How LGBTQ+ Candidates Can Win in Swing Districts
Third Way, a think tank that champions center-left ideas.“In 2022 and beyond, those who want to win should not hesitate to recruit LGBTQ candidates to build their majorities in purple places,” says Third Way’s study, “The ‘Electability’ of LGBTQ Candidates.”Third Way points to the success of four out House members from swing districts: Angie Craig of Minnesota’s Second District, Sharice Davids of Kansas’s Third District, Sean Patrick Maloney of New York’s 18th District, and Chris Pappas of New Hampshire’s First District.
Maloney is in his fifth term, the others in their second. They’re among nine out House members overall (all Democrats), the others being from reliably blue districts, but now more purple-district candidates are seeking to join them.Among them are Sean Meloy in Pennsylvania’s 17th District, encompassing suburban and rural areas adjacent to Pittsburgh, and Daniel Hernandez in Arizona’s Tucson-area Sixth District (formerly the Second District, now redrawn, renumbered, and with a larger proportion of Republicans than before).
Both are gay Democrats running for open seats. Meloy is seeking to replace Conor Lamb, who’s leaving the House to run for U.S.
Senate, and Hernandez is aiming to succeed Ann Kirkpatrick, who’s retiring. The seat was once held by Gabrielle Giffords; Hernandez interned for Giffords and famously helped save her life when a gunman opened fire at a 2011 event in Tucson where she was meeting constituents.Meloy and Hernandez offer different but complementary reasons for the appeal of out candidates in swing districts.
