More than 35 trans, genderqueer candidates running across U.S.
When Jennifer Williams was collecting signatures for her first political campaign in 2022, people told her, a transgender woman, “I think you would do an awesome job, but you got no chance to win.” Their hesitancy was not unfounded.
Williams won her seat on Trenton, N.J.’s City Council by a single vote. This round she is running unopposed with broad community support.
She attributes this to the fact that she got her job done. “Things have gone so well,” she says, “I think I delivered on everything I wanted to do.” Williams is not the only trans candidate who has already secured a place in political office for the upcoming cycle.
Kim Coco Iwamoto made history in Hawaii as the first person in U.S. history to defeat an incumbent House speaker in a Democratic primary—in addition to being the first out transgender elected official in Hawaii’s history. (Since there is no other challenger, Iwamoto is the representative-elect).
