Political Notebook: Lesbian Oregon US House candidate McLeod-Skinner seeks Bay Area support
Ahead of her state's Democratic Party primary May 17, Oregon U.S. House candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner is swinging through the Bay Area this weekend to attend several fundraisers for her campaign.
The first lesbian to serve on the Santa Clara City Council, McLeod-Skinner would be the first lesbian elected to Congress from the West Coast.She would also be the first LGBTQ House member from the Beaver State should she win her race for the newly drawn 5th Congressional District in Oregon.
She is in a tough primary campaign against incumbent Congressmember Kurt Schrader (D-Canby), a moderate Democrat whom she has criticized as being too conservative."Our momentum has been really good," McLeod-Skinner told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent phone interview about her campaign.In recent weeks local Democratic Party committees in the counties of Linn, Deschutes, Marion, and Clackamas, where Schrader lives, have endorsed McLeod-Skinner in the primary race.While the LGBTQ Victory Fund has yet to endorse her candidacy, McLeod-Skinner has the support of LPAC, which works to elect out women across the country, and U.S.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). Our Revolution, the progressive political group aligned with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), is also backing her bid.In a recent email to its members, the group noted, "Jamie has a real shot to remove one of the biggest roadblocks to progress in Congress."While Schrader, 70, a farmer who had worked as a veterinarian for more than 30 years before entering Congress, doesn't list his endorsements on his campaign website, he has been touting the support he has received via his Twitter profile.
