Rep. Kyrsten Sinema
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema won the Arizona Democratic primary to replace Sen. Jeff Flake. In Florida, Lauren Baer won her primary to become the first LGBT candidate from Florida to win a congressional primary.
Baer’s district is the Treasure Coast of Florida just north of Palm Beach and Trump’s Mar-a-lago.
Sinema is the first openly bisexual person to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and the first to receive a major party nomination for the U.S. Senate. Her opponent in the race will be Martha McSally, who supports “religious exemption” discrimination laws and opposes federal protections for transgender students, according to the LGBT Victory Fund.
“Arizona voters shattered a lavender ceiling in selecting Kyrsten Sinema as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate — and it puts her on-track to be just the second openly LGBTQ U.S. Senator in American history,” said Victory Fund President and CEO Annise Parker. “This race is consequential not just for the Democratic party and for the LGBTQ community, but for all Americans who demand an end to the political divisiveness that Martha McSally embodies. An LGBTQ Senate candidate taking down an anti-LGBTQ opponent in a red state will be a defining moment in this year’s rainbow political wave — and will further the evolution in how Americans view LGBTQ people and candidates.”
Sinema was elected to Congress in 2012. She was elected to the Arizona House of Representative in 2004 and the Arizona Senate in 2010.
Baer is an attorney who served in the Obama administration as a senior advisor to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
On Baer’s race, Parker said the race wasn’t about sexual orientation or gender identity, but about LGBT candidates providing “perspectives and priorities that resonate with voters.”
— David Taffet
