I talked before about how the “Blue Wave” on its own will not be enough for us. The results went fairly well with Democrats getting control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2010. Unfortunately the Democrats did not gain nearly as many seats as the Republicans gained in 2010 but that is likely because more Democratic senate seats were up for election.

My plan here is to do a run down of all the elections of each state from a civil rights perspective. It may take some time because I am looking up most of these people for the first time. If anyone lives in any of these states and has anything to add in regards to their current representatives I would greatly appreciate the additional insight. This is largely meant to observe patterns so I may not touch on everything that’s important.

Before I begin I would like address a few things in advance that I know will be brought up if this piece gets any significant viewership. The first is that yes, there is a strong left wing bias in this piece. I have tried my best to be impartial by sticking strictly to civil rights issues but when one looks at the basic facts, the Republican party is far more often to blame for a lot of the most heinous shit when it comes to bigotry and cruelty. While the left has its fair share of shitheads, and I have done my best to call them all out and draw attention to them as well, It’s only naturally that my interests will be more closely aligned with the left when there is not only less bigoted shitheads, but also that the bigoted shitheads are less bigoted and less shit headed.

If you are a moderate Republican who is in favor of equal rights for LGBT people, women, and people of color then I would highly recommend reading through this entire 27,000+ word piece. I have heard more than one moderate claim that both parties are just as bad, but while I have plenty of criticisms towards the American left as of late, I just find that the right is just so much more hateful and ignorant than the left is. Even if the left only cares about lining their own pockets it does not change the fact that is it only logical to do what will help give us our rights. If you read this piece all the way through then you will likely have a much greater understanding of why LGBT activists hold so much more disdain towards the right.

Even if one does believe that one can merely “disagree” with LGBT rights (which as a heads up, you can’t expect to advocate for LGBT people being deprived of the same basic rights as everyone else and expect them to be okay with it), you will see that a large number of people who are still serving in the united states congress have some outright cruel and hateful views towards LGBT people that a lot of you may have thought died out.

I also ask that you show this piece to anyone who states that the Republican party isn’t homophobic. Hell even if you are a passionate leftist and LGBT rights supporter I think it would behoove you to read this entire piece because it allows you to see the scope of this anti LGBT prejudice, as well as a fair bit of stuff relating to women’s rights and rights for people of color. If you just want to know whose been a piece of shit in your state, I recommend you just skip to the section on your specific state than read the “conclusion” section. The states are covered in alphabetical order.

Lastly I recommend that you read this, and then remember to get out and vote these pricks out of office. This type of abhorrent ignorance and bigotry should have never been tolerated, and it’s up to us all to right this age old wrong that we as a society have allowed. Starting with…

Alabama

There were no senate elections in Alabama this year. The current Republican governor Kay Ivey is still in office despite or likely because of the fact that she believes it is “wrong to legalize other “forms” of marriage, such as same-sex unions, and equally wrong to grant them the same legal rights” and signed a bill that allows the denial of gay adoptions. The plus side is that she won the election with 59.6% of the vote, which is down 4% from Robert J. Bentley’s win in 2014 so there is a higher turnout.

Alabama is a blood red state so it’s not surprising that the Republicans won six of the seven house seats, and the one blue seat was uncontested. The six Republican winners are…

• Bradley Byrne who stated that federal government or courts should not “force same-sex unions on states“ which is political speak for “I’m a total homophobe” and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Martha Roby who has stated that ” Eighth grade boys don’t need government-guaranteed access to the sixth grade girls’ bathroom or vice versa” in regards to trans students and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Mike Rogers who was criticized by gay rights groups for making a homophobic joke to a group of realtors and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Robert Aderholt who introduced a measure to an upcoming bill that will allow adoption agencies to legally discriminate against same sex couples, has been opposed to same sex marriage, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Mo Brooks who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, voted to prevent same sex marriage, accused Obama of “waging a war on whites” and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Gary Palmer who has voted against same sex marriage, has stated that the Obama administration “apparently has no concern about the sexual predators” in regards to trans students being able to use the locker room of their gender, and has NOT voted to defund planned parenthood and instead recognizes how vital Planned Parenthood is to LOL JUST KIDDING, he voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

The one Democrat from Alabama to win this year was Terri Sewell who has a pro LGBT track record and was endorsed as “preferred by The Feminist Majority.” I’m going to point out the obvious that Terri Sewell is a woman of color, while all of the other six are white cishets and five out of six are men. Anyone who responds to any call to elect more women, LGBT people, or people of color with “herp derp elect people based on merit derp.” keep this in mind. And no I don’t care about their stances on other issues. No one can be expected to put their support in someone who will stomp out the rights of women, people of color, and the LGBT community.

I know for a fact that not all Republicans are anti gay misogynist racist bigots, but it sure as shit looks like they keep voting for them. If you are on the right and you generally care about us, DON’T vote for people who so obviously don’t! I’m not even saying to vote Democrat, I’m saying to vote in the primaries for those that aren’t raging bigots! And if you end up having a bigot winning the primary, either don’t vote or vote for literally ANYONE ELSE! Otherwise you help put them into office where they can at best hold back any progress we make and at worse actively hurt us!

The silver lining is that five of the six Republicans had less of a lead than they did in 2016. Mike Rogers (63.8%) had a 3.2% decrease, Robert Aderholt (79.9%) ran unopposed since 2012 and thus had a 20.1% decrease), Mo Brooks (61.1) had a 5.6% decrease since 2014, Gary Palmer (69.2%) had a 5.2% decrease, Bradley Byrne (63.2%) ran unopposed in 2016 and had a 5% decrease from 2014. If it continues at this rate then it may be very well possible to see more Democrats in Alabama within the next few years, albeit unlikely. So be sure to get out there and vote when the time comes… as long as it’s not for these dorks.

Alaska

Alaska has had no senatorial elections in 2018. The winner of the Gubernatorial election was Mike Dunleavy, who has compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan. While I am struggling to find any explicit action or statements against LGBT rights at the very least, which is an improvement over the previous governor Bill Walker, these people need to realize that defunding Planned Parenthood puts women everywhere, especially LGBT women, at risk and that their anti abortion crusade isn’t fucking worth it. Mike Dunleavy won with 51.5% of the vote. This is only slightly lower than Bill Walker’s win in 2014 but that can be chalked up to the fact that Walker was an independent. On the other hand, Dunleavy’s lead is down 7.6% from Sean Parnell’s win in 2010 who was the last Republican to hold the office so it may be more likely to see a Democratic Governor in 2022.

Alaska had only one congressional election since there’s only one house representative, and sadly it is still under right wing occupation. Specifically the winner is Don Young, who has kept Alaska’s sole spot in the house SINCE 1973!!!!! Maybe it’s just my youth and thus naivety speaking, but THAT”S WAY TOO FUCKING LONG!!!! He’s been in office for almost fifty years now. Ah but is he good at his job? Well I’ll quote Wikipedia on this one.

LGBT issues

Young believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. He has compared gay relations to bulls having sex.^[106] He voted against protections for gay and lesbian people in the workplace.^[107] He has stated that, “I’ve hired a person of a different orientation,” continuing with, “That’s personal. … I do believe in the Bible. Always have and always will. But hiring is different.”^[108] He’s voted for making gay adoptions illegal,^[109] and in 2009 voted against sexual orientation being enforced as a protected status against hate crimes.^[110]

Young has been given a 0% score on gay rights by the HRC.^[110]

Suicide rate in Alaska

When asked about the fact that the state of Alaska has the highest suicide rate in America per capita, Young has stated that he believes the high suicide rates are at least partially the result of government handouts, and that “this suicide problem didn’t exist until we got largesse from the government.” He believes Alaska needs to cut public assistance programs.^[82]

Comments to student assemblies

On October 21, 2014, Young addressed an assembly of students at Wasilla High School, shortly after a student there committed suicide. During a question and answer session, he said that the student’s suicide had been caused by a lack of support from family and friends. During the assembly, Young also recalled a story about drinking alcohol in Paris, and used profanity several times, officials from the school reported.^[82]

When Young was criticized by a student for his comments on suicide, Young called him an “asshole.” Young apologized for these comments on October 24, stating, “I am profoundly and genuinely sorry for the pain it has caused the Alaskan people.”^[111][112]

Hopefully Alaskans get tired enough of him that he gets replaced in the future but at this point you may as well need a wooden stake and some holy water to get rid of him. You know I’m not even looking for much here. My standard here is to not be a bigoted asshole. I know there are a lot of other issues that come into play but I think this should really demonstrate just how ingrained white cishet male supremacy is into out very culture.

I am currently writing each of these entries in the order they appear and I would genuinely like to be wrong about the stereotype behind Republicans but it is currently looking like that stereotype exists for a reason. Alaskans, please get those pitchforks and torches ready in 2020!

Arizona

One Arizona senate seat has been wrestled out of Republican grasp with the Democratic candidate Krysten Sinema barely winning by 1.7%. Krysten Sinema has made history as the first bisexual person in the US Senate. She will almost definitely be an improvement over the previous Senator Jeff Flake who has repeatedly voted to prohibit same sex marriage and believes it should be legal to fire someone for being transgender. It was also a significant win over her opponent Martha McSally who has repeatedly voted against same sex marriage and has refused to take a position when asked about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Current Governor Doug Ducey has kept his seat in the Gubernatorial race despite the fact that he has consistently opposed same sex marriage and has attempted to block women’s health care at Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately his win is a 2% increase from 2014 so a bit of a push may be necessary to get him out of office.

Arizona also added an additional House seat over to Democrats with the aforementioned Martha McSally’s seat being won by Ann Kirkpatrick who has a much better record of supporting civil rights.

The previously mentioned Krysten Sinema’s seat is now occupied by Greg Stanton, the former Phoenix Mayor who has a fairly good LGBT track record.

The three remaining Arizona house Democrats are Tom O’Halleran, Ruben Gallego, and Raul Grijalva, the former two of which have decent progressive track records and the latter most an especially good one.

There were four Republicans who kept their seats though, those four being Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, and Debbie Lesko. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs both supported the baker Jack Phillips who sued over the right to use “religious freedom” as an excuse to legally discriminate against LGBT people. Gosar also supported an amendment to ban same sex marriage, co-sponsored the “State Marriage Defense Act,” and voted NO on reauthorizing the “Violence Against Women Act” and so has David Schweikert.

Debbie Lesko has voted to ban Ethic Studies classes from Arizona (and so did Andy Biggs) and to ban affirmative action so she doesn’t seem all that great either.

So this thankfully means that by my standards, five out of nine seats are in decent hands. As for whether or not Arizonans can expect to see Lesko, Gosar, Biggs, or Schweikert booted out of office in the coming years, well each have a decrease in percentage compared to previous years so people are turning on them.

• Paul Gosar had a 2.4% decrease in his lead since 2016 but considering that this meant that he went from a 71.5% lead to a 69.1% one this means it is unlikely for him to be going anywhere in the near future (don’t let that stop you from trying though).
• Andy Biggs meanwhile is down 4.1% from 2016 and 5.2% from 2014, but he still had 60% this year so it may be difficult but possible.
• David Schweikert is down 5.7% from 2016 and 8.5% from 2014, and he had 56.4% this year so he’s the most likely of these three to get the boot.
• Debbie Lesko is down 7.7% from 2014 and ran unopposed in 2016 so she could be on her way out.

Arkansas

Governor Asa Hutchinson has unfortunately won reelection despite the fact that he voted to ban gay adoptions in DC, thinks marriage should only be between one man and one woman and that the government doesn’t have the authority to change that, and signed a bill allowing for legal discrimination of gay people in Arkansas. Unfortunately his lead is about 10% higher than his win in 2014 so it’s apparent that a lot of Democratic voters in Arkansas were not motivated to show up and vote this year.

Arkansas is another blood red state. The state has gone since 2013 since a Democrat took an Arkansas house seat and has been occupied by the red army. The current representatives of this state are Rick Crawford, French Hill, Steve Womack, and Bruce Westerman.

• Rick Crawford has voted NO on reauthorizing the “Violence Against Women Act,” has supported an amendment to prevent same sex marriage, and co-sponsored the “State Marriage Defense Act.“
• Steve Womack also voted NO on reauthorizing the “Violence Against Women Act” and is against gay marriage.
• Bruce Westerman believes abortion should be illegal with no exceptions for rape or incest, opposes affirmative action, and is against gay marriage and in favor of discrimination against gay people on the basis of “Religious freedom.”
• French Hill said that states “should be able to define what ‘consenting adult relationships” in response to being asked about same sex marriage which makes his thoughts clear.

As for the odds that we can kick these pricks out of the Capitol Building and into the gulag, let’s see… well it’s another long shot since Crawford, Womack, and Westerman have won 2018 with 69.8%, 64.9%, and 66.8% respectively. Their leads are are all down quite a bit since there were no Democratic candidates running against them in 2016, but the only one whose lead has decreased in comparison to the last Democrat they ran against was Steve Womack by 7.5% so I guess he’s the weakest link. Well actually the weakest link would be French Hill who only won with 52.2% in 2018.

This leads me to the obvious conclusion that that bigoted flaming turds that make up most of the Republican party DO in fact represent the interests of Republican voters. And yes I know most of my readership is probably yelling “YOU DON’T FUCKING SAY!!!” at their computer monitors but just give me a second to dissect what this really means.

It means that moderate Republicans are shit out of luck. Many of the hate mongering twat waffles in office are either naturally bigoted OR they will literally sell out the safety of minorities for votes. The only way that this will change is if the Republican voterbase stops thinking it is worse to vote in Democrats than to vote in bigots. If this does not happen then the Republican party will rely on pandering to slack jawed trailer park homophobes until the world ends… which may not be too long but going into why would be going against what I said about sticking to civil rights.

California

Now we are on to California, the most populated state in the country and a mostly blue state. The are a whopping 53 representatives in California but first we will start with the senator. The winner of the general election was the five term incumbent Dianne Feinstein against Kevin de Leon. It is worth mentioning that both of these candidates were Democrats. There has not been a major Republican Senate candidate in California since 2012 in fact, and there hasn’t been a Republican senator from California since 1992 with John Seymour. And yes Dianne Feinstein was in office for 40 years now so she really should step down but it’s better than having a bigot in office at least. Governor Gavin Newsom has also kept his seat which is good since he has a fairly good progressive track record.

Anyway as for those 53 house representatives, California is now even more blue than it was prior to 2018. 14 of those seats were red going into this election and now only 8 of them are. The six dethroned Republicans are Jeff Denham, Steve Knight, Mimi Walters, Dana Rohrabacher, Darrell Issa, and Edward Royce.

• Jeff Denham voted against Obama’s executive order to ban federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity (but went back on it when he faced scrutiny) and has previously held anti gay views.
• Steve Knight has voted against banning conversion therapy and believes the definition of marriage is “one man and one women.” (This means he’s a total homophobe).
• Mimi Walters has voted against banning conversion therapy and legalizing same sex marriage.
• Dan Rohrabacher has voted against reinstating the Violence Against Women Act, prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, voted in support of Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, banning same-sex marriage, and banning gay adoptions in DC.
• Darrell Issa has voted against banning legal discrimination based on sexual orientation, voted in support of Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, and voted in support of and banning same-sex marriage.
• Edward Royce has voted against banning job discrimination based on sexual orientation, in favor of Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, banning same-sex marriage, and banning gay adoptions in DC.

Of note is that Edward Royce and Darrell Issa did not seek re-election and that said seats were won by Gil Cisneros and Mike Levin respectively. The two candidates they were victorious against were Young Kim and Diane Harkey respectively.

• Young Kim was condemned by the LGBT Center OC for transphobic ads attacking trans youth.
• Diane Harkey has been especially transphobic with her voting record having voted against bills that would “let transgender students use facilities consistent with their gender identities; allow transgender people to change their names without a hearing; and include trans/non-binary communities in Civil Rights protections, anti-discrimination laws, and legislation on hate crimes” and has a consistently anti LGBT voting record.

Meanwhile… Gil Cisneros is pro LGBT and Mike Levin has been endorsed by the HRC. Katie Hill is openly bisexual herself and has been endorsed by several LGBT groups. Katie Porter has been a strong advocate for the LGBT community and her campaign has strongly emphasized her support for Bernie Sanders. Harley Rouda’s campaign has also been supportive of the LGBT Community and has been endorsed by the HRC. Josh Harder has been pretty silent on LGBT rights though.

The remaining California Republicans in office are Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock, Paul Cook, David Valado, Devin Nunes, Kevin McCarthy, Ken Calvert, and Duncan D. Hunter.

• Doug LaMalfa has voted in favor of multiple amendments banning gay marriage, is against affirmative action, voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Co sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act to protect Anti LGBT hate speech, and believes that gay marriage should be left to the state so homophobic politicians can prevent as many gay people from getting married as possible.
• Tom McClintock has voted against legal rights to same sex couples, voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and believes the State definition of marriage supersedes federal gay marriage.
• Paul Cook agreed with Trump’s executive order to stop covering transgender related care in the military.
• David Valado voted against protecting LGBT people from workplace discrimination.
• Devin Nunes has voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, has voted in favor of banning same sex marriage, and voted in favor of constitutionally defining marriage as “one man one woman.“
• Kevin McCarthy has voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation and believes that civil unions between same sex couples should not be recognized.
• Ken Calvert has voted against banning job discrimination against same sex couples, voted in favor of constitutionally defining marriage as “one man one woman,” banning same sex marriage, banning gay adoptions in DC, and believe the state definition of marriage supersedes the federal one because the federal definition isn’t homophobic.
• Duncan D. Hunter has opposed the legalization of same sex marriage.

So yes, there are still eight bigots from California in the US House of Representatives. So what are the chances we may see them kicked out on the street in the future? Well let’s take a look at how the election results compare.

• Doug LaMalfa’s lead of 56.3% is down 2.8% from 2016 and 4.7% from 2014 so we may see him booted out in the coming years.
• Tom McClintock won with 55.4% of the vote and his lead is down 7.3% from 2016 so there is a good choice that he will get thrown out on his McClint-cock in the next few years… okay SOMEONE had make that joke it may as well have been me.
• Paul Cook unfortunately did not have a Democrat run against him in 2018 and he won 2016 with 62.3% so it’s going to be a bit harder to get rid of him.
• David Valado won with 53.8% which is down 2.9% from 2016 and down 4% from 2014 & 2012 so it could be possible that we get rid of him in the next few years.
• Devin Nunes won with 55.8% and is down 11.8% from 2016 and 16.2% from 2014.  Hopefully this trend continues in the future.
• Kevin McCarthy won with 66.5% which is down 2.7% from 2016 and 8.3% from 2014. Still quite a ways to go but progress is being made.
• Ken Calvert won with 59.3% which is actually up 0.5% from 2016 but down 6.4% from 2014. May be a bit harder to get rid of him.
• Duncan D. Hunter won with 54.2% which is down 9.2% from 2016 and down 17% from 2014.
  

But still… this means that 45 out of 53 seats in California are blue. I already mentioned the six new Democrats in office to take Republican seats but I do know that there are 39 Democrats who kept their seats. Well, I just looked through each of their info on OnTheIssues.org and almost every single one had a pro LGBT voting record and were not bigots. It’s almost as if the Republican party is overwhelmingly made up by bigoted old white men with a few bigoted white women.

This isn’t even a generalization. very few of the Republicans I mentioned thus far were not anti LGBT, while the worst that a Democrat featured in this article thus far has done is just kinda not have any info about their stance on LGBT rights available. If you are reading this and have been naive enough to assume that Republicans aren’t all homophobic and transphobic bigots before then, hopefully now you see why this prejudice against your “politics” exist.

Colorado

Good news, Colorado has elected its first openly gay Governor with Jared Polis! His track record is naturally very solid.

Colorado had no senate elections this year and 4 out of 7 House seats are now Blue. The one new blue seat belongs to Jason Crow who beat out the ex representative Mike Coffman with 54.1% of the vote. While Mike Coffman has been much more pro LGBT than most Republicans, I’m still consider it good to be rid of him because he voted to defund Planned Parenthood. All four of these Democrats seem to have fairly progressive stances but let’s take a look at the three remaining Republicans.

• Scott Tipton is opposed to gay marriage and thinks it should be “left to the states.”
• Ken Buck opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape and incest,  has compared homosexuality to alcoholism and later made an insincere apology for it, thinks being gay is a choice, thinks the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy makes a lot of sense, has supported an amendment to ban same sex marriage, and voted against an amendment banning discrimination against gay and trans people.
• Doug Lamborn has co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and has also voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, believes homophobic hate speech is free speech, and believes the state definition of marriage supersedes the federal one because he’s a homophobic piece of shit.

Once again it is quite present that it’s easier to vote out moderates than the genuine bigots because bigotry has a stronger support base. It is becoming quite obvious that voters will gravitate towards one extreme or the other. But let’s take a look at the three remaining candidates leads.

• Scott Tipton won with 51.7% of the vote and is down by 2.9% from 2014 and 6.3% from 2014 so he may get tipped out if things continue at this rate.
• Ken Buck won with 60.9% of the vote and is down 2.6% from 2016 and 3.8% from 2014. It looks like he still has plenty of bucks to spare though so it will be harder to get rid of him.
• Doug Lamborn won with 58.3% of the vote and is down 4% from 2016 and 1.5% from 2014, so it may be a bit harder to get him on the lamb.

If one is paying attention to these though, one can definitely see that more people are voting Democrat than previous years. A lot of people are getting sick of the Republican’s shit and want to see them booted the fuck out. Considering that the newer generation is far less likely to to resonate with their bigotry it also means that more of them will register to vote in order to be rid of these pricks. I know it’s a bit of a cliche at this point but every vote counts!

Connecticut

Currently both senate seats in Connecticut are blue. Chris Murphy has successfully defended his seat from his Republican opponent Matthew Corey with 59.4% of the vote. One can chalk this up to the fact that Matthew Corey was a moderate Republican who was both pro choice AND in support of gay marriage. The conundrum I mentioned earlier comes up again in that a large portion of Republican voters only vote for bigotry. Even if Matthew Corey is far more progressive than most Republicans, LGBT people and allies are bound to trust Democrats more regardless. Then again, Matthew Corey came closer to victory than 2016’s Republican candidate Dan Carter who voted against the inclusion of an anti trans discrimination law so maybe Connecticut is better at encouraging basic human decency than most states.

It is also worth mentioning that Democratic candidate for governor Ned Lamont has also won the election and he has a solid track record.

The House members of Connecticut started out this year all blue and that did not change after this election. The only new house member is Jahana Hayes, all five representatives are progressives and I could not find any info on their opponents stances on LGBT rights. There doesn’t seem to be much for me to say about Connecticut so I’ll just move on. Don’t stop voting though.

Delaware

Delaware had on house seat and one senate seat up for election. The Democratic incumbents won both of those states. The senate incumbent Tom Carper has a mostly pro LGBT voting record but thinks same sex marriage should be left to the states and has a “mixed” record according to the ACLU, HRC, and the NAACP so we could probably do better than him. I could not find a recorded stance on LGBT rights from his opponent Robert Arlett though. Lisa Rochester on the other hand has been much more consistently progressive and pro LGBT. I can’t find any information on her opponent Scott Walker (not to be confused with the former presidential candidate from Wisconsin) either. Delaware is another state that is unlikely to elect any Republicans any time soon but keep voting nonetheless… preferably for someone better than Tom Carper.

Florida

Unfortunately Florida’s Republican senator Rick Scott barely won the election with 50.1% of the vote and has taken the former senator Bill Nelson’s seat. Both senate seats in Florida are now Republican and considering that the other senate seat is taken by 2016 presidential candidate Marco Rubio, it will likely be a tough bid.  This is especially unfortunate since Rick Scott has stated he supports an amendment to ban same sex marriage and went silent when asked if Florida’s then ban on gay marriage was discriminatory.

Additionally, Republican candidate Ron DeSantis has won the election for Governor despite that fact that he has voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, opposes same sex marriage, and respects faith based opposition to gay rights.

House wise, the make up started with 15 representatives red, 11 blue, and 1 vacant. After the election we now have 14 red and 13 blue. Democrats Al Lawson, Stephanie Murphy, Darren Soto, Val Demings, Charlie Crist, Kathy Castor, Alcee Hastings, Lois Frankel, Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Frederica Wilson, as well as Republicans Matt Gaetz, Neal Dunn, Ted Yoho, John Rutherford, Bill Posey, Daniel Webster, Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Brian Mast, Francis Rooney, and Mario Diaz-Balart have all kept their seats.

Our two new blue seats belong to Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala. Both of them have fairly progressive track records Both of them are a step up from Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the former of which supports barring gay marriage and the latter of which voted to ban gay adoption in DC (but admittedly has a very pro LGBT stance otherwise surprisingly) and was rated 31% by the NAACP. It is worth mentioning that Shalala’s opponent Maria Elvira Salazar was also pro LGBT which adds more ammo to the argument that the Republican voterbase is full of toxic bigots who won’t show up to vote for candidates who aren’t bigots. I genuinely feel sorry for moderate Republicans who are pro LGBT and minority rights.

As for the remaining Republicans, there is…

• Matt Gaetz who supports defunding Planned parenthood and opposes same sex marriage.
• Neal Dunn who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, supports defining marriage as “one man one woman,” and letting businesses “disagree” with same-sex marriage.
• Ted Yoho who voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, opposes same sex marriage, and thinks anti gay opinions should be protected as “free speech.”
• Bill Posey who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, and voted against enforcing against anti gay hate crimes.
• Daniel Webster who thinks there should be an amendment banning same sex marriage.
• Gus Bilirakis who co sponsored a bill to defund Planned parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, and Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes.
• Vern Buchanan who co sponsored a bill to defund Planned parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, and Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes.
• Francis Rooney who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, and letting businesses “disagree” with same-sex marriage.
• Ross Spano who supported a bill to allow adoption agencies to disallow gay parents.
• Greg Steube who is… well…. a real piece of work.

Thankfully there is also John Rutherford, Brian Mast, and Mario Diaz-Balart who are all fairly pro LGBT in their track records and Michael Waltz who I cannot find any info for. It’s just a shame that the majority are still bigoted homophobes. Just checked and each of the democrats have pretty solid progressive track records as well. So what are the chances we will see these Republicans booted out in 2020?

• Matt Gaetz won with 67.1% of the vote which is down 2% from 2016 so it will be tough to get rid of him.
• Neal Dunn won with 67.7% of the vote which is 0.4% higher than in 2016 so he is also going to be tough to get rid of.
• Ted Yoho won with 58.1% which is 1.5% higher than in 2016 but is a 6.9% decrease from 2014 so it may still be possible to get rid of him.
• Bill Posey won with 60.5% of the vote which is down 2.6% from 2016 and down 5.3% from 2014 so it may be possible but will still require greater turnout.
• Daniel Webster won with 65.2% of the vote which is down 0.2% from 2016 so it’s going to be difficult to tear him off his seat.
• Gus Bilirakis won with 58.2% of the vote which is down 10.4% from 2016 so it may be possible to boot him out in the future.
• Vern Buchanan won with 54.6% of the vote which is down 5.2% from 2016 and 6.9% from 2014 so we could possibly see him get the boot in the coming years.
• Greg Stuebe won with 62.3% of the vote which was up 0.5% from 2016 so it may require a bit of a push to get rid of him.
• Francis Rooney won with 62.3% of the vote which is down 3.6% from 2016 so it may require a bit of a push to get rid of him.
• Ross Spano won with 53.1% which is down 4.4% so it may be possible to get rid of him in the coming years.

The weakest links in Florida appear to be Ross Spano and Vern Buchanan so it could be possible for the Democrats to get the lead if they take one of their seats. Florida may be one of the more difficult states to take but it’s become obvious that Democrats are putting up a fight there as well. It’s also nice to see that more pro LGBT Republicans are coming out in Florida, pun intended.

Georgia

Republican candidate Brian Kemp has been elected Governor of Georgia despite the fact that he said he would sign a “religious freedom” bill (that’s code for anti gay) that was previously vetoed by his Republican predecessor Nathan Deal, and that his own queer niece voted against him. Thankfully his lead is at least down by about 2% from Deal’s win in 2014 and he only won with 50.2% of the vote so it’s entirely likely he can be voted out in 2022.

Georgia had no senate elections this year, but it is worth reminding people that both seats are red and one will be up in 2020. Going into this year’s election, there were 4 blue seats and 10 red, and now there are 5 blue seats and 9 red. There is little progress but progress nonetheless. Only one seat changed hand in Florida and that seat now belongs to Lucy McBath, whose platform runs on pro LGBT and women’s rights and even explicitly called out her opponent for not standing up for trans rights.

Unfortunately one of the blue seats belongs to Sanford Bishop, who thus far is one of the only Democratic homophobes I’ve come across. Sanford Bishop has thus far voted to ban same sex marriage, voted to ban gay adoptions in DC, and has a rating of 38% by the HRC. Unfortunately his opponent Herman West Jr was even worse. The best thing I can suggest to those in Georgia’s 2nd district, aside from moving, is to only vote for Sanford if there is literally no one else. If there is another Democrat running against him, a third party candidate, or a moderate Republican who isn’t a bigoted pile of shit then VOTE THEM IN!!! But otherwise this is one of the few where the whole “giant douche vs turd sandwich” dynamic really comes into play. The same can be said about David Scott who is also a homophobe. Damn, Georgia sucks!

Well at least 3 out of the five Democrats are reliable and the other two at least have decent tracks records on affirmative action but… is there really no one better? Well, let’s check and see if the Republicans are ass backwards as well and if any are good on LGBT rights. Well…

• Buddy Carter believes the government shouldn’t “redefine marriage and “respects faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage.”
• Drew Ferguson supports defunding Planned Parenthood, defining marriage as “one man one woman,”  and letting business “disagree” with same sex marriage.
• Rob Woodall has voted “NO” on reauthorizing the violence against women act and opposes same sex marriage.
• Austin Scott believes there should be an amendment to ban same sex marraige and believes the state definition supersedes the federal definition (but probably only as long as state disallows it when the federal doesn’t and not the other way around).
• Doug Collins has voted “NO” on reauthorizing the violence against women act, is opposed to same sex marriage, and believes the state definition supersedes yada yada.
• Jody Hice believes the government shouldn’t “redefine marriage,” respects faith opposition to same sex marriage, opposes same sex marriage, believes that gays can get married as long as it’s not to each oth-OH MY GOD YOU CAN’T BE FUCKING SERIOUS!!! How can someone be this stupid? That’s literally self parody! “Gays can get married as long as it’s a gay man and a gay woman herp derp!” Well congratulations Jody Hice, if your plan was to say something so stupid and inane that the IQ of your voter base drops down to your level then you may just have been successful! This statement was so dumb that I now feel like watching a Pauly Shore marathon! And I’m probably going to move to Georgia so I can vote for you! This isn’t even the stupidest shit he said! He also stated that the purpose of hate crime legislation was to normalize homosexuality, believes that Islam’s “Geopolitics” are not protected by the first amendment, thinks that ENDA is about “forcing liberalism upon business” only believes that women should have political power as long as she’s “within the authority of her husband” believes liberal family policies lead to crime, gangs, and drugs, thinks that we “allow satanists in our schools but not Christian prayer” and has said that “‘Freedom’ within any context other than a Judeo-Christian one, only leads to corruption.” *Cough* authoritarian nutcase *cough.* Anyway…
• Barry Loudermilk is against same sex marriage, believes the government shouldn’t “redefine marriage” and respects “faith based” opposition to same sex marriage.
• Rick Allen believes marriage is “one man one woman” supports barring same sex marriage, respects “faith based” opposition to same sex marriage, and opposes civil rights for gay people.
• Tom Graves has signed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted “NO” on reauthorizing the violence against women act, co sponsored the “Marriage and Religious Freedom Act” and is a total homophobe.

So the short answer to that last question is “lol no, Georgia sucks!” But can we make it suck less? Well it is going to be difficult to turn Georgia blue but let’s take a look at how the votes turned out.

• Buddy Carter won with 58% of the vote, which is an improvement from 2016 where he ran unopposed and is down 2.91% from 2014. It may be possible if there’s a significant increase in turnout, but it will be difficult to cart him out of the House.
• Drew Ferguson won with 65.6% of the vote which is down 2.7% from 2016 but it is still unlikely we will be getting rid of him any time soon.
• Rob Woodall only barely won with 50.1% of the vote which is down 10.3% from 2016 and 15.28% from 2014 so we only need a slight push to get rid of him.
• Austin Scott ran uncontested so he’s going to be hard to get rid of.
• Doug Collins won with 79.6% of the vote which is down 21.4% from 2016 where he ran unopposed and is down 1.07% from 2014 so chances are pretty slim against him.
• Jody Hice won with 62.9% of the vote which is down a lot from 2016 where he went unopposed and is down 3.62% from 2014 so it’s going to need to require a bit of a push to get him out of office… and preferably off a building.
• Barry loudermilk won with 61.8% of the vote which is down 5.6% from 2016 so it may be possible but only with a big push.
• Rick Allen won with 59.5% of the vote which is down 2.1% from 2016 so we need a bigger push to boot him out.
• Tom Graves won with 76.5% of the vote and ran unopposed in 2016 and 2014, so it’s going to be difficult to put him in his political grave.

It’s important that Georgians don’t lose hope though. KEEP VOTING! Even if the person you vote for loses, the fact that the number of votes put against homophobes and bigots still goes up will continue to foster hope in the people, as well as inspire others to run against said homophobes. You have more power than you think!

Hawaii

In the Hawaii Senate Election, Mazie Hirono has successfully retained her seat with 71.1% of the vote which is 9.4% higher than her election in 2012 so it’s obvious that she’s not likely to lose this seat any time soon. Considering that she has a very good track record in regards to LGBT rights, it does not seem like she will be any threat to the LGBT community in the future. The two house reps Ed Case and Tulsi Gabbard also both won with over 70% of the vote and each have good LGBT track records as well. The short version is that Republicans are unlikely to take Hawaii any time soon.

Governor David Ige has also kept his seat. While he did once say that he was okay with civil unions but not “gay marriage” in 2012, his progressive track record has been otherwise pretty good with him signing a law banning conversion therapy in Hawaii earlier this year.

Idaho

Idaho has not had any senate elections but I did find out that one of the current senators is literally named Mike Crapo… he’s a republican of course.In the race for Governor, Republican Brad Little has won despite the fact that he is trying to legally define marriage as “one man one woman” in Idaho, and accused Obama of “stretching the true meaning of the gender equality law for public schools to go around Congress and impose his own agenda on individual states and local school districts” when he said schools shouldn’t prevent trans students from using the bathroom.

There are only two house reps in Idaho and they are also republicans since Idaho is a red state. Those two are Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson. Russ Fulcher replaced the previous house rep Raul Labrador and he thinks providing unlicensed abortions should be a felony with jail time and that same sex marriage should be left to the state. Mike Simpson meanwhile has tried to defund Planned Parenthood, has voted to ban same sex marriage, to constitutionally define marriage as “one man one woman,” to ban gay adoption in DC, voted against banning anti gay job discrimination, has a rating of 0% by the HRC, a 13% by the ACLU, and voted to not enforce against anti gay hate crimes. Yeah he’s a real piece of shit isn’t he?

Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson won with 62.7% and 60.7% respectively so it may be tough to get rid of them, but let’s see how that is compared to previous years. Russ Fulcher’s win is down 5.5% from Raul Labrador’s in 2016 and Mike Simpsons’s 2018 win is down 2.2% from his 2016 win. As has been shown with previous states there is increased Democratic turnout and leads are decreasing. We are unlikely to see these two idiots booted out in the next few years but over time it could be possible. It won’t be easy though.

Illinois

In Illinois, J.B. Pritzker has taken the seat of the previous Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. Considering that Rauner is both pro choice and pro LGBT it makes sense that he lost considering that the Republican base does not approve of such things. Once again, it is quite unfortunate that the current political climate is not allowing progressive Republicans to exist.

Before the 2018 election, Illinois had 11 Democratic seats and 7 Republican. After the election there are 13 Democratic seats and 5 Republican. Three of those seats have changed hands. Our new representatives are Chuy Garcia, Sean Casten, and Lauren Underwood. It is of note that Chuy Garcia has been backed by Bernie Sanders and has been endorsed by an LGBT coalition. Sean Casten was blasted by Breitbart for “not denouncing Anti Christian bully Dan Savage” which alone tells you everything you need to know. And Lauren Underwood has been endorsed by the HRC.

Unfortunately Illinois has another one of those elusive “Democratic homophobes” in the form of Dan Lipinski who voted against prohibiting anti gay job discrimination, in favor of protecting anti same sex marriage opinions as “free speech,” and has a rating of 40% by the HRC. Thankfully every other house democrat in Illinois has a solid pro LGBT track record. As for the five remaining republicans, we have…

• Mike Bost who supports banning same sex marriage and is opposed to gay rights.
• Rodney Davis who is against Affirmative Action and is opposed to same sex marriage.
• John Shimkus who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, voted against enforcing anti gay hate crime laws, and voted against prohibiting anti gay job discrimination, voted to constitutionally define marriage as “one man one woman,” voted in support of banning gay adoptions in DC, and is rated 13% by the ACLU.
• Adam Kinzinger who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, and supports banning same sex marriage.
• Darin LaHood who is “committed to stopping same sex marriage.“

So what are the chances of getting rid of these homophobes? In regards to Dan Lipinski it is tricky seeing as how any Republican that runs against him will most likely be a homophobe as well, so the best recommendation is vote third party if there is one available. I’d only say otherwise if his opponent is especially bad. The only reason that there are any Democratic homophobes in office at this time is because LGBT rights only recently took off and these people were already in office. No new Democrat running for office will be able to get elected if they are anti gay, so the best option is to just let them lose then vote for someone better in the next election. Granted there are other factors to take into consideration but this article is specially about civil rights issues. As for the remaining Republicans.

• Mike Bost won with 51.8% of the vote which is down 2.5% from 2016 so it’s very well possible to see him get the boot in the coming years.
• Rodney Davis won with 50.5% of the vote which is down 9.2% from 2016 so it looks like we only need a little more to push him out.
• John Shimkus won with 71.1% of the vote which is down from 2016 where he ran unopposed and down 3.8% from 2014 so it may be unlikely to get rid of him any time soon.
• Adam Kinzinger won with 59.7% of the vote which is down significantly from 2016 where he ran unoppossed and is down 10.9% from 2014 so he could get his as zinged out if turnout continues at this rate.
• Darin LaHood won with 67.4% which is down 4.7% from 2016 so it may take a while until he’s booted out of the House and into the hood.

Thankfully Illinois seems to be giving off a pretty good push. A blue state has become bluer and it will only turn even more blue in the coming years at this rate.

Indiana

There was a senate election and unfortunately it was won by Mike Braun, who is your stereotypical “I’m not homophobic but I support religious freedom to legally discriminate against LGBT people” Republican. I suppose this is to be expected from the state that gave us Electric Fence Pence after all. Before the 2018 election, the house had two Democrats and five Republicans from Indiana and that number has stayed the same. Unfortunately it appears that Indiana took an L this election considering that it lost its one Democratic senator and there won’t be another senate election in Indiana until 2022 where Todd Young’s seat will be up for re-election.

Thankfully there is only a two year gap between elections for the House of Representatives so let’s take a look at them. Both of the Democratic representatives Peter Visclosky and Andre Carson are pro LGBT and won their votes by 65.1% and 64.9% respectively, so it’s going to be difficult for the Republicans to take their seats. There are two new representatives in office, and they belong to Jim Baird and Greg Pence.

Jim Baird  has voted in favor of a “religious freedom” law that allows legal discrimination of LGBT individuals. As for Greg Pence, he’s the brother of our current vice president and walking Donald J Trump assassination insurance, Mike Pence. Mike Pence’s homophobia is so infamous that many LGBT people, myself included, are opposed to Donald Trump’s impeachment solely because it means that Mike Pence would take over. Mike Pence’s homophobia is literally the subject of memes, and Greg Pence outright says he’s no different. As for the incumbents, we have…

• Jackie Walorski who supports defining “traditional marriage” and opposes same sex marriage.
• Jim Banks who is opposed to same sex marriage and is in favor of “religious freedom” to legally discriminate against LGBT people.
• Susan Brooks who approves of legal discrimination against LGBT people and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Larry Bucshon who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and supports an amendment to prevent same sex marriage.
• Trey Hollingsworth who believes that LGBT is NOT a protected minority status.

So the question is whether or not we have a chance of getting rid of these homophobes in the coming years? Well…

• Sources are inconsistent with how much of the vote Jackie Walorski won. Some say she won with 54.8% while others say she won with 57.1%. This means that her lead is down either 4.5% or 2.2%. Assuming it’s the latter we’d need a decent push to get rid of her.
• Jim Banks won with 64.7% of the vote which is down 5.4% from 2016 so it will be difficult to vote him out.
• Jim Baird won with 64.3% which is down 0.3% from Todd Rokita’s win in 2016 so win are unlikely to see this district turn blue any time soon.
• Sources are inconsistent with how much of the vote Susan Brooks won. Some say she won with 56.8% while others say she won with 59.5%. This means that her lead is down either 4.7% or 2%. Assuming it’s the latter we’d need a decent push to get her out of office.
• Greg Pence won with 63.8% of the vote which is down 5.3% from Luke Messer’s win in 2016 so there is a significant increase in turnout but we’d need more to get rid of him.
• Larry Bucshon won with 64.4% of the vote which is a 0.7% increase from his 2016 win so giving him the boot is going to be tough.
• Trey Hollingsworth won with 59.4% of the vote which is a 5.3% increase from 2015 so we know there are a fair number of people who will vote Blue but it will be difficult to get them to do so.

Indiana seems to be a crimson red state at this time and it’s going to be tough to make significant gains. The weakest links in the house seem to be Jackie Walorski, Susan Brooks, and and Trey Hollingsworth. If the Democrats are to take control it will likely be by overcoming these assholes. Also if there is increased turnout in the districts where Jim Banks and Greg Pence are in office then it could be possible, but it’s going to be a tough fight to take Indiana.

Iowa

Republican incumbent Kim Reynolds has successfully won the election for Governor and has kept her spot despite her push to defund Planned Parenthood. While she seems to have a fairly progressive LGBT track record, especially for a Republican at that, I need to reemphasize that Planned Parenthood is pretty important and that “muh abortions” is a shitty reason to defund a valuable resource to many struggling women. Thankfully she only won with 50.4% of the vote so it is likely that a Democrat will take he position in 2022.

Iowa has not had any senate races this year, but I am sure many of my readers will be happy to know that 3 of the 4 House seats from Iowa are now blue. Going into the 2018 elections there was only one blue seat in Iowa but we now have two new democrats in office. Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne have taken the seats of Rod Blum and David Young respectively. Considering that Rod Blum supports banning same sex marriage, is opposed to civil rights for gay people, and respects “faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage” and David Young also supports banning same sex marriage and is opposed to civil rights for gay people, we can rest assured that these two ladies will be a definite improvement, especially since Cindy Axne’s website specifically mentions LGBT rights. The 2nd district incumbent David Loebsack also has a pro LGBT track record so our three blue seats seem to be in good hands.

The down side is that the 4th district incumbent Steve King also kept his seat, and he’s a real scumbag. Steve King has co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, believes that “same sex marriage is part of a socialist agenda to undermine ‘the foundations of individual rights and liberties‘” and well, just take a look at his Wikipedia page.

King is an opponent of immigration and multiculturalism. He has stirred controversy by making statements that have been described as racist or racially charged,^[1][2] specifically against Jews,^[3] African Americans^[4] Latinos and immigrants in general,^[2][5][6] as well as by supporting European right-wing populist and far-right politicians accused of racism and Islamophobia.^[7] A short time before the 2018 election, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) withdrew funding for King’s reelection campaign and its Chairman, Steve Stivers, condemned King’s conduct.^[8] The Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to oppose antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, has denounced him and called for him to be censured.^[3] The Washington Post has described King as the “Congressman most openly affiliated with white nationalism.”^[9] He will be the sole House Republican from Iowa in the 116th Congress.

The silver lining is that he only won the election with 50.4% of the vote, this being the lowest lead he’s ever had in this office that he has held since 2002! He is also down 10.8% from his win in 2016 so I find it unlikely he will have this seat for much longer. Just think about this, before this election Iowa was a mostly red state yet if things continue this way then chances are that both Iowa will be fully blue, and that the republicans will also be plenty blue to match.

Kansas

In the Governor election, Democrat Laura Kelly has successfully taken the seat of Republican Jeff Coyler. Considering that Laura Kelly has a decent pro LGBT track record while Coyler has compared abortion to slavery and has refused to put out an executive order to give LGBT people legal protections, it is clear that Laura Kelly will be an immense improvement for the state of Kansas. Of note is that Coyler was only Governor for the remainder of Sam Brownback’s term. Now Brownback… this guy is a fucking nutcase! So one might by wondering why this nutjob left office? Why because good old King Donald has given him the position of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

There were no senate elections in Kansas this year. Going into the 2018 elections all four of Kansas’s house seats were red. Now there are three red seats and one blue seats in the House of Representatives that are from Kansas. The previous seat holder was Kevin Yoder who has a 0% rating from the HRC and is opposed to same sex marriage. He was unseated by Sharice Davids, the first open lesbian AND the first Native American to be elected to congress in Kansas. It is almost guaranteed that Sharice Davids will be an immense improvement over her predecessor.

As for the remaining three representatives, we have…

• Ron Estes who supports defunding Planned Parenthood and is rated 0% by the ACLU.

And two other guys who aren’t that bad by republican standards. It is worth mentioning that Ron Estes doesn’t seem to have any anti LGBT history but nonetheless anyone who supports defunding Planned Parenthood over abortions and putting vulnerable women (some of whom will inevitably by LGBT) at risk needs to be voted out of office.

Roger Marshall is worth noting in that he unseated anti gay Republican congressman Tim Huelskamp in the 2016 GOP primaries so good on him for that. Meanwhile the newly elected Steve Watkins supposedly has “socially liberal” views that include pro LGBT policies, but he hasn’t stated public support for LGBT people. He is still an improvement over the previous representative Lynn Jenkins who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood and voted to NOT enforce anti gay hate crime laws.

Despite Kansas being a red state, things seem to be looking up for LGBT people who live there.

Kentucky

There were no senate elections in Kentucky this year and everyone in the house kept their seats. The one Democratic seat kept his and the five Republicans kept theirs. The 3rd district incumbent John Yarmuth has a pro LGBT track record but let’s take a look at the other five. We have…

• James Comer who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, opposes same sex marriage, supports defining marriage as “one man one woman,” and supports letting businesses “disagree” with same sex marriage.
• Brett Guthrie who voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act and voted against enforcing anti gay hate crime laws.
• Thomas Massie who voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act and believes the state definition of marriage supersedes the federal one.
• Hal Rogers who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, is Rated 7% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC, and voted NO on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes.
• Andy Barr who supports an amendment to the “defense of marriage act,“ was rated 0% by the HRC, and believes that abortion should be illegal including cases of rape and incest.

So yeah, some bad hombres are representing Kentucky. What are the chances we will be rid of them in the future? Well…

• James Comer won with 68.6% of the vote which is down 4% from 2016 so that shows there is an increase in turnout but we will need a lot more to boot him out.
• Brett Guthrie won with 66.7% of the vote which is down a lot since he ran unopposed in 2016 and is down 2.5% from his win in 2014 so we will need a bigger push to get rid of him.
• Thomas Massie won with 62.2% of the vote which is down 9.1% from 2016 so it could be possible to boot him out but we need a bigger push.
• Hal Rogers won with 78.9% of the vote which is a 0.6% increase from 2014 and he ran unopposed in 2016 so it’s going to tough to get him out of the Capitol Building any time soon.
• Andy Barr won with 51% which is down 10.1% from 2016 so he appears to be the weakest link in this equation.

Kentucky seems to have a red stain set in it that will be seriously tough to scrub out. But it could be possible in the coming years, albeit unlikely. It seems that the ones most likely to lose their seats are Andy Barr and Thomas Massie. It’s still a tough road ahead for any LGBT people who live in Kentucky though.

Louisiana

Louisiana is another state where literally nothing changed. There were no senate elections and no one lost their House seat. This means that there are still 5 Republicans and 1 Democrats from Louisiana in the House of Representatives. The one Democrat Cedric Richmond has a pretty solid progressive track record but let’s see where the Republicans fall.

• Steve Scalise has co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Authored constitutional amendment to “protect marriage” (that means he didn’t want gay people to get married), Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act to allow legal discrimination against LGBT people, and voted NO on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes.
• Clay Higgins is opposed to same sex marriage and considers it a “states rights” issue and he defines marriage as “one man one woman.”
• Mike Johnson has sponsored a “religious freedom” bill that would have granted any businesses the freedom to legally discriminate against LGBT people.
• Ralph Abraham has stated that he strongly agrees with the statement “Marriage is a union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition” and that he backs Trump’s ban on transgender people from the military “100%.“
• Garret Graves has claimed he will “fight to defend Louisiana’s (homophobic) definition of marriage,” and respects “faith based opposition to same sex marriage.”

So yeah, they are all pretty scummy. So what are the chances we have of ridding the Capitol Building of these pricks?

• Steve Scalise won with 71.5% of the vote which is down 6% from 2014 and 3.1% from 2016 so there is a definite increase in turnout but we still got a long way to go.
• Clay Higgins won with 55.7% of the vote but the rest of the vote was spread out across about 6 other candidates, one of whom was another Republican. This unfortunately makes it difficult measure the the chances of beating him. It will likely be difficult though.
• Mike Johnson won with 64.2% of the vote which is down 1% from his runoff victory in 2016 so it will require a pretty big push to get him out of the Capitol Building.
• Ralph Abraham won with 66.5% of the vote. This is an improvement over 2016 where he did not have a democratic opponent but is up 1.3% from 2014.
• Garret Graves won with 69.5% of the vote which is a 6.8% increase from 2016 so it looks like this one is going to be tough.

Yep, Louisiana is so red that it should probably be taken to a burn unit. Out of all of the states covered thus far this one seems to be the one putting up the toughest fight. The weakest link seems to be Clay Higgins, but it could potentially be possible albeit unlikely to see a change in the coming years. Keep voting everyone, it may seem like you are outnumbered but keep in mind that many democrats in these states may simply be discouraged from voting at all. Vote in spite of everything!

Maine

Democratic candidate Janet Mills has won the election and will be a definite improvement over Paul LePage who publicly insulted the NAACP and is against gay marriage.

Maine’s senate seat has been successfully held by independent candidate Angus King. Considering that his opponent was Republican candidate Eric Brakey who opposes funding Planned Parenthood and believes transgender bathroom policy should be left up to the local school board so that schools can be free to jeopardize trans students education and well being… It’s safe to say that Maine dodged a bullet there.

 

On the subject of house elections, both house seats are now held by Democrats. Chellie Pingree has successfully held here seat and Jared Golden has taken the seat of former representative Bruce Poliquin who supports barring gay marriage, opposes civil rights for gay people, and prevented an executive order meant to protect gay people from legal discrimination by religious institutions from being upheld. It is almost guaranteed that Jared Golden will be an immense improvement over his predecessor.

Maryland

The current Republican Governor Larry Hogan has unfortunately kept his seat despite the fact that he was anti gay for quite some time, was opposed to a transgender rights bill, and has refused to sign any legal protections for LGBT people into actions.

 

In Maryland’s senate race, Ben Cardin has successfully retained his seat. The House in Maryland has mostly stayed the same. The only change is that David Trone has replaced John Delaney but considering they are both democrats there is unlikely to be too much difference. There are eight House seats from Maryland and 7 of those seats belong to Democrats. The only Republican is Andrew Harris who is your typical conservative homophobe. Andrew Harris won with 60.5% which is down 6.5% from 2016 and 10% from 2014 so we could turn Maryland all blue with enough of a push.

Massachusetts

The Republican Governor Charlie Baker has successfully won re-election in Massachusetts, and that is a good thing considering he is another one of those elusive pro choice and pro LGBT Republicans.

In Massachusetts senate election, Elizabeth Warren has successfully kept her seat. Considering that her primary opponent Geoff Diehl has accused Warren of “wrongfully claiming a minority appointment” and voted against legal protections against discrimination of trans people, it’s safe to say that we dodged a bullet with this one.

 

Prior to the 2018 elections every House seat from Massachusetts was blue and this did not change after the election. Only two of the nine seats changed hands, those being Lori Trahan who took Niki Tsongas’s seat and Ayanna Pressley who took Micheal Capuano’s seat. I can verify that each candidate has a fairly progressive track record and that Massachusetts is unlikely to see any bigots take office, but that will only happen if you keep voting of course.

Michigan

In Michigan’s senate election Debbie Stabenow has retained her seat and has thus kept both of Michigan’s senate seats blue. Considering that her primary opponent John James is opposed to laws protecting LGBTQ from employment discrimination and is a stronger supporter of Mike Pence, we have thankfully averted a disaster by re-electing Debbie Stabenow.

 

Another disaster was also averted when Democrat Gretchen Whitmer has taken Republican Bill Schuette’s spot as Governor of Michigan considering that as attorney general he decided that LGBT people did not have the same rights as “normal people.” It is quite obvious that Gretchen Whitmer will be an immense improvement over her predecessor.

Prior to the elections, there were 4 Blue seats, 9 red seats, and 1 vacant seat in the House from Michigan. After the election we now have have 7 blue seats and 7 red, which means that Republicans no longer have free reign. The vacant seat previously belonged to John Conyers Jr. who resigned in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations. While Conyers was a Democrat, it is nonetheless an immense improvement to not have a sex pest in office and the fact that Rashida Tlaib is also a progressive is just the cherry on top.

The other three newly seated Democrats are Elissa Slotkin, Andy Levin, and Haley Stevens. Andy Levin has taken the seat of the previous 18 term Democratic incumbent Sander Levin who decided that maybe he’s held this office long enough and decided it was time to let someone else take it. No I don’t know if the two Levin’s are related or if the name is just a coincidence.

Ellissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens meanwhile have unseated Republicans Mike Bishop and David Trott. Considering that Mike Bishop is opposed to both same sex marriage and civil unions, respects “faith based” opposition to same sex marriage, and is opposed to affirmative action in colleges and public employment, and that David Trott voted against a bill to prohibit use of federal funds to discriminate against gay or trans people, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and is rated 0% by the HRC, it is almost certain that our new representatives will be a serious improvement. Unfortunately we still have seven Republicans in office, which include…

• Jack Bergman who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, defining traditional marriage as “one man one woman” and supports Trump’s ban of trans people from the military.
• Bill Huizenga who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, voted to protect anti gay hate speech as “free speech” and has strong ties to Mike Pence.
• Justin Amash was a strong supporter of the federal defense of marriage act and voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act.
• John Moolenaar who respects “faith based” opposition to gay people having rights, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and has voted against legal protects for gay and trans people.
• Fred Upton who voted against legal protections regarding employment of gay people, voted to constitutionally define marriage as “one man one woman,” voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage, voted to ban gay adoptions in DC, is rated 13% by the ACLU and 0% by the NRC, and voted to not enforce laws against anti gay hate crimes.
• Tim Walberg who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, voted to constitutionally ban gay marriage, voted to protect anti gay hate speech as “free speech,” and believes the state definition of marriage supersedes the federal one.
• Paul Mitchell who believes that the gay marriage ruling was a “threat to democracy.”

So what chance do the republican reps have for re-election? Well…

• Jack Bergman won with 56.3% of the vote which is a 1.4% increase from 2016 so we will need a push to get him out of office.
• Bill Huizenga won with 55.3% of the vote which is down 7.3% from his win in 2016 so it could be possible to get him out if this rate continues.
• Justin Amash won with 54.4% of the vote which is down 5.1% from 2016 so he may be on his way out if this rate keeps up.
• John Moolenaar won with 62.6% of the vote which is 1% higher than in 2016 and 6.1% higher than in 2014 so obviously less people showed up to vote and we will need a strong push if we need to give him the boot.
• Fred Upton won with 50.2% of the vote which is down 8.4% from 2016 so he could be on his way out if this keeps up.
• Tim Walberg won with 53.8% of the vote which is down 1.3% from 2016 so we need a little more of as push to get him out.
• Paul Mitchell won with 60.3% of the vote which is down 2.8% from 2016 so we will need a pretty big push to unseat him.

Overall some pretty big gains were obtained in Michigan with a Democratic Governor and 2 new Democratic Representatives. I also predict that there will be even greater gains in 2020 Given that some of these Republican Reps are cutting it pretty close. keep voting and we can make it happen!

Minnesota

There was both a normal senate election and a special election in Minnesota this year. Both of the current Democratic incumbents won. Both Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar have progressive track records so it is nice to see that there are less worries there. Additionally Tim Walz has won the Minnesota gubernatorial election so it looks like Minnesota is in good hands in this regard.

The US House Representatives from Minnesota started 2018 out with 5 Democrats and 3 Republicans, this number has not changed. A lot of the seats themselves have been switched around however. The only people that kept their seats were Democrats Betty McCollum and Collin Peterson and Republican Tom Emmer.

The unseated Republicans include Erik Paulsen and Jason Lewis. Considering that Erik Paulsen voted against a bill repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and to deny healthcare to transgender people in the military, and Jason Lewis once compared gay people to rapists and lamented being unable to call women “sluts” anymore, our new Representatives will undoubtedly be a major improvement. Also of note is that Jason Lewis lost to Angie Craig, a queer woman.

On the other hand, the previously mentioned Tim Walz’s seat was taken by Trumpist nutcase Jim Hagedorn. I’ll just quote The Daily Beast on him.

Hagedorn infamously dubbed Washington’s two U.S. senators, both women, “undeserving bimbos in tennis shoes.” He wrote that Harriet Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court was an effort “to fill the bra of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.” He dubbed a former House Republican’s alleged abuse victim, “white trash”; called Indian reservations “casino parlors” and “redistribution of wealth centers”; and suggested that former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) bucked his party on the Iraq War due to his Jewish faith.

In his “Election 2002 Masterpiece Analysis,” Hagedorn wrote: “Good news from Hawaii, Pasty Mink is still dead. Bad news from Hawaii, some other communist will win her congressional seat.” On election night 2008, he predicted that Barack Obama’s victory would usher in mass migration from his “second country” of Kenya.

The remaining two Republicans are Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber. I can’t find anything particular jarring about Stauber but Tom Emmer I will let the Human Rights Campaign speak on.

Emmer has been vocal on a variety of issues revolving LGBT equality. Here are a few examples:

• Emmer donated to the ministry of the radical anti-LGBT Bradlee Dean who believes Muslim countries that execute LGBT people are “more moral than even the American Christians.”
• Emmer said he would not sign anti-bullying legislation to promote safe schools because “I don’t want the government doing that for us.”
• Emmer was named the Minnesota chairman for the anti-equality Faith and Freedom Coalition and headed up efforts in the state on a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.
• Emmer compared marriage equality to incest and bestiality.

Sworn in on January 6, Emmer is one of the worst new members of Congress who has gone out of his way to stop equality for LGBT people across the country.

Extremists like Emmer are more determined than ever to wipe out all the progress we’ve made for the LGBT community.

The good news is that Jim Hagedorn only won with 50.2% of the vote, which is a very low margin and Tom Emmer won with 61.2% of the vote which is a 4.4% decrease from 2016. Additionally it will be unlikely that these two will have any power considering that Dems have the majority in Minnesota. If I had my way these two scumbags would be pelted with rocks and forced to sleep on poison ivy, but voting them out of office works two and won’t get you arrested so be sure to do that.

Mississippi

Mississippi is a crimson red state so there was unfortunately not much in the way of progress. There were two senate elections (both a standard and a special one) and the Republican incumbent won both. This is in spite of Cindy Hyde-Smith’s infamous “public hanging” remarks, and thinks that Planned Parenthood is “one of the worst things that ever happened to us.” She also has a history of homophobia as well. Meanwhile Roger Wicker has voted against legal protections against job discrimination for gay people, voted to constitutionally define marriage as ‘one man one woman,” voted in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage, voted to ban gay adoptions in DC, is rated 7% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

Thankfully Cindy Hyde-Smith won with 53.9% of the vote which is 6% lower than her predecessor. Unfortunately Roger Wicker’s lead has an increase of about 1% from his 2012 victory.

 

In regards to the house elections, the only new person  is Republican Micheal Guest. I cannot find any specific information regarding his stances on civil rights but he ran as a strong supporter of Donald Trump so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that. Even worse is that the one democrat we have is Bennie Thompson, who is one of the unfortunate Democrats who oppose same sex marriage. As for the remaining two, there are Trent Kelly and Steven Palazzo.

Steven Palazzo voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, voted to Protect anti-same-sex marriage opinions as free speech, and voted to have the state definition of marriage supersede the federal one. Trent Kelly has voted to legally protect Religious institution’s ability to discriminate against gay people and he wants to defund Planned Parenthood. As for the shots of booting them out…

• Trent Kelly won with 68.7% of the vote, which is down 3% from his win in the 2015 special election and down 1.3% from his 2016 win, so it’s unlikely he will be unseated any time soon.
• Steven Palazzo won with 69.6% of the vote which is an increase from his 2016 win so he’s unlikely to be seated either.
• Micheal Guest won with 62.7% of the vote which is 0.5% higher than Gregg Harper’s win in 2016, so sadly it looks like he’s here to stay unless we get more turnout.

Thus far Mississippi has been the most depressing state to look at. My heart goes out to any LGBT people living there. My best recommendation is to get the hell out of that state but if you are stuck there and are of age, FUCKING VOTE!!! Reform is inevitable in regards to LGBT rights, it just seems like Mississippi will be in line.

Missouri

It unfortunately seems as if Missouri took an L in this election. The Progressive Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill has instead been unseated by a Trump tier douchebag known as Josh Hawley. This is despite the fact that Josh Hawley has quite infamously blamed human trafficking on “the sexual revolution,“ is against gay marriage, and he believes that Planned Parenthood attempts “to get women in the door by advertising other services, but ultimately they point them towards their abortion services and their illegal activities.”

 

Additionally there were no changes in regards to the House makeup which is not a good thing considering it is mostly red. The two democrats Emmanuel Cleaver and Lacy Clay both have fairly progressive track records and won by large margin but there are unfortunately 6 Republicans to those two. Among them are…

• Ann Wagner who voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, voted to protect anti gay hate speech as “free speech,” and is opposed to same sex marriage.
• Blaine Luetkemeyer who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, and voted NO on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes.
• Samuel Graves who voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and is rated 20% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC.
• Billy Long who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, voted to legally protect anti gay hate speech as free speech, and is opposed to same sex marriage.
• Jason Smith who claimed that the supreme courts ruling on gay marriage “stripped more than a million Missourians of their voice and of their vote by tearing a page out of the Missouri constitution” and urged Attorney General Chris Koster to sue the government over them telling schools to let trans students use the bathroom.
• Vicky Hartzler who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, voted to legally protect anti gay hate speech as free speech, and supports banning same sex marriage.

As for the chances of booting these pricks out of office…

• Ann Wagner has won with 51.3% of the vote, which is down 7.2% from her 2016 win and down 12.8% from her 2014 win so she could very well be on her way out.
• Blaine Luetkemeyer won with 65.1% of the vote, which is down 2.7% from 2016 and 3.2% from 2014 so there is some increased turnout but we need a bigger push to get him out of Capitol Hill.
• Vicky Hartzler won with 64.7% of the vote which is down 3.1% from 2016 and 3.4% from 2014 so she is getting some push back but we still need quite a bit more.
• Sam Graves won with 65.4% of the vote which is down 2.6% from 2016 so there is increased turnout but we still need a lot more.
• Billy Long won with 66.3% of the vote which is down 1.2% from 2016 so we will need a significant increase in turnout to boot him out.
• Jason Smith won with 73.4% of the vote which is down 1% from 2016 so we need some serious push back in order to get him out of Capitol Hill.

It seems like the weakest link is Ann Wagner so I am quite certain she will lose is 2020. Otherwise the ones with the leads that are weakening the most are Blaine Luetkemeyer and Sam Graves but we need a pretty big push to get them out of office. There’s a bit more hope here than in Mississippi though so I am sure it’s possible to take this state back.

Montana

 

Nothing really changed in Montana. There was one senate election and one House election, the incumbents won re-election in both those states. In the case of Jon Tester it is good because his opponent Matt Rosendale is against abortion even in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is in danger and is against gay people even having civil unions,. In the case of Greg Gianforte getting re-elected despite his insistence that LGBT customers don’t get protected from legal discrimination, it is not so good.

Nebraska

Ugh, Nebraska is just a straight forward, “no seats changed and they are all Republicans” state. Senator Deb Fisher won re-election despite the fact that she believes abortion should be banned even in cases of rape and incest, is opposed to same sex marriage, and wants to defund Planned Parenthood, Governor Peter Ricketts won re-election despite the fact that he is opposed to same sex marriage, has urged schools to ignore Obama’s guidance that schools should not single out trans students and prevent them from using the restroom, and has cut off federal aid to Planned Parenthood in Nebraska.

Then there are the representatives which include…

• Jeff Fortenberry who voted NO on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and is rated 25% by the NAACP and 0% by the HRC.
• Don Bacon who supports defunding Planned Parenthood federally and locally, supports letting businesses “disagree” with same sex marriage, opposes same sex marriage, and supports defining marriage as “one man one woman.”
• Adrian Smith who voted NO to enforcing against anti gay hate crimes, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

 

So what are the chances of turning Nebraska blue? Well it should be noted that Deb Fischer won with roughly the same percentage as in 2012 but it should be noted that her lead is 6.7% lower than Ben Sasse’s lead in 2014 so take that as you will. Unfortunately Pete Ricketts is slightly higher this year than he was in 2014 so there isn’t much to observe there. As for the representatives, Don Bacon won with only 51% of the vote which is actually higher than in 2016 so it means that not much has changed but also that this district can go either way. Jeff Fortenbarry won with 60.4% of the vote which is quite a bit but is also down 9.2% from 2016 so hopefully this push keeps up. Adrian Smith won with 76.7% of the vote which is a lot but it’s quite low compared to 2016 where he ran unopposed so there is some improvement. There may not have been much progress this year but keep voting everyone!

Nevada

 

Nevada has had some pretty significant gains this year. Jacky Rosen has unseated the incumbent Dean Heller in the Senatorial election. Considering that Dean Heller voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes and voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Jacky Rosen will most definitely be an improvement. I am also sure that Nebraska’s new governor Steve Sisolak will be an immense improvement over Brian Sandoval who vetoed a bill that would have prevented transgender health discrimination, and supports defunding Planned Parenthood. The only Republican left is Mark Amodei who believes Nevada should restrict marriage to a union only between a man and a woman. Mark Amodei won with 58.2% of the vote which is roughly the same as in 2016 so we may need a bit more of a push to turn Nevada completely blue.

New Hampshire

 

Republican Governor Chris Sununu has successfully won re-election despite the fact that he voted to defund Planned Parenthood (although he went back on it). While he does have a decent pro LGBT track record considering he signed bills that ban discrimination against trans people and also ban conversion therapy, the Planned Parenthood thing is kind concerning. I suppose there could be worse than him though.

Another thing to note is that Chris Pappas has also won election and is New Hampshire’s first openly gay person to be elected to congress. Things seem to be proceeding fairly well in New Hampshire.

New Jersey

In the Senate election, the Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez has won which is a good thing considering his opponent Bob Hugin is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest and was a supporter of Donald Trump. I say “was” with uncertainty because Hugin states that he has changed his mind on a lot of his past views and regrets his anti gay and anti woman history. I know first hand that one can change but it’s also difficult to consider whether or not he really will stand up for women and LGBT people. Regardless, Menendez won so it doesn’t really matter.

New Jersey also made some significant gains in the House. Prior to the election there were 7 Blue seats and 5 Red seats. Now there are 11 Blue seats and only 1 Red seat. The four unseated Republicans are Frank LoBiondo, Tom MacArthur, Leonard Lance, and Rodney Frelinghuysen. Frank LoBiondo has voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, creating a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and on banning gay adoptions in DC, Tom MacArthur is opposed to same sex marriage and believes it should be left to the states so that gay people in red states can’t get married, and Leonard Lance is opposed to same sex marriage and voted against the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Rodney Frelinghuysen does admittedly have a few pro LGBT votes such as voting in favor of ENDA and against the Marriage Protection Amendment, but he also co sponsored and voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, voted against the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

 

Unfortunately it seems as if Frank LoBiondo’s replacement Jeff Van Drew is not much better considering that he voted against the legalization of same sex marriage more than once, did not vote on Prohibit Transgender Discrimination in schools (S3065), and has even received help from anti gay activist groups. Thankfully Andy Kim, Tom Malinowski, Mikie Sherrill are all much need improvements over their predecessors.

The only House Republican from New Jersey still in office is Chris Smith who has co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and is rated 13% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC.

The plus side is that Chris Smith won with 55.4% of the vote, which is down 8.3% from his 2016 win and 12.6% from his 2014 win so he could very well be on his way out. New Jersey has definitely made some significant progress this year and hopefully things continue to look up for the future.

New Mexico

New Mexico’s current senator Martin Heinrich has successfully won re-election. Considering that his primary opponent Mick Rich wants to defund Planned Parenthood, and is suspiciously silent on LGBT rights while both Heinrich and Gary Johnson were openly supportive, it’s probably for the best that he wasn’t elected.

 

Michelle Lujan-Grisham also won the race for Governor of New Mexico and will be the successor to Susana Martinez. Considering that Susan Martinez is opposed to same sex marriage and thinks it should be left to the voters and not the courts (which I don’t think is entirely inaccurate in the sense that we should be trying to get genuine laws passed rather than relying on SCOTUS rulings that can be much more easily overturned, but it’s much more likely that a lot of these politicians just want people to be able to vote against gay marriage and think it’s easier to resist that way), vetoed a bill that would have allowed trans people to amend their birth certificate more easily, and wants to defund Planned Parenthood, Michelle Lujan-Grisham will no doubt be an immense improvement.

In the House elections, all three seats are now held by Democrats thus making New Mexico an entirely blue state. The aforementioned Michelle Lujan-Grisham’s house seat is now in the hands of Debra Haaland who has been endorsed by Equality New Mexico and is the first Native American elected to congress. What is even better is that the seat of Lujan-Grisham’s primary opponent Steve Pearce has been taken by Xochitl Torres Small who was also endorsed by Equality New Mexico.

Considering that Steve Pearce wants to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and is rated 0% by the HRC, it will be nice to know that that Steve Pearce will no longer pierce Capitol Hill with his bigotry.

Some excellent progress has been made with New Mexico, so lets remember to keep voting so we can maintain the state of this state.

New York

New York is a pretty blue state so naturally the Democratic incumbents Kirsten Gillibrand and Andrew Cuomo won the senatorial and gubernatorial elections respectively.

Prior to the 2018 elections, 17 seats were Democratic, 9 were Republican, and 1 was vacant. After the election we now have 21 Blue seats and 6 Red. No Democratic incumbents lost their elections. The Republicans who lost re-election were Dan Donovan, John Faso, and Claudia Tenney.

Dan Donovan has voted to defund Planned Parenthood and voted against an amendment that would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It is of note that Dan Donovan has also been widely criticized for poorly handling the case of prosecuting the police officer who murdered Eric Garner and his support of Donald Trump. It goes without saying that Max Rose will be an immense Improvement.

John Faso wants to defund Planned Parenthood and has mostly been vague on LGBT rights. Considering that he said he is he is “comfortable with where we are” in regards to LGBT rights so that kind of indicates that he won’t be very reliable in that regard considering that most of us AREN’T comfortable with the state of LGBT rights in this country and think they need serious improvement. Claudia Tenney also wants to defund Planned Parenthood, supports “first amendment disagreement” with gay rights, and opposes equal marriage rights for same sex couples so it’s probably good that she’s gone as well.

 

The new Democrats elected are Max Rose, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Antonio Delgado, Anthony Brindisi, and Joseph Morelle. All of them seem to have fairly solid track records but it would be remiss of me not to make mention of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I do think enough has already been said of her but it is just so awesome that she made as much of a splash as she has. Seriously, this woman has over 1 million followers on Twitter when most representatives tend to have less Twitter followers than I do! I’ve also checked and can confirm that each of the current Democrats from New York in the House are also pro LGBT. As for the remaining Republicans, we have…

• Lee Zeldin who supports barring same sex marriage, opposes civil rights for gay people, cosponsored a bill that would allow for legal discrimination against gay people, and agreed with Trump reversing Obama’s guidelines on letting trans students use the bathroom and his ban on trans people from the military.
• Peter King who Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, and is rated 14% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC.
•  Elise Stefanik who voted in favor of an anti LGBT provision in the NDAA, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Thomas Reed who cosponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood (But admittedly has a decent pro LGBT record).
• John Katko who thinks same sex marriage should be “left to the states” and voted to defund Planned Parenthood four times.

So what are the chances of unseating these guys?

• Lee Zeldin won with 52.5% of the vote which is down 5.7% from 2016 so he could be on his way out soon.
• Peter King won with 53.3% of the vote which is down 8.8% and is the lowest lead he’s had since 2006 so he could be on the way out soon.
• Elise Stefanik won with 56.7% of the vote which is down 8.6% from 2016 so she could also be getting the boot if this keeps up.
• Thomas Reed won with 55% of the vote which is down 2.6% from 2016 so we will need a bit more of a push if we want to get him out of office.
• John Katko won with 53.1% of the vote which is down 7.5% from 2016 so he may also be on the way out.

New York is definitely a state that is making excellent progress in regard to civil rights. Let’s keep it up and vote those last five fuckers out of office in 2020!

North Carolina

*Sigh*

Nothing changed in North Carolina. There were no senate or governor elections and every representative, Democrat or Republican, kept their seat with one exception that did not result in a change of party. Considering that only 3 of the 13 reps are Democrats this is not a good thing. The three democrats are G.K. Butterfield, David Price, and Alma Adams, each of which have a decent progressive track record. As for the Republicans, you have…

• George Holding who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, is opposed to same sex marriage, respects “faith based opposition” to same sex marriage, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and voted against legal protections for LGBT and Native American individuals.
• Walter Beaman Jones who cosponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, and is rated 7% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC.
• Virginia Foxx who cosponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, is rated 19% by the NAACP and 0% by the HRC.
• Mark Walker who signed “Respecting Faith Based Opposition to Same Sex Marriage,” believes the government has no authority to change the definition of marriage from “one man one woman,” voted against a bill that would have prohibited the use of government funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity,  and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• David Rouzer who signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, is opposed to same sex marriage, claimed that the supreme court ruling on same sex marriage was against the will of the founding fathers and created “a slippery slope of shifting sand,” voted for and cosigned a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and voted against House Amendment 1079 which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Richard Hudson who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, cosponsored the co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, voted against House Amendment 1079 which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood,
• Mark Harris who literally wants homosexuality to be illegal again and believes homosexuality is a choice.
• Patrick McHenry who cosponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and voted NO on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes.
• Mark Meadows who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and played a key role in Trumps’ transgender military ban.
• Ted Budd who is dedicated to “defending marriage as an institution of one man and one woman“ and supports defunding Planned Parenthood.

 

So what are the chances of getting these fuckheads out of office in the future then? Well…

• George Holding won with 51.4% of the vote which is down 5.3% from 2016 and 5.9% from 2014 so he could be on his way out at this rate.
• Walter Jones ran unopposed this year so it will require a significant push to get him out of office.
• Virginia Foxx won with 57.2% of the vote which is down 1.2% from 2016 and 3.8% from 2014 so we may need a bit more of a push to get her out of office.
• Mark Walker won with 56.6% of the vote which is down 2.6% from 2016 so we may need a bit more of a push to put him on the walkway out of Captiol Hill.
• David Rouzer won with 55.6% of the vote which is down 5.3% from 2016 so he may be on the way out if this rate keeps up.
  
• Richard Hudson won with 55.4% of the vote which is down 3.4% from 2016 and 9.5% from 2014 so he could also be on the way out at this rate.
• Mark Harris won with 49.3% of the vote which is down 8.9% from Robert Pittenger’s win in 2016 so it’s unlikely he will keep this seat for more than one term as long as you keep showing up to vote.
• Patrick McHenry won with 59.3% of the vote which is down 3.8% from 2016 so there is definitely some pushback but we need more in order to take his seat.
• Mark Meadows won with 59.2% of the vote which is down 4.9% from 2016 so we still need higher turnout but we’re getting closer.
• Ted Budd won with 51.6% of the vote which is down 4.5% from 2016 so he could be on the way out.

North Carolina may not have gained any Blue seats this year, but it is clear that the Republicans are getting some pretty big pushback and some were cutting it pretty close. The weakest links seem to be Mark Harris, Ted Budd, and George Holding. Richard Hudson seems like the next one after those three and thus the one to wrestle majority  control from. Either way, keep voting everyone!

North Dakota

North Dakota has not exactly had much change. I’d be tempted to say that North Dakota took a loss since the Democratic senator Heidi Heitkamp lost the election to Republican Kevin Cramer, but considering that Heidi Heitkamp believes same sex marriage should be left to the states and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, I can’t say we lost much. Unfortunately Kevin Cramer is no better considering that he the co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, co-sponsored the State Marriage Defense Act, signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, and sought the support of an anti gay hate group that advocates conversion therapy and compares gay people to pedophiles. Even though Heidi Heitkamp wasn’t all that great, she likely would have been better than this prick.

 

Additionally Kevin Cramer’s seat in the House was taken by Kelly Armstrong who voted against legal protections for gay people more than once. Kelly Armstrong won with 60.3% of the vote, which is down significantly from 2016 where he ran unopposed but it also shows that it’s going to be tough to take his seat as well. Keep voting though as it is clear that there is some pushback against Republicans here as well.

Ohio

Ohio has not had much change unfortunately. The Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown has won re-election which is good since his primary opponent Jim Renacci co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood and is opposed to same sex marriage. Unfortunately Republican candidate Mike DeWine won the race for Governor despite the fact that voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage, NO on adding sexual orientation to the definition of hate crimes, voted to constitutionally define marriage as “one man one woman,” and believes abortion should be illegal in cases of rape and incest. It should be noted that Mike DeWine only won with 50.7% of the vote which is 12.9% lower than John Kasich’s lead in 2014.

 

The only new representative in Ohio this year is Republican Anthony Gonzalez who has been quiet on LGBT rights and thus may be an improvement over his predecessor Jim Renacci. Otherwise every incumbent kept their seat. The Democratic incumbents Joyce Beatty, Marcy Kaptur, Marcia Fudge, and Marcia Fudge all seem to have fairly decent progressive track records. As for the Republicans we have…

• Steve Chabot who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage, is rated 7% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC, and voted against a bill to prohibit use of funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Brad Wenstrup who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, voted against a bill to prohibit use of funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
  
• Jim Jordan who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act.
• Bob Latta who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act.
• Bill Johnson who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and co-sponsored the State Marriage Defense Act.
• Bob Gibbs who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and voted against a bill to Prohibits Use of Funds for Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.
• Warren Davidson who supports defunding Planned Parenthood, supports letting business’s “disagree” with same sex marriage, signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, and believes allowing gay people to get married is not allowing business “to practice their faith without big brother watching over their shoulders.”
• Mike Turner who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and is rated 0% by the HRC.
• David Joyce who voted against a bill to Prohibits Use of Funds for Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity and co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Stave Stivers who also voted against a bill to Prohibits Use of Funds for Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity and co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.

Also worth mentioning that I couldn’t find anything on Troy Balderson on these issues but he apparently supports Trump so take that as you will. Anyway as for the odds of getting these fuckers out of office…

• Steve Chabot won with 51.8% of the vote which is down 7.4% from 2016 and 11.4% from 2014 so he may be on the way out.
• Brad Wenstrup won with 57.8% of the vote which is down 7.2% from 2016 and 8.2% from 2014 so he’s definitely getting some pushback but we may need a bit more.
• Jim Jordan won with 65.4% of the vote which is down 2.6% from 2016 so we will definitely need higher turnout to get him off of office.
• Bob Latta won with 62.5% of the vote which is down 8.4% from 2016 so there is a definite increase in turnout but we will still need more to give him the boot.
• Bill Johnson won with 69.3% of the vote which is down 1.4% from 2016 so we need a pretty big push to boot him out of office.
• Bob Gibbs won with 58.9% of the vote which is down 5.1% from 2016 so we are getting there but still need more.
  
• Warren Davidson won with 66.8% of the vote which is down 2% from 2016 so we still need a pretty big push here.
• Mike Turner won with 56.2% of the vote which is down 7.9% from 2016 and 9% from 2014 so he could be on his way out if things continue at this rate.
• David Joyce won with 55.4% of the vote which is down 7.2% from 2016 so he could be on the way out at this rate.
• Steve Stivers won with 58.5% of the vote which is down 7.7% from 2016 so we just need a little bit more before he is on his way out.

Well that’s Ohio for you. Not much in terms of actual results but a lot of them were cutting it pretty close and things could definitely change in the coming years. Keep voting folks!

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma gubernatorial race was won by Republican candidate Kevin Stitt despite the fact that he supports a bill that will allow adoption agencies to disallow gay parents and is a fucking anti-vaxxer. The latter one isn’t related but by God is that fucking stupid. I seriously hope the people who voted for this idiot didn’t know about the latter part. If you are an anti-vaxxer then not only are you an idiot, but your also a murderer if/when any of your kids get sick. You sick pricks can go to Hell!

 

Democrat Kendra Horn has thankfully unseated Republican Steve Russell. Considering that Steve Russell believes that “Marriage is a union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition,” signed signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, voted against an amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood, it is no doubt that Kendra Horn will be an immense improvement. The only other new representative is Republican Kevin Hern who I can’t seem to find much on. The three Republican incumbents include…

• Markwayne Mullin who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, voted against an amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, voted in favor of an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Frank Lucas who Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, voted in favor of an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Tom Cole who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes.

So what are the chances of getting these three douchebags out of the white house in 2020? Well…

• Markwayne Mullin won with 65% of the vote which is down 5.6% from 2016 so there’s definitely some pushback but we need quite a bit more to get rid of him.
• Frank Lucas won with 73.9% of the vote which is down 4.4% from 2016 so he’s getting some pushback as well but will need a lot more to give him the boot.
• Tom Cole won with 63.1% of the vote which is down 6.5% from 2016 so he’s getting some pushback as well, but still has a pretty big lead.

It is also worth noting that Steve Russell won with 57.1% of the vote in 2016 so his drop in votes was pretty similar to the rest of the guys here. Hopefully this trend continues and we get rid of the three douchebags currently in office, and Kevin Hern if he does anything shitty.

Oregon

Oregon’s democratic and progressive Governor Kate Brown has successfully won re-election, although it is worth mentioning that her Republican opponent Knute Buehler  voted in favor of banning conversion therapy for minors so it’s good to see more pro LGBT Republicans.

 

No house seats have changed hands this year which is good considering four of the five seats from Oregon are progressive and Democratic. The one Republican is Greg Walden who Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, and is rated 25% by the HRC and 13% by the ACLU. Greg Walden won with 56.6% of the vote which is down a whopping 15.1% from 2016 so there’s a good chance he could be on his way out next election if this rate continues.

Oregon seems to thankfully be doing well in this regard as not only are most seats blue but even the Republicans seem less shitty than in other states, even Greg Walden has at least voted in favor of prohibiting job discrimination against gay people. That does not justify the other shit he did but it’s at least a step up from some of the other shitheads covered in this piece. We can definitely do better than him though.

Pennsylvania

And here we are. We have finally got to the section of this piece where I get to talk about my home state. Granted I never bothered to look too deeply into elections on the state level until now so most of this is just as new to me as it is to any of you. In the senate election, Democratic incumbent Bob Casey has won re-election which is good because he has a pretty solid progressive record despite being more of a moderate centrist type. He’s definitely a hell of a lot better than his primary opponent Lou Barletta who voted to defund Planned Parenthood and against a bill to prohibit the use of government funds to discriminate against gay and trans people

Democratic governor Tom Wolf has also won re-election which is good considering his primary opponent Scott Wagner thinks trans women should use the men’s bathroom and said he would consider a bill to make same sex marriage illegal in Pennsylvania (although he has been frequently flip flopping on both those subjects).

 

Prior to the 2018 elections there 6 Blue seats, 10 Red Seats, and 2 vacant seats from Pennsylvania. After the elections there are now 9 Blue seats and 9 Red seats which means it will be much harder for Republicans to get the majority vote. Our new representatives are Democrats Mary Scanlon, Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, and Susan Wild as well as Republicans Dan Meuser, John Joyce, and Guy Reschenthaler.

Given that the Pennsylvania district maps were redrawn this year since it was determined that the old maps constituted an illegal partisan gerrymander, comparing the results of this year’s election to previous years may be a bit tricky. This also could very well explain the reason for some of the results. For those that want the details you can read about it here but the short version is that this changed a lot of shit up so it’s harder to measure progress this way.

Also worth mentioning that four representatives that were elected in 2016 did not seek re-election. These six were Democrat Robert Brady and Republicans Bill Shuster, Lou Barletta, and Ryan Costello. Additionally Republicans Charlie Dent and Patrick Meehan have resigned prior to the elections. Republican Keith Rothfus also did not win re-election so that makes 7 who are not returning.

I already talked about Lou Barletta but let’s look at the other six. Robert Brady seems to have a pretty decent pro LGBT track record so he will be missed. Charlie Dent has mixed records in that he voted against defunding Planned parenthood and in favor of prohibiting government funds for use of discrimination against trans and gay people, but has also voted against the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell and to ban gay marriage. Charlie Dent has often been derided by hardline conservatives with the “RINO” pejorative (which more often than not is used as code for “Republican with a moral conscience) and celebrated his resignation, but because karma is a bitch his replacement was Democrat Susan Wild.

Patrick Meehan on the other hand has resigned due to it being made public that he used taxpayer’s money to settle a sexual harassment allegation. Also he voted to defund Planned Parenthood if the sexual harassment wasn’t enough scuminess for one person, so he won’t be missed. Bill Shuster has co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and is rated 15% by the ACLU and 0% by the HRC so he won’t be missed either.

Ryan Costello has voted to defund Planned Parenthood and voted in favor of an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing so he won’t be missed. Keith Rothfus has voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, has pledged to “vote to protect the institution of marriage as being between one man and one woman,” and co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act and the State Marriage Defense Act so he definitely won’t be missed.

All four of the democratic women who have been elected are pro LGBT and have progressive track records thankfully enough. I cannot find any statements from Dan Meuser on LGBT rights but he has stated that “I believe Planned Parenthood is out of control and should be defunded” so that’s not a good sign. Guy Reschenthaler praised a book by Carl Higbie who has said a lot of nasty shit about LGBT+ people, black people, Puerto Rican people, Muslims, and hurricane Katrina survivors but he also pulled a Pewdiepie and said he was not aware of him saying this shit. I can’t really find any info on John Joyce so there is not much to comment on.

All of the Democratic incumbents have pro LGBT track records as far as I can find (although Mike Doyle is rated a mere 57% by the ACLU which is odd considering the NAACP rated him 97% and the HRC 100%), but lets take a look at the Republicans who won re-election.

• Brian Fitzpatrick who…

…wait a minute… he’s actually pretty cool. Also worth noting that he got more votes in his district than either of the Republican candidates for Governor and Senate so it’s good to see that for once a Republican candidate is actually rewarded for doing the right thing. Anyway back to the shitbags.

• Scott Perry who voted to remove protections for Native Americans and LGBT individuals, voted against a bill that would have made it easier to file class action lawsuits based on a pattern of racial discrimination in employment, voted against the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal funding to law enforcement agencies that engage in demographic profiling in violation of the DOJ guidance.
• Lloyd Smucker who voted in favor of Rescinding CFPB rule that extended anti-discrimination protections to auto loans, is opposed to same sex marriage, and supports defunding Planned Parenthood.
• Tom Marino who voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, is in favor of an amendment banning same sex marriage, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, voted to remove protections for Native Americans and LGBT individuals, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against gay or trans people, voted in favor of Rescinding CFPB rule that extended anti-discrimination protections to auto loans, and voted in favor of an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing.
• Glenn Thompson who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, voted against a bill that would have made it easier to file class action lawsuits based on a pattern of racial discrimination in employment, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against gay or trans people.
• Mike Kelly who voted to remove protections for Native Americans and LGBT individuals, voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against gay or trans people, voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and voted against an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing.

So what are the odds of getting these pricks out of office? Well

• Dan Meuser won with 59.9% of the vote which doesn’t have much to compare to due to the district change so it’s uncertain whether or not he will still be here in the future.
• Scott Perry won with 51.4% of the vote which is down 14.7% from 2016 and 23.1% from 2014 so the new map definitely gives him less of a chance at re-election, which means he could be on his way out in the future.
• Lloyd Smucker won with 58.6% of the vote which is actually higher than 2016 so it may be harder to give him the boot in the coming years.
• Tom Marino won with 66.2% of the vote which is down 4.2% from 2016 so we need a much bigger push to get him out of office.
• Glenn Thompson won with 67.9% of the vote which is slightly higher than his win in 2016 so we need a pretty big push to give him the boot.
• Mike Kelly won with 51.5% of the vote which is a 48.5% decrease from 2016 where  he ran unopposed and a 9.1% decrease from 2014 so he could be on his way out in the coming years.

So yeah, my home state has definitely come through for me and the rest of the LGBT population of Pennsylvania. I can’t imagine Scott Perry and Mike Kelly staying around for too long so Democrats may take the majority in 2020 as well. Things are looking up it seems.

Rhode Island

 

Not much to really say here. There was a senatorial election, a gubernatorial election, and two house elections. All four of them were blue going into 2018 and still are afterwards. Sheldon Whitehouse is still a senator, Gina Raimondo is still governor, and David Cicilline and James Langevin are still representatives. And yes all of them seem to have fairly good pro LGBT track records as well. So I guess we’ll just move on.

South Carolina

South Carolina governor Henry McMaster has successfully won re-election despite the fact that he is in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood and believes legal discrimation against LGBT people is okay as long as the people doing so say God said they can, but I will give credit in that he said that anti trans bathroom bills are unnecessary in South Carolina so I guess that is something.

 

Going into 2018 there were 6 Red seats and 1 Blue seat. Now that majority has shrunk slightly because there are 5 Red seats and 2 Blue seats. The new Democratic seat belongs to Joe Cunningham who has been endorsed by the SC Equality Coalition and will undoubtedly be an immense improvement over his anti gay homophobic predecessor Mark Sanford. As for the remaining Republicans we have…

• Joe Wilson who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes.
• Jeff Duncan who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act.
• William Timmons who supports defunding Planned Parenthood and opposes same-sex marriage on “religious grounds.“
• Ralph Norman who made a joke about Ruth Bader Ginsberg being sexually assaulted while also mocking her age and responded by telling anyone who was offended to “lighten up,” and supports President Pussygrabber’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.
• Tom Rice who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and voted to to remove protections for Native Americans and LGBT individuals.

So what are the chances of seeing these jackasses get the boot in the coming years?

• Joe Wilson won with 56.3% of the vote which is down 3.9% from 2016 and 6.1% from 2014 so he could be getting the boot if there’s enough of a push.
• Jeff Duncan won with 67.8% of the vote which is down 5% from 2016 so there is some pushback but we need a lot more to get him out of office.
• William Timmons won with 59.6% of the vote which is down 7.6% from Trey Gowdy’s win in 2016 and down a whopping 25.2% from his win in 2014 so some significant progress has been made but we will still need more.
• Ralph Norman won with 57.1% which is down 42.9% from 2016 where he ran unopposed and is down 16.2% from his win in 2014 so he could be on the way out if this rate continues.
• Tom Rice won with 59.6% of the vote which is down 1.4% from 2016 so it’s going to be a bit harder to get him out of congress.

So there has been some decent progress this year. The weakest links seem to be Joe Wilson, William Timmons, and Ralph Norman so if the Democrats are to take majority it will most likely be through their seats. Anyway here’s to hoping we get more non homophobes in this state!

South Dakota

In the race for Governor, Kristi Noem has won despite the fact that she voted against a bill to prohibit use of federal funds to discriminate against LGBT people, co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and voted NO on reauthorizing the violence against women act. On the plus side, Kristi Noem won with 51% of the vote which marks a significant decrease from her predecessor Dennis Daugaard’s 2014 win where he carried 70.5% of the vote so there’s definitely a stronger Democratic presence.

 

Taking Kristi Noem’s place for South Dakota’s sole representative is Republican Dusty Johnson who I can’t find any info on regarding LGBT rights or Planned Parenthood (although he has made his pro life views well known, we don’t know for sure if that carries over to Planned Parenthood). There isn’t much else to talk about here because these were the only two elections.

Tennessee

In the election for senate, Marsha Blackburn will be replacing Bob Corker despite the fact that she co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage, co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and is an overall homophobic piece of shit. The plus side is that she won with 54.7% of the vote which is a 7.2% decrease from Lamar Alexander’s win in 2014 and a 10.2% decrease from Bob Corker’s win in 2012, which means more people are showing up to vote blue. Hopefully this means Tennessee will elect a progressive senator in 2020.

 

Republican Bill Lee has also been elected Governor of Tennessee despite the fact that he believes “marriage is between a man and a woman” and stated that “there are two sexes: female and male.” and “most education issues are best decided at the local level,” which basically means he thinks it’s okay for schools to legally discriminate against trans kids, and wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Bill Lee won the election with 59.6% of the vote which is an 11.1% decrease from his predecessor Bill Haslam’s win in 2014, which further confirms my hypothesis that more people are turning blue in Tennessee.

Prior to the 2018 elections there were 7 Red seats from Tennessee and 2 Blue seats. This did not change this year. Even worse is that one of the two blue seats is held by Jim Cooper who Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman and on a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. Thankfully the other Democrat Steve Cohen has a much better progressive track record. As for our Republicans we have…

• Phil Roe who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, is “philosophically and morally opposed to gay marriage,” co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes.
• Tim Burchett who responded to Obama’s guidelines to allow trans students to use the restroom by saying “If I see a man dressed up as a woman going into her bathroom, I have a real problem with it,” tweeted that he “needed to get his nephew some tats and a criminal record so UT would be interested” during a university football game, and wants to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Chuck Fleischman who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, and supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
• Scott Desjarlais who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored the State Marriage Defense Act, and supports and amendment to ban gay marriage and is PROUD OF IT!
• John Rose who admittedly hasn’t said much in regards to LGBT rights but wants to defund Planned Parenthood so he needs to go to.
• Mark Green who claimed that “Mr. Obama supports transvestites in uniform but you can not have a bible on your desk, saying it disrupts good order in the military” in response to then President Obama advocating for LGBT service members, said that psychiatrists call “transgender a disease” and hinted that Tennessee should defy the Supreme Court and block same-sex marriages.
• David Kustoff who Supports defunding Planned Parenthood federally & locally, supports letting businesses “disagree” with same sex marriage, and is oppossed to same sex marriage and believes marriage is “one man one woman” only.

So yes, Tennessee Republicans are total shitheads top to bottom, but where  are the chances of booting these circus clowns out of office?

• Phil Roe won with 77.1% of the vote which is down 1.3% from 2016 and 5.7% down from 2014 so there is some pushback but we need a fuck ton more to get rid of this douchebag.
• Tim Burchett won with 65.8% of the vote which is down which is down 9.8% from John Duncan’s win in 2016 so we could see that lead decrease even more if this keeps up.
• Chuck Fleischman won with 63.7% of the vote which is down 2.7% from 2016 so there is some pushback but we need quite a bit more to get rid of this asshole.
• Scott DesJarlais won with 63.4% of the vote which is down 1.3% from 2016 so we need a much stronger push if we want to get him out of office.
• John Rose won with 69.5% of the vote which is down 1.6% from 2016 so we need a significantly stronger push to get him out of office.
• Mark Green won with 66.8% of the vote which is down 5.4% from Marcha Blackburn’s win in 2016 so the lead is weakening a bit but we still need a larger amount.
• David Kustoff won with 67.6% of the vote which is down 1.2% from 2016 so we’re going to need a lot more votes to unseat him.

Yeah, Tenessee is blood red all right. If I had to pick the three weakest links to go after, they would likely be Mark Green and Tim Burchett due to their decrease from previous years and Scott DesJarllais due to the lowest percentage. Keep voting everyone!

Texas

Oh yes, here we are at Texas. The butt end of every redneck joke in the country even though there are worse states in this regard. It has what is perhaps the most well publicized election of this year as well. Unfortunately Texas has re-elected the Zodiac Killer back into the senate so we are stuck with him for another six years.

Jokes aside, it is commendable just how much of a fight Beto O’Rourke put up against Ted Cruz. Not only did he manage 48.3% of the vote in a red state, but he also managed it against a well known presidential candidate who has had a lot of publicity in recent years. For comparisons sake, Ted Cruz won with 56.5% of the vote in 2012 and 50.9 this year. That is a 5.6% decrease in an election that has had 7,864,822 total votes in 2012 and 8,323,954 total votes in 2018. The percentage decrease is even lower if you compare it to John Cornyn’s 61.6% lead in 2014 which would be a 10.7% decrease. Hopefully a decent portion of those Beto voters return to vote out Cornyn is 2020.

And in case anyone needs a reminder why Lying Ted is a douchebag, he believes Planned Parenthood is selling human body parts and threatened them with criminal investigations, claimed that allowing gay marriage “undermines the constitution,” voted NO on re-authorizing the violence against women act, responded to being asked about North Carolina’s bathroom law was “If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he still can’t go to the girl’s bathroom,” ran ads portraying trans women as sexual predators and pedophiles, and even attempted to put out a conspiracy theory of Melania Trump being a trans woman because he was pissed about losing the primaries to her husband. “Beautiful Ted” my fat ass! And we have six more years of this fart huffing little shithead? Okay I take it back, Texas IS as bad as the other red states! In fact…

If the Zodiac Killer wasn’t a big enough shithead for you Texas’s douchebag governor Gregg Abbott was re-elected despite the fact that he has signed laws allowing Pastors and Adoption agencies to legally discriminate against LGBT people, attempted to pass an anti trans bathroom bill similar to North Carolina’s infamous disaster, and ran a highly homophobic ad against his openly lesbian opponent Lupe Valdez. The plus side is that he won with 55.8% of the vote which is down 3.5% from 2014, so more people are in fact getting sick of this asshole.

Then there is the subject of the House. Prior to the 2018 elections, there were 11 Blue seats, 24 Red seats, and 1 vacant seat. After the election there is now 13 Blue seats and 23 Red seats. While it may not seem like much for the state as a whole, let us remember that there are some states that don’t even have two house seats so every little bit counts. But I suppose I should check to make sure none of those Blue seats are DINOs. Oh looks like we do! It’s Henry Cuellar who voted to constitutionally define marriage as “one man one woman“ and voted to defund Planned Parenthood! Granted he still has a better voting record on progressive issues than most Republicans do but we can do SO much better.

Anyway lets take a look at our new Democrats, those being Lizzie Fletcher, Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia, and Colin Allred. Veronica Escobar is taking the seat of the previously mentioned Beto O’Rourke and Sylvia Garcia is taking the seat of Gene Green. Lizzie Fletcher and Colin Allred on the other hand have successfully unseated two Republicans. One of those Republicans was John Culberson who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, and Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. The other was Pete Sessions who did most of the same stuff as John Culberson so I will just save time and tell you he sucks to. Lizzie Fletcher and Colin Allred will no doubt be an immense improvement over them.

And now it’s time for the long list of House Republicans from Texas who have done shitty things. We have…

• Louie Gohmert who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and is rated 19% by the NAACP and 0% by the HRC.
• Dan Crenshaw who has done a decent job at not addressing LGBT rights directly but has a section on his “issues” page on “religious freedom” and “free speech” that read exactly as you expect and are clearly euphemisms.
• Van Taylor who responded to a bill that would allow legal discrimination in adoption towards LGBT parents with “a parent has a right to raise their child in the religion they see fit.” *Cough* cultist *cough*.
• John Ratcliffe who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, voted against an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing, and believes that schools should have free reign to legally discriminate against transgender children.
• Lance Gooden is yet another newly elected Republican who is quiet about LGBT rights but sneaks around common euphemisms used to undermine gay rights. In particular he condemns the Supreme Court ruling on Same sex marriage for “federal overreach.” While I agree that there should be a stronger focus on actual legislation for things like same sex marriage and abortion, the fact that this specific example is cited is rather suspicious. Also he voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Ron Wright who says on his campaign page that he “has long fought against government support of Planned Parenthood,” but admittedly hasn’t done anything else that shitty that I’m aware of.
• Kevin Brady who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, and is rated 19% by the NAACP, 7% by the ACLU, and 0% by the HRC.
• Michael McCaul who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, and is rated 28% by the NAACP and 0% by the HRC.
• Mike Conway who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, co-sponsored the….. I’m getting a bit of a deja vu vibe here.
• Kay Granger who Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC… you get the idea.
• Mac Thornberry who Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC… *sigh*
• Randy Weber who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, is opposed to anti discrimination laws against gay or trans people, and sponsored State Marriage Defense Act.
• Bill Flores who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women, co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, and supports and amendment to ban same sex marriage.
• Jodey Arrington who supports defunding Planned Parenthood federally and locally, Supports letting businesses “disagree” with same-sex marriage, and is opposed to same sex marriage.
• Chip Roy who has claimed that Planned Parenthood dumps the remains of babies into plastic bags and puts them in the garbage, and he seems to have stayed silent on LGBT matters but considering he worked for Ted Cruz he can’t be good.
• Pete Olson who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act… *yawn*
• Will Hurd who signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, opposes civil rights for gay people, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Kenny Marchant who co-sponsored a bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally-HE’S A FUCKING HOMOPHOBE OKAY!!!!!!!
• Roger Williams who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, and pledged to “prevent the encroachment of ‘gay marriage.'”
• Michael Burgess who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, and voted YES to being a homphobic shit sniffer!
• Micheal Cloud who… oh I can’t find anything on him, I guess he’s good to go.
• John Carter who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, and is rated 17% by the NAACP and 0% by the HRC. See, I am still very much capable of writing the whole thing out.
• Brain Babin who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, voted against an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing, voted against an Amendment to exclude violations of the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act from a bill curtailing class actions, and HOLY SHIT IT’S FINALLY DONE!!!

So *pant pant* what are the chances *panting* of us voting *pant panting* these idiots out of *Pant* office?

Please don’t make me write all these out again?

…

…

…

• Louie Gohmert won with 72.3% of the vote which is down 1.6% from 2016 so… you know.
  
• Dan Crenshaw won with 52.9% of the vote which is down 7.7% from Ted Poe’s win in 2016 so this could be either the thing with moderate Republicans being less favored by the Republican electorate or that more people showed up to vote in this district. Oh wait I’m supposed to be out of breath.
• Van Taylor won with 54.3% of the vote which is down 6.9% from Sam Johnson’s win in 2016 so hopefully this trend can keep up and make Van Taylor go the way of Van Gogh.
• John Ratcliffe won with 75.7% of the vote which is down by 12.3% from his win in 2016 so it’s an increase but still very fucking high!
• Lance Gooden won with 62.5% of the vote which is down 18.1% from Jeb Hensarling’s win in 2016 and 22.9% from his win in 2014 so progress is being made.
• Ron Wright won with 53.1% of the vote which is down 5.2% from Joe Barton’s win in 2016 so progress is being made and Ron Wright could be right on  his way out in the coming years.
• Kevin Brady won with 73.5% of the vote which is down 26.5% from 2016 because Brady ran unopposed that year. So there is some progress but we need a lot more.
• Michael McCaul won with 50.9% of the vote which is down 6.4% from his win in 2014 and 11.3% from his win in 2014 so he may be on the way out.
• Mike Conaway won with 80.2% of the vote which is down 9.3% from his win in 2016 so there is pushback but we need a fuckton more of it.
• Kay Granger won with 64.3% of the vote which is 5.1% down from her win in 2016 so progress is being made but we still need quite a bit more.
• Mac Thornberry won with 81.6% of the vote which is down 8.4% from his win in 2016 but we still need a fuckton more votes to see the end of this douche.
• Randy Weber won with 59.3% of the vote which is down 2.6% from 2016 so we need a bigger push to give him the boot.
• Bill Flores won with 56.9% of the vote which is down 3.9% from his win in 2016 and 7.7% from his win in 2014 so  he could be on his way out if this rate continues.
• Jodey Arrington won with 75.3% of the vote which is down 11.4% from his win in 2016 so we still need a fuckton more pushback yada yada.
• Chip Roy won with 50.3% of the vote which is down 6.7% from Lamar Smith’s win in 2016 which means that in the future we will likely turn Chip Roy into Chips Ahoy.
• Pete Olsen won with 51.4% of the vote which is down 8.1% from his win in 2016 and 15.1% down from 2014 so he may be on the way out in the coming years.
• Will Hurd won with a mere 49.2% of the vote which is… actually up a little from his win in 2016 so this district can go either way it seems.
• Kenny Marchant won with 50.7% of the vote which is down 5.5% from his win in 2016 and 14.3% from his 2014 win so his odds of keeping his seat in the coming years are starting to resemble those of another famous Kenny who has a habit of dying a lot.
• Roger Williams won with 53.6% of the vote which is down 4.7% from his win in 2016 and 6.6% from his win in 2014 so his chances of keeping his seat are getting slimmer.
• Michael Burgess won with 59.4 which is down 7% from his win in 2016 23.2% from his win in 2014 so we just need a little more pushback to give him the boot.
• John Carter won with 50.6% of the vote which is down 7.8% from his win in 2016 and 13.4% from his win in 2014 so he may be carted out if this keeps up into the next election.
• Brian Babin won with 72.6% of the vote which is down 16% from his win in 2016 so there is some significant pushback but hopefully we see a lot more of it in the coming years.

So after the depressing shit show that was Ted Cruz and Gregg Abbott getting re-elected, we still have a some good news in that we unseated a few homophobes and a lot of them are cutting it pretty close even here. The weakest links in this state seem to be Dan Crenshaw, Van Taylor, Ron Wright, Michael McCaul, Chip Roy, Bill Flores, Pete Olsen, Will Hurd, Kenny Marchant, Roger Williams, and John Carter. Considering that six seats are needed for Democrats to take the majority and there are twelve listed, things may be looking up for the lone star state in 2020, but only if you keep voting pardners!

Utah

2012 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has predictably won election to the senate due to his brand power and that Utah didn’t have someone with the same sort of chops as Beto O’Rourke to run against him. It certainly wasn’t because of his policies considering that he was considered such a threat to Planned Parenthood that they needed to run $1.4 million’s worth of ads against him, whose entire record on LGBT rights has consisted of him combating them only for him to deny doing so when he ran for president. Still though, he’s almost a bit of a relief when compared to nutcases like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, but it’s still strongly recommend that you go out to vote against him.

 

On the subject of the House reps, one of the four seats is now blue when they were all red going into the election. This seat now belongs to Ben McAdams who has a very strong progressive track record. Considering that her opponent Mia Love (who has a name that sounds more fit for a porn actress than a politician) has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and is so bloody homophobic that she tried to defame her DEMOCRATIC opponent for being pro LGBT. Either that or it could just be pandering because she said significantly less about LGBT rights prior to this election but to be honest that may be even shittier. Anyway It is certain that Ben McAdams will be a much needed improvement. As for the remaining three Republicans, we have…

• Rob Bishop who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, co-sponsored Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, co-sponsored State Marriage Defense Act, and is rated 28% by the NAACP and 0% by the HRC.
• Chris Stewart who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, voted to remove protections for Native Americans and LGBT individuals, voted against an Amendment to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, voted against an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing, and voted against an Amendment to exclude violations of the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act from a bill curtailing class actions.
• John Curtis who…. oh.. he’s pro LGBT…. carry on then.

Anyway what are the chances of giving those two homophobes the boot in the coming years? Well considering there are only two of them I don’t think I’ll need the bullet points. Rob Bishop won with 61.6% of the vote which is down 4.3% from 2016 so there is some pushback but we need some more to give him the boot. Chris Stewart won with 56.1% of the vote which is down 5.5% from 2016 so he could be on the way out if this rate continues. For completeness sake, John Curtis won with 67.5% of the vote which is up 9.5% from his special election win in 2017. Let me just say I’m glad to see the pro LGBT Republicans getting more votes than the homophobes for once.

Vermont

 

Predictably as fuck, senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has won re-election. Considering how close he came to stealing the nomination from Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primaries despite the DNC’s attempts the skew the election in favor of her (and the fact that he would have most definitely won against Trump if got the nomination), it is only natural that he would be re-elected to congress as he is one of the most valuable allies that the left has in congress.

Additionally progressive republican governor Phill Scott has been re-elected which is a good thing considering he has a very strong progressive track record and we need more pro LGBT Republicans. Vermont’s sole House seat still belongs to Peter Welch who also has a very strong progressive track record so it seems as if Vermont is in good hands.

Virginia

2016 Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine has predictably won re-election to the Senate, which is a good thing because he has a very strong progressive track record. Going into the 2018 elections 4 House reps were blue and 7 were red, now those numbers are reversed and there are 7 blue reps and 4 red reps. The Republicans to lose re-election were Scott Taylor, Dave Brat, and Barbara Comstock.

 

Scott Taylor believes “religious freedom” is a liscense to legally discriminate against LGBT people and wants to defund Planned Parenthood, Dave Brat signed “respecting faith based opposition to same sex marriage” and wants to defund Planned Parenthood, and Barbara Comstock supports an amendment to ban gay marriage and, you guessed it, wants to defund Planned Parenthood. There is no doubt that Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger, and Jennifer Wexton will be immense improvements over their predecessors. I can also confirm that the rest of the Democrats are all pro LGBT as well. As for the Republicans, we have…

• Rob Wittman who Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and co-sponsored amending Constitution to define traditional marriage.
• Denver Riggleman whose response to being asked about sexual assault prevention by a woman was that it comes down to “educating females” and wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Also something something Bigfoot erotica.
• Ben Cline who voted to allow adoption agencies to refuse adoptions for “religious reasons” (that means they can legally keep a child out of the arms of a loving family because they are gay or trans), voted to legally define marriage as “one man one woman,”and sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Morgan Griffith who Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, wants gay marriage to be illegal, and wants to defund Planned Parenthood.

As for the odds of getting these four out of office…

• Rob Wittman won with 55.2% of the vote which is down 4.7% from his win in 2016 7.7% from his win in 2014 so he could be on the way out if this continues.
• Denver Riggleman won with 53.3% which is a 4.9% decrease from Tom Garret’s win in 2016 so we are gaining on them.
• Ben Cline won with 59.8% of the vote which is down 6.8% from Bob Goodlatte’s win 2016 14.7% down from his win in 2014 so we are gaining on him to but will still need a bit more to take his seat.
• Morgan Griffith won 65.2% of the vote which is down 3.4% from his win in 2016 and 6.9% from his win in 2014 so progress is being made but we need quite a bit more to take this seat.

Anyway it looks like things are looking up for Virginia now that Democrats have taken the majority in the House and that the current progressives have kept their seats. Keep voting everyone!

Washington

 

In Washington, senator Maria Cantwell has successfully won re-election to the US senate which is a good thing considering she has a pretty strong track record in civil rights. Prior to the 2018 elections the House had 6 blue seats from Washington and 4 red seats. After the election it now has 7 blue seats and 3 red seats. Our new Democrat is Kim Schrier, and considering that her predecessor Dino Rossi wants to defund Planned Parenthood, vetoed a bill allowing public breastfeeding, and is oppossed to same sex marriage and gay people having legal protections from discrimination, she will most definitely be a major improvement. I can confirm that the rest of the Democrats from Washington have solid progressive track records as well. As for the Republicans…

• Jaime Herrera Beutler who wants to defund Planned Parenthood, is oppossed to same sex marriage, and is rated 0% by the HRC.
• Dan Newhouse who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted in favor of an Amendment to block an executive order requiring localities to analyze racial segregation in housing, and signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage.
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, and co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act.

As for the chances of voting these three out of office…

• Jaime Herrera Beutler won with 52.9% of the vote which is down 8.9% from her win in 2016 so she could be on her way out in the near future.
• Dan Newhouse won with 64.5% of the vote which is… complicated because his lead is higher than in 2016 but his primary opponent was also a Republican so if we are looking at this from a “Red Vs Blue” perspective then it’s a significant decrease.
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers won with 55.1% of the vote which is down 4.5% from her win in 2016 so she could be on her way out in the coming years.

So things seem to be proceeding fairly well in Washington given that we have a new Democrat and the Republicans are cutting it fairly close. Hopefully this keeps up into the coming years.

West Virginia

Shit, West Virginia is a shithole from top to bottom. I had some hope going this section when I saw that their Senator was a Democrat, but if Joe Manchin was anymore DINO he’d be Fred Flinstone’s pet. Joe Manchin has been oppossed to LGBT rights until very recently and still may be, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and says he “regrets voting for Hillary Clinton and will be open to supporting Trump in 2020. I don’t even want to know what his opponent was like!

 

As for the House, there are three seats and they are all still red. Those reps include…

• David McKinley who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and well… just read this endorsement that he recieved… that kind of praise is more damning than any amount of scorn I could ever manage.
• Alex Mooney who wants to defund Planned Parenthood and wants same sex marriage to be illegal.
• Carol Miller who is oppossed to same sex couples being able to form civil unions and is against legal protections for gay and trans people.

So what are the chances for the Democrats taking any of their seats?

• David McKinley won with 64.6% of the vote which is down 4.4% from his win in 2016 so his lead is shrinking but we may need quite a bit more to get him out of office.
• Alex Mooney won with 54% of the vote which is down 4.2% so he could be on his way out in the near future.
• Carol Miller won with 56.4% of the vote which is down 11.5% from Evan Jenkins’s win in 2016 so it seems as if some people are getting sick of Republican rule.

I will admit I’m not sure what I’d really advise with Joe Manchin. Apparently he has been voting more in favor of LGBT rights in recent years if his increase HRC ratings are any indication. As for these three fuckers though, KEEP VOTING! Their leads are shrinking and clearly there are enough people in West Virginia who are getting sick of their shit.

Wisconsin

Good news for Wisconsin residents, not only has the progressive pro LGBT Senator Tammy Bladwin won re-election, but you also have a new governor! Tony Evers has beat out the former governor Scott Walker in the gubernatorial election. Considering that Scott Walker has bragged about defunding Planned Parenthood in a blue state, has bragged about defunding Planned Parenthood when asked about equal pay for women, is a total homophobe that wants gay marriage to be illegal and threw a fit when the Supreme Court ruled against homophobes, and thinks that the church should decide whether gay people can get married. I’m going to assume this is the galaxy brain version of “leave gay marriage up to the states.” Anyway WOOHOO, this fucking jackass is gone!!! LONG LIVE TONY EVERS!!!!! PARTY HARD BITCHES!!!!!!

The  downside is that nothing really changed with the House. We had 3 Blue seats and 5 Red seats at the start of this year, and we have 3 Blue seats and 5 Red seats at the end. The 3 Democrats have fairly decent progressive records and the 5 Republicans… well…

• Bryan Steil who made anti semetic comments to his opponent and dismissed criticism as “baseless allegations,” but admittedly hasn’t done much else I can find so I’ll let him off for now.
• Jim Sensenbrenner who voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman, Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage, Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC, and is rated 33% by the NAACP, 7% by the SCLU, and 0% by the HRC.
• Glenn Grothman who signed respecting faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, is oppossed to same sex marriage, and believes the government does not have thye authority to let gay people get married.
• Sean Duffy who co-sponsored a bill to defund Planned Parenthood and supports an amendment to make same sex marriage illegal.
• Mike Gallagher who wants to defund Planned Parenthood and believes that the military should not cover medically necessary GRS for trans people (but he at least calls out Trump for announcing it via Twitter).

So what are the chances of the Democrats taking their seats?

• Jim Sensenbrenner won with 62% of the vote which is down 4.8% from 2016 and 7.5% from 2014 so there is some pushback but we need a lot more to get him out of office.
• Glenn Grothman won with 55.5% of the vote which is down 1.7% from 2016 so we still need a bit more pushback to take his seat.
• Sean Duffy won with 60.1% of the vote which is down 1.6% from 2016 so there IS an increase in turnout but we need quite a bit more to get him out of office.
• Mike Gallagher won with 63.7% of the vote which is which is 1% higher than 2016 so it will be tough to take his seat.

So it’s quite good that we took Scott Walker behind the woodshed… metaphorically of course (nice try NSA!), but it does seem like it may be difficult to take any more house seats. The weakest link is actually Bryan Steil but he didn’t do anything wrong I could find other than an edgy joke (which still did rub me the wrong way but it’s not enough on its own in comparison to the people who want to strip us of our rights) so I decided to instead focus on the ones who have done some shitty things or expressed the desire to do shitty things. The weakest links are Jim Sensenbrenner in terms of the growth of Blue voters and Glenn Gorthman in terms of the overall lowest lead. Hopefully at least on of them will lose their seat in the coming years.

Wyoming

Last state, and it’s redder than my ass after being pegged. John Barrasso won re-election to Senate despite the fact that he supports defunding Planned Parenthood, Voted NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and is against same sex marriage. Thankfully his lead is down 8.7% from his win in 2012 and 5.1% from Mike Enzi’s win in 2014, although it’s still a lot considering he won with 67.1% of the vote in 2012. The new governor Mark Gordon doesn’t seem too bad considering I can’t find anything shitty he said or did.

The sole representitive for Wyoming at large is Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President and infamous Shithead Dick Cheyney.  She won re-election with an increased lead from 2016 by 1.7% sadly. Liz Cheyney is a woman whose sister is a married lesbian but has the gall to say that her sister is “dead wrong on the issue of marriage” for thinking that she has the right to get married. She also thinks she’s entitled to get offended on her sister’s behalf because john Kerry made a very valid point about her sister. Somehow in a piece full of racists, homophobes, and transphobes, Liz Cheyney is the won to piss me off the most despite the fact that she isn’t as bad policy wise.

 

“Oh teehee, Mary and I are on good terms but she’s like soooooo wrong about her right to get married but it’s just my opinion lol!” Liz, does it ever occurr to you or any stupid right wing politician that the dumb shit you preach and fucking VOTE ON effects the lives of those around you? Did it ever occurr to you how much harder things would be on your sister if she was not allowed to get married? And your idiotic claim that that it was underhanded for John Kerry to bring up that his opponent’s anti gay vice president had a gay daughter and is living in a fantasy bubble where it’s okay to “disagree” with his daughter’s right to get married and support legislation to prevent it from happening without having an adverse effect on real people who only ask for the same fucking rights as everyone else!

Don’t fucking deny it, you’re a homophobe Cheney, and so is everyone else who pulls this dumb ass “I just don’t agree with their lifestyle” shit regardless of whether or not they have an LGBT friend or family member they can use as a morality prop. Fuck you Liz Cheney! Fuck your Dickhead father, pun absolutely intended, and fuck everyone who voted for either of you!

Also she wants to defund Planned Parenthood.

Conclusion

I have been working on this piece for I believe three months now. I have been putting almost all my time into this piece and I have big plans for it. I plan to go out of my way and post this in as many places and share it with as many people as possible. Previous political pieces of mine have been simple opinion pieces but this one is different. This piece is a political action that is meant to inspire change and revolution.

I’m going to go all out with this one. I’ve thought a few times in regards to what my Patreon earnings can be used for, but I think I’ve figured it out now. I’m going to use them in order to promote this piece. Some sites have options where you can get a post of your promoted to other random users if you pay them money for it. I have not done this with any of my past pieces though… at least not intentionall (it’s a werid story), but that’s what I’m going to do here. Keep in mind that I am jobless and have no income aside from Patreon earnings and money given to me by my parents.

I’m opting out of saving up to spend these on somethiong frivelous like more Steam games for me to not play and instead will put it to spreading this piece as far as possible. The reason I made this piece is to compile all the information into one place so everyone knows who to vote against and who to support. As lengthy as this piece is though, I do not plan to stop here. This piece is only the beginning.

Aside from spending my own money on this piece, I plan to post this in as many political forums or to as many other leftists as I can. I’m going to go far out of my way to spread this piece than I normally do. But that’s not all.

My continuing plan is to send an email to every congressperson talked about in this piece, as well as every governor. There are 506 of them and I plan to send a personalized message to each on of them where I will link my piece and offer feedback. Yes I plan to do this to even the ones I have insulted and have said very rude things to in this piece. I plan to do this because words are nothing compared to actions. Most of these people have either voted for or expressed a desire to vote for something to do that causes far more harm than any of my words can do. Additionally, even if they will not change their minds they still need to know that we are not going down without a fight. (Update: Yeah, this one didn’t work out, but the rest still applies.)

I also plan to talk about more political issues and take more action. I’ve often thought about how someone as small as I am can fight make but I think I know how. If I learned anything in the past year or so, it’s that I’m far stronger than I have previously realized. I also feel that the same can be said about most of us. That’s why I’m also calling on each of you to join me.

So you may be wondering what you can do that will make a difference? I know a few things. First things first, as I’ve been saying throughout this piece, VOTE! For those that believe that your vote does not make a difference; it does! As I’ve posted throughout this piece, your votes all add up and can make a statement even when you don’t win. Seeing the leads decreasing for each of these homophobes and transphobes has given me a very strong sense of hope that I did not have when I started writing this piece months ago. I noticed that across the map there has been a strong influx of votes against Republicans even in strongly red districts.

So It makes sense to vote out any far right homophobes but what about those few on the left? Those few Democratic homophobes who have voted against civil rights, I suggest that we make our voices heard and remind them of who votes for them. Remind them by writing them to express your disaproval, remind them by voting against them in the primaries, and if it comes down to it, remind them by not voting for them in the main elections. I would advise against doing this if their opponent is significantly worse but we need to remind them that they are here to serve us, not the other way around.

What you can also do is use your voice. Speak out against this shit and spread this piece and any other similar pieces (regardless of whether or not they are created by me), and use the hashtag #PinkTsunami. Use this in your posts, names, or bios as a way of allowing us to find each other and to know who has each other’s back. I initially planned to go with Blue Tsunami but It occurred to me that this shouldn’t be a matter of Red Vs Blue in the first place. Our basic human rights should not be treated like a sports team. It’s why I reccomend reaching out to Republican politicians and letting them know that bigotry is not going to get them elected anymore, and that there are people who will vote for people who are right wing yet aren’t against violations of basic human rights.

And yes I get the irony of me saying this given that my politics are very left leaning but I likely wouldn’t be so far to the left if it wasn’t the one party that would defend my rights.  I would reccomend that each of you at least write your own local congressperson. Also a hint is that snail mail often get noticed more than email if you are willing to spend the extra money, and I plan to use snail mail for a select few.

Also I know it can be difficult to make a request like this without it sounding like a sales pitch, but I do suggest following me if you want to keep updated on how this is going. I plan to keep a close eye on how this is proceeding. I plan to keep a close eye on other elections in this country like state legislatures, governors, or any special elections. I will also keep a close eye on any pieces of legislation regarding civil rights causes whether they are on the state or federal level. I would encourage any of you to also seek out as much information on your own but I also will make a significant effort to deliver it to you all as I can. If you would like to follow progress on this then you can follow this blog as well as following the Guardian Acorn Facebook Page, my Twitter account, my Tumblr Page, my Subreddit, and my Mastadon account.You can also join the Guardian Acorn Discord server if you would like to talk with me and some of my closest friends directly.

You can also follow or pledge to my Patreon, which as I’ve mentioned will be used for promoting this piece and thus spread this message further.

I have no idea if this piece is really going to make as much of a splash as I am going for, but I’m going all out regardless of if it does or not. Prior to 2018 I didn’t know who most of the politicians on this list were and now I went out of my way to look up all of them. But I’m not going to stop here. I have not touched on African American rights as much as I feel I should and I feel I should look into the issue of immigration more to, among other political topics that may intersect with our own cause.

And yes I do still plan to cover vidya geamz and shit but expect me to be a lot more active on the political front. You can consider that my New Years resolution, and I have no intention of breaking it.