It’s being called the Rainbow Wave: hundreds of lesbian, gay and bisexual candidates have emerged victorious in the United States’ 2022 midterm elections. In fact, lesbians scored some of the biggest triumphs – including two historic firsts.
Democrat Maura Healey, an ex-Olympian who represented the U.S. in basketball, became the first lesbian elected governor of a U.S. state when she took victory in Massachusetts. She is now the first woman and first gay person elected to lead the state. Healey took 63.6% of the vote, while republican Geoff Diehl received 34.7%.
In Oregon, Democrat and lesbian Tina Kotek found herself in a much tighter race. Kotek won the contest with 47% of the vote; Republican Christine Drazan received 43.6%, and independent Betsy Johnson ended up with 8.7%.
Lesbian Democrat Becca Balint won Vermont’s congressional district race, becoming the first woman and first lesbian, gay or bisexual person ever elected to Congress from the state. Her win ended Vermont’s place as the only U.S. state to have never sent a woman to Congress. Balint received 62.5% of the vote, with Republican opponent, Liam Madden, ending with 27%.
Balint will join four other lesbian or bisexual women in Congress this January: Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Kyrsten Sinema, and Reps. Angie Craig and Sharice Davids.
A notable outgoing mention is Oregon bisexual, Kate Brown, who became the U.S.’s first openly lesbian, gay or bisexual person to become governor in 2015. She was unable to run in the 2022 midterm election due to term limits, but it is possible she would have won again if she could have.
“I’m smiling right now, because I’m so happy,” Lisa Turner, the executive director of LPAC, a committee dedicated to electing lesbian and bisexual women, said. “I just can’t tell you how exciting it is to see these women continue to be successful and just to be so excited for the future.”
Sally Kohn, a political commentator and gay rights advocate, said the lesbian success in the U.S. statewide and congressional races this year is both “wonderfully momentous and at the same time kind of not a big deal.”
“I’m old enough to remember when having an openly gay politician was scandalous, and now it’s not, and that’s amazing,” she said. “What we are witnessing, in spite of some backlash and grumbling from some, is overwhelmingly the United States becoming the inclusive, multiracial, pluralistic democracy it always theoretically aspired to be.”
