they pick our pockets.”
She added: “I’m going to work especially hard for those who hate me, because they deserve a better Alabama as much as anyone.”
Washington
(Courtesy of Jaelynn Scott Campaign)
Jaelynn Scott will be Washington’s first trans state lawmaker — and the first out Black trans state lawmaker elected in the country — after winning her bid for state House District 37 in southeast Seattle. She easily defeated her opponent, independent Evon McCorkle, a college student, with 88 percent of the vote.
Scott, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is the executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, a Black- and trans-led civil rights nonprofit based in Seattle. Her pitch to voters centered largely on affordability, universal healthcare and taxing large corporations and billionaires. In an interview with The 19th on election night, Scott said she plans to lead “with love and compassion and empathy.”
“It’s pretty surreal,” she said of her barrier-breaking win. “The fact is, people that look like me and have my identity in 2026 are used to being under attack — not leading. I think it was because of what’s happening to us, and really maybe even a bit of fear about what might happen to me and my community, that inspired me to run. I never thought we would get this far.”
Wisconsin
(Courtesy of Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford Campaign)
Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford will be the first trans person elected to the Wisconsin state legislature after winning her race for state House District 76. She defeated her opponent, Republican Nina Chat, with more than 90 percent of the vote in the deep-blue district.
Martinez-Rutherford, a former food service worker, comedian and small business owner, made history in 2023 as the first trans woman elected to the Madison Common Council in the state capital. She’s spoken previously about experiencing housing and financial insecurity.
Martinez-Rutherford’s campaign centered largely on economic issues, promising to fight for a living wage tied to inflation, affordable housing and access to quality healthcare.
“I’m honored to have made history, but that’s the last thing on my mind,” she told The 19th in an interview Wednesday morning. “It wasn’t ever about history; it was just about making sure that people are taken care of.”
Florida
(Courtesy of Quinnie Perez Campaign)
In a hyperlocal race that still breaks national barriers, Quinnie Perez is projected to win her seat on the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District. This humble board lacks a budget and has little power, but Perez winning the position in Seat 1 makes her the first trans woman ever elected in Florida.
Perez ran on supporting farmworkers with fair wages and safe conditions, highlighting her family history as the daughter of Mexican farmworkers, as well as wetland restoration and building green infrastructure.
Several other transgender candidates still made history, although they didn’t win. They ran in deep-red, conservative districts, taking on difficult fights without any guarantee of success. Some were the first Democrats to run for their seats in decades, signaling a new energy to run for office among trans people even as their identities become increasingly politicized. Others have had their candidacies or ability to vote questioned by local authorities due to their gender identity.
Georgia
Bella Bautista, the Democratic nominee for Georgia State House District 14, in Cartersville, GA September 11, 2026. Nicole Craine for The19th News (Nicole Craine for The 19th)
After Bella Bautista decided to run for Georgia State House District 14, she went on to become the first trans woman to win a legislative primary in Georgia. Her race was a long shot: Her district hasn’t elected a Democratic state representative since 1996. She ran anyway.
She is the first Democrat to run for this seat since 2010 — and it put a target on her back. As she told The 19th, this campaign cost her privacy and peace, leaving her feeling isolated in her rural and heavily conservative district. But she said she was determined to challenge the status quo. Her campaign focused on affordability, protecting rural land and fighting data centers.
Kansas
(Courtesy of Bobby Robertson Jr. Campaign)
Bobby Robertson Jr., a trans woman and financial analyst, lost her race for Kansas House District 73. But she still broke barriers as the first Democrat to challenge this seat in 10 years.
She decided to run for office after the statehouse passed SB 244, a law that invalidated thousands of trans Kansans’ drivers licenses based on gender identity, over the governor’s veto. She wrote several letters to her state representative, Republican Rick Wilborn, explaining how the law would hurt her and her family. According to Mother Jones, she asked him to meet. She never got a response. So she decided to act.
Avery Rowland, another trans woman in Kansas, ran to represent House District 2, in the bottom-right corner of the state. According to a report by Kansas Reflector, a state GOP official questioned her eligibility to vote over the state law that targeted trans residents’ drivers licenses.
Ohio
(Courtesy of Arienne Childrey Campaign)
Arienne Childrey previously challenged Republican incumbent Angie King in Ohio’s House District 84 in 2024 and lost. She lost again this election cycle.
Trans Ohioans have seen overt efforts to keep them off of the ballot in the state. Childrey’s ability to run for office was challenged in 2024 because she omitted her deadname on petition paperwork. She had legally changed her name years ago and had no idea about the obscure Ohio elections law that brought her candidacy into question.
Arizona
(Courtesy of Aiden Swallow Campaign)
Aiden Swallow, a military veteran of nearly two decades, lost her bid for Arizona House District 19 to former Republican state Sen. David Gowan. Swallow previously ran for Congress in Arizona’s 6th district, but dropped out of that race last year to run for the statehouse.
In this race, she faced two Republicans on the ballot as well as another Democrat, Jackie Anderson, a retired emergency room nurse.
Swallow’s campaign took a hard line against President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement in a GOP-controlled district — and that stance was personal. She was kicked out of the military in 2025 due to Trump’s nationwide ban on trans service members, which was allowed to stay in place by the Supreme Court. She was removed from her military position without retirement benefits, according to her campaign website.
Republicans have spent an estimated $183 million on television ads focused on transgender-related attacks against Democrats in the final phase of this year’s midterm elections, betting that struggling GOP candidates can leverage the divisive cultural issue to overcome voters’ concerns about President Donald Trump’s leadership and the state of the economy.
The massive investment through Oct. 25 produced about 217,000 TV spots nationwide and exceeds the amount Republicans spent on similar ads in 2024, a presidential election year, at the same point before Election Day, according to tallies provided to The Associated Press by data firm AdImpact.
The spending campaign matched messaging from other Republicans on the campaign trail, led by Trump, who has played down surging gasoline prices and other rising costs, but highlighted what he described as an urgent threat to America’s children from Democratic policies.
The Republican emphasis on transgender issues offers a consequential test of whether a theme that had worked in past elections — and especially in deep red states — can still be potent when voters consistently say high prices are their chief concern.
Barely five minutes into his speech during Monday night’s rally in Corinth, Mississippi, Trump said that Democrats “promote the transgender mutilization of your children.” During his Sunday rally in Florida, Trump said “men in women’s sports” four times and gender “mutilization” — meaning mutilation — another four times.
Having shifted away from abortion, few cultural issues reflect the Republican Party’s evolution on social issues in the age of Trump more than transgender rights. Though a tiny number of Americans are directly affected by legislation designed to protect transgender people from discrimination, Republicans have used the issue as a powerful emotional motivator, especially in Republican-leaning states where they need to win to maintain control of Congress.
Texas’ high-stakes Senate contest alone has consumed the largest share of Republican-backed transgender-related spending, drawing an estimated $58 million for more than 50,000 airings, according to AdImpact. But the GOP is also investing heavily in related attacks against Democrats in Ohio, Kansas, South Carolina, Iowa and Mississippi, according to an AP analysis of the data.
The Republican Party’s focus stands in stark contrast to what voters say they care most about this midterm season.
“Republicans clearly believe these issues expose a cultural disconnect between Democratic candidates and a significant portion of the electorate,” said Republican pollster Chris Wilson. “It’s not necessarily that transgender policy is a top voting priority, it’s that voters can use a candidate’s position on it as a proxy for their broader values and judgment.”
Only about 1 in 10 registered voters say transgender issues are “one of the most important issues” in the election, according to an AP-NORC poll from October.
That falls well below the roughly 8 in 10 who mentioned the economy or the cost of living, and also falls short of other issues that have surfaced during the campaign, including healthcare and the war with Iran.
Republicans were more likely than independents and Democrats to say transgender issues are highly important to this election, but it still fell below other issues.
The issue resonates with voters like Jerry Casner, a 74-year-old registered Republican and three-time Trump voter, who lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He retired from a nearby Army depot and works 12 hours a week at a grocery store in New Cumberland.
“Well, I don’t like the way the Democrats operate,” Casner said, when asked what national issues are important to him. He explained: “If you can’t even determine the difference between a man and a woman, but yet you’re going to make life and death decisions for me, oh, I don’t think so. That’s disgusting.”
Casner said he plans on voting Republican up and down the ballot.
The issue is dominating these states
Republicans across federal, state and local races have aired transgender-themed ads during the general election around 217,000 times at a cost estimated at $183 million through Oct. 25, AdImpact found. That’s up from $151 million in spending in the 2024 general election as of the same number of days prior to that year’s election.
Democrats have spent roughly $11 million on transgender-related ads, largely to defend themselves from the attacks.
This year’s spending was concentrated in a small number of races, according to AdImpact.
Texas PAC, the Republican super PAC largely funded by Elon Musk and supporting Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, has at least three separate TV ads hammering Democrat James Talarico on trans issues.
One of them echoes a Trump ad from the 2024 campaign with the narrator saying that Vice President Kamala Harris is for “they, them. President Trump is for you.” The Texas ad accuses Talarico of supporting taxpayer funding of minors’ sex-reassignment surgery, charging that he’s “for they them, not you.”
Another Texas PAC ad claims Talarico supports taxpayer funding of gender reassignment surgery for minors, while a third accuses him of backing child abuse charges against parents who do not support transitioning their children.
“If you care about your children, do not vote for James Talarico,” the narrator says in the spot that has aired nearly 17,000 times at a cost exceeding $23 million.
In two of that fund’s ads, someone who underwent surgery as a minor and later de-transitioned is featured describing the regret and accusing Brown of supporting such surgeries for minors. Another accuses Brown of supporting “men competing in women’s sports.”
Brown’s campaign said the ads were a “total lie” and a distraction from economic issues. The independent organization PolitiFact rated the fund’s ad false.
Talarico has publicly stated that he opposes gender-reassignment surgery for minors. And the attack against Brown twists a 2023 interview where Brown stated that a child’s medical decisions belong between families and doctors, not politicians.
Still, the Texas ads have aired an estimated 50,000 times overall at a cost of $58 million, representing roughly 2 in 10 ads run in the Senate race. The Ohio attacks against Brown have cost nearly $26 million.
In deeper-red states like South Carolina, which has emerged as an unlikely Senate battleground, Republicans have spent more than $5 million on transgender-themed ads. And in the Kansas Senate race, Republican transgender ads have aired 7,000 times at a cost of nearly $7 million.
“The interesting question isn’t why Republicans are running these ads, it’s whether they’re still persuading anyone or simply reinforcing attitudes voters already hold,” said Wilson, the Republican pollster. “Those are two very different things, and $100 million in spending doesn’t tell us which is happening.”
He added, “We’ll find that out on Election Day.”
___———————————————————————————————————————–
Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Linley Sanders in Washington and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed.
Kessler is a data scientist specializing in investigative reporting and data analysis at the intersection of business and politics. He is based in Washington, D.C.
I am sorry. I worked all day on and off between needing to lay down or doing other things to try to manage my pain. I took extra medications which my doctors allow me to do when needed because if I don’t need them I don’t take them. With the cut back on medications those days are few and more rare. I got up at 4 am and started working on this post. However as I mentioned I can’t simply sit at the computer and copy and post stuff. My back won’t let me and the pain gets too intense even with medications so I have to go lay down on the bed.
That is so frustrating.
Then I get up and start again, but when I am posting from a site like Joe. My. God. He keeps posting far more than I can keep up. Ron was out with Diane his sister all afternoon, and when he got home he was very tired so needed to nap. So I tried to keep working. When he got up near 5 pm I was already in agony and had to take my evening medications for pain an hour early. Well 2 hours early as I am trying to switch them to 6-12-6 instead of earlier.
Ron realized that issue as soon as he got home but he was so tired I told him to go to bed, take a nap. But when he got up my stomach had totally shut down. He wanted to cook supper and I agreed as I could eat it for breakfast. He was upset and begged me to take a supplement drink which I did. I love him and I know he is worried about how weak and how I have very little interest in anything but the news and posting it I am. His sister has repeatedly tried to have him make me join both of them on their days out even if to just go out to eat. I just don’t want to. I care about her, I adore my husband and if she gives him an outlet I am OK with that. But I don’t have the energy to do so or join them.
Anyway please enjoy my day’s work. Loves and hugs to all. Hugs, Scottie
Trump:Somalia—98% of the people here now from Somalia don't work. They don't have to work because they steal so much. They all have a Mercedes-Benz. Low IQ, and they live better than you do.
Trump:I can see the fake headlines: "Trump is talking about all the money they're making while people are suffering." That will be the headline.I don't give a damn. We're making a fortune.
New Jersey GOP Mayor Matthew Bianchini faces criminal charges after going after a citizen and resident. MAGA is melting down because they thought Americans would be okay with what's going on.
Republican Mayor Matthew Bianchini of Pemberton Township Council, New Jersey. At the end Bianchini lunged at and threatened at resident Michael Sawka and saying "I'll get you. I'll fucking get you!" He tried to come for him a 2nd time too! WTF!?! How does that mayor still have a job?
House Judiciary Democrats have just released a 50-page report that pulls together years of assault allegations against Trump and his reported connections to Jeffrey Epstein.The report calls for a special counsel to investigate Trump's ties to Epstein.
At least four Trump merchandise stores have closed this year. Store owners say with Trump in his final term, there isn't as much to fire up his consumer fan base and sales have softened. n.pr/4Bm45o5
This is a remarkable portrait, and puts the general failure among our richest and most powerful people to risk anything at all in sharp relief.www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/u…
JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story.www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u…
A federal labor agency flagged so many problems in a recent arbitration filing that it suggested the Department of Health and Human Services used artificial intelligence to draft its brief.
Parnell had to drop out of GOP senate primary because he beat his ex-wife and children, losing custody of his kids. He is not a good person, so of course Hegseth wants him to be the next Army Secretary.
Top Democrats poised for powerful roles next year are demanding that major banks and ports preserve any records they have tied to potential imports or other deals involving Russian diesel.Exclusive: Democrats lay groundwork to probe Trump's diesel dealwww.axios.com/2026/10/26/d…
My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today.Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.
The Plain Dealer editorial board endorses Democrat Amy Acton for Ohio governor, citing her preparedness and community engagement, while condemning opponent Vivek Ramaswamy's weaponizing of Acton's childhood sexual abuse for political points.
US future congressman detained and held by Israeli military. He was part of a group of rabbis and other US citizens who were there to peacefully help the Palestinians harvest their own crops and try to prevent the illegal israeli settlers from attacking, killing, and stealing the crops / land of the Palestinians. The Israeli military treated the law abiding US people badly while not stopping the out of control illegal settlers. In the first video you have to watch or forward through a bit of Bibi and tRump as Bibi tries to talk tRump into escalating the Iran war because Bibi is in danger of losing his election and needs tRump to give him an excuse to cancel the election. In the second video the on the scene reporter describes how the settlers attack a toddler and throw the child into a thorn bush. Hugs
US CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE ARRESTED BY THE IDF
Democratic New York congressional nominee Brad Lander was detained by the IDF Israeli military in the West Bank. He was participating in an international solidarity mission to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives near Nahalin and the Beitar Illit settlement.
