Stonewall Dems Endorse 25 for Congress, Including Six Out LGBT Candidates, But Pass By Warren
National Stonewall Democrats today announced the group’s first 25 endorsements — including six out LGBT candidates. The partisan LGBT organization has a rolling endorsement process, so more endorsements are expected as the election season moves forward.
One prominent race in which the group did not issue an endorsement is Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s effort to unseat Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) — a race in which several other LGBT organizations already have issued endorsements.
Senate:
- Tammy Baldwin – Wisconsin
- Sherrod Brown – Ohio
- Shelley Berkley – Nevada
- Dianne Feinstein – California
- Kirsten Gillibrand – New York
- Bernie Sanders – Vermont
House of Representatives:
- Ami Bera – CA-7
- Tim Bishop – NY-1
- André Carson – IN-7
- David Cicilline – RI-1
- Steve Cohen – TN-9
- Keith Ellison – MN-5
- Rush Holt – NJ-12
- Sheila Jackson-Lee – TX-18
- John Lewis – GA-5
- Michelle Lujan-Grisham – NM-1
- Jerrold Nadler – NY-8
- Nancy Pelosi – CA-12
- Mark Pocan – WI-2
- Jared Polis – CO-2
- Jan Schakowsky – IL-9
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz – FL-23
- Mark Takano – CA-41
- Trevor Thomas – MI-3
- Dina Titus – NV-1
Six of the endorsed candidates are out LGBT individuals: Baldwin, Cicilline, Pocan, Polis, Takano and Thomas.
Of the four out members of the current Congress, all are in the House. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is not running for re-election, however, and Baldwin is seeking a Senate seat — leaving Polis and Cicilline as the only out incumbents seeking re-election. There are no out LGBT Republicans in the 112th Congress.
Log Cabin Republicans, meanwhile, have endorsed in two races thus far. LCR endorsed Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on the day that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ended, Sept. 20, 2011, for his 2012 re-election. This March, the group also endorsed out LGBT candidate Richard Tisei in his run to unseat Rep. John Tierney (D) in the sixth district of Massachusetts.
The Human Rights Campaign endorsed Warren in the Massachusetts Senate race earlier this year.
An official with Stonewall Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the group’s apparent decision not to endorse Warren at this time.
UPDATE at 12:05A TUESDAY: Regarding the lack of a position taken in the Brown-Warren race, Stonewall Democrats executive director Jerame Davis tells Metro Weekly, “Our process requires that all non-incumbent candidates complete our endorsement questionnaire in order to be considered. We didn’t get the questionnaire to her campaign in time to be completed for this round of endorsements. We will be announcing more endorsements throughout the summer, so there’s plenty of time.”
[NOTE (added at 7:30P TUESDAY): After this story was published, it was edited within the hour to include more information about the race between Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D) — including the addition to the headline referencing the race. This was an addition to the initial story, but did not change any of the initially reported facts, so was not referenced as an update. Twenty minutes after those additions were made, Davis responded with his comment, which was posted immediately as an update.]
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