Blue Wave Wasn’t A Tsunami But Huge Wins Propel Women/POC/LGBTQ Candidates Into Winner’s Circle

November 7, 2018• byMichael Strangeways

Sharice Davids is the first out lesbian Native American woman elected to Congress (from Kansas) and Deb Haaland is the first Native American woman from New Mexico in the House, part of the huge Blue Wave in the 2018 midterm elections.

Despite some silly tears that the expected Democratic Blue Wave wasn’t the tsunami that some rather naively hoped for, Democrats did succeed in making huge strides with major wins in yesterday’s 2018 mid term national/state elections with Democrats taking back control of the U.S. House of Representatives as well as making major strides taking governorships and seats in statehouses all over the U.S.

The biggest winners for 2018 were women, POC, and LGBTQ candidates and in some cases, some managed to check all of three of those boxes including the delightful win in Kansas’s 3rd Congressional District with SHARICE DAVIDS, an out Native American woman taking a seat previously held by a Republican. Davids was one of two Native American woman who won congressional seats Tuesday, with Deb Haaland of New Mexico also claiming victory.

Other big wins in the House include Mark Takano (CA-41), Katie Hill (CA-25), Angie Craig (MN-2), Chris Pappas (NH-1), Sean Maloney (NY-18), David Cicilline (RI-1), and Mark Pocan (WI-2). One other race with Gina Ortiz Jones for TX-23 is headed to a recount. Takano, Maloney, Cicilline and Pocan all won re-election to seats they already held. If Ortiz Jones wins her race, the House will have 9 out LGBTQ members, up from 6 in the last Congress.

Wisconsin’s Tammie Baldwin also won re-election to the U.S. Senate. Kyrsten Sinema, the first out bisexual woman to compete in a Senate race, is less than 15,000 votes behind in her bid to snag the Arizona Senate seat.

And, the U.S. now has two LGBTQ governors. Kate Brown, an out bisexual woman won her first full term as Oregon governor; she won in 2016 in a special election. And, Jared Polis became the first out gay man to win a governor’s chair, in Colorado a state that will also send at least 4 LGBTQ politicians to their statehouse.

Malcolm Kenyatta and Brian Sims win Pennsylvania statehouse seats in the 2018 election. Photo via Twitter.

There were major statehouse wins all over the country including popular Pennsylvania rep Brian Sims being reelected as well as his friend Malcolm Kenyatta also winning his first seat and becoming the first out gay African American man elected to the PA legislature.

And, there was also good news with state initiatives including Massachusetts voting to keep Transgender protections in place.

And, in Kentucky’s Rowan County, notorious anti-LGBTQ bigot Kim Davis lost her reelection bid to keep her clerkship job. Davis made international news for denying gay couples marriage licenses, claiming it was unconstitutional for her to go against her religious beliefs giving LGBTQ couples a license. She was briefly jailed for failing to comply and went on to become a spokesperson for the Religious Right.

Go to the Victory Fund website to see more news on the 2018 Rainbow Wave.

More news from last night’s elections.

About the Author: Michael Strangeways

As the Editorial Director/Co-Owner, Michael Strangeways writes, edits and does about a million other jobs for Seattle Gay Scene, Puget Sound's most visited LGBTQ news, arts and entertainment website now celebrating its 14th year as a media outlet. A semi-proud Midwesterner by birth, he's lived in Seattle since 2000. He's also a film producer who would like you to check out the Jinkx Monsoon documentary, "Drag Becomes Him" now available on Amazon.com. In his spare time, he gets slightly obsessive about his love for old movies, challenging theater, "otters", vodka, chocolate, "I,Claudius", Lizzie Borden, real books made out of paper, disaster films, show tunes, Weimar era Germany, flea markets, pop surrealistic art, the sex lives of Hollywood actors both living and dead, kitties, chicken fried steak, haute couture and David Bowie. But, not necessarily in that order.