we’re putting ms rachel on the $100 bill. you can’t even fathom the pronouns we’re going to invent. pete hegseth wanted people to watch a public execution, well they’re seeing it tonight. we’re making paxton play in girls sports TOMORROW – saddle up bitch. If you’re in line for your free gender reassignment surgery at the elementary school STAY IN LINE. If only Mitch McConnell were alive to see this.
Two things we haven’t had the occasion to say in a while: last night was a glorious night on Twitter, and it was also a glorious night in America. Millennial optimism infused the national mood. Some dared to declare that Woke was back, some suggested we begin transitioning Chick-Fil-As into COVID-conscious lesbian bars. Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers were credited with turning Texas blue and so were — bless their hearts — The Hunting Wives.
Amid the bleakest political era of my lifetime, and mere days after Americans were forced to buy Halloween candy that cost 71% more than it did in 2022, Democrats delivered a decisive, across-the-board victory, flipping the House and the Senate, exceeding every pollster’s wildest expectations. The Democratic majority in the House will be significant.
Many votes are still being counted, but so far most things are looking very good for us — as good as anything can look under capitalism. Kansas elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1932. Annie Andrews will become the first Democratic senator elected in South Carolina in 30 years. Ohio made Amy Acton the first woman elected governor in Ohio.
Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is tge first woman and the first Black person to be elected governor of Georgia and the first Black female governor in U.S. history. She beat Republican Rick Jackson, who was aiming to become the 84th consecutive white man to govern a state with the third-highest Black population share in the country.
In Texas, Gina Hinojosa, who has a stellar voting record on trans-related legislation, beat Gov. Greg Abbott to become her state’s first Latina governor.
Deb Haaland, formerly Joe Biden’s interior secretary, will become the first Native American woman to govern a U.S. State when she assumes office in New Mexico, while Peggy Flanagan will become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S Senate, winning in Minnesota.
These are just some of this election’s notable victories.
Republicans Wasted Epic Amounts of Money On Anti-Transgender Advertising
This election is serving as a referendum on the violently anti-trans strategy the GOP has been romancing for the past few election cycles. Nearly $200 million Republican dollars were sunk into anti-transgender ads this election cycle by candidates certain that ambiguous fears about trans kids playing soccer or taking medication would mean more to voters than genuine concerns about inflation and gas prices, gangs of lawless ICE agents assaulting and murdering their neighbors, rising healthcare costs, defunding of essential government programs and the state of democracy in general. “What did [anti-trans ads] buy the Republican party?” asked Erin Reed of Erin in the Morning. ” An earth-shattering loss, and a stunning rebuke of anti-transgender politics.”
Texas saw $78 million real dollars thrown away on anti-trans ads, part of an overall package that made it the most expensive non-presidential election on record. Elon Musk dropped $29 million on an ad that warned, “Every mom in Texas should be worried about Senate candidate James Talarico putting parents in jail if they do not support surgically transitioning their children.” Another campaign used AI-generated footage to highlight Talarico saying “God is nonbinary” in 2021. Stephen Miller called Talarico the “first transgender Senate candidate.” This all went on despite Talarico not actually even being a strong advocate for trans rights during his campaign. Still, James Talarico won, the first Democrat to do so in Texas since 1988. And all the noise against him inspired some really good TikToks.
On the campaign trail, Trump whipped followers into a frenzy over “men in women’s sport” and Democrats “promoting the transgender mutilization (sic) of your children.” The 19th noted in September a “recent pattern of AI-generated attack ads targeting Democratic candidates over their support of trans rights.” All of this despite only 11-12% of registered voters naming transgender issues as an important issue in the election. Ultimately, these attack ads didn’t move the needle for candidates who employed them — but they still served to stoke fear and hostility towards trans people and did in fact influence some Democrats to step forth into the light and take anti-trans decisions.
But we also saw candidates take a different path and still win.
In Montana, 32-year-old smokejumper Sam Forstag crushed a conservative talk-radio host to become the first Democrat Montana’s sending to the U.S. house in three decades. When asked about trans participation in sports and gender-affirming care, he asserted that, the government has no business sticking its nose into our personal lives, whether that’s a gun safe, whether that’s a doctor’s office.” He’d prefer to “leave sports to the leagues that actually run them” and “let people live their lives with dignity and make their own private personal decisions, and let’s keep politics the heck out of it.”
In my home state of Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won his election against Trump loyalist Mike Rogers and will become the first Muslim US Senator. El-Sayed was targeted by a wave of transgender-themed attack ads, but unlike many other Democrats who reacted to that strategy by rushing to affirm their opposition to trans people using the bathroom, El-Sayed did not get spooked, and refused to throw trans people under the bus. Clearly, it did not interfere with his electability.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Ballot Measures Are Mostly Winning
In Nebraska, Initiative 442 has passed. In 2025, a state law passed that requires K-12 schools and colleges to designate teams by biological sex. Initiative 442 adds “private schools that compete against them” to the list of those required to follow the rule, and also is a constitutional amendment that locks this state law into the state constitution, which makes it difficult to oveturn.
In Arizona, Prop 318, which requires schools and athletic associations to keep bathrooms, locker rooms and showers separated by sex, has 59% of the vote. The On the upside, Arizona also voted against Proposition 142, which banned Affirmative Action and D.E.I.
In Washington, Measure 638 bars students it defines as ‘biologically male” from K-12 girls’ sports. So far that measure is winning with 57% of the vote. This is the first measure of its kind to name girls sports specifically. Previously, state law required athletic activities “be offered to all students without regard to sex,” prohibiting public schools from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender expression or gender identity. Supporters poured $7 million into the measure, a majority of it from multimillionaire hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, who’s using his fortune “to try to make a very blue state more conservative,” The opposition only managed around $2 million.
Heywood also backed Washingtons I-001, which luckily is failing. That measure would restore the 2024 Parents Bill of Rights, which would require schools to have to notify parents in advance when their kid seeks non-emergency medical care or mental health counseling on campus. LGBTQ+ advocates saw it as a forced-outing measure.
Colorado has two very tight votes for anti-trans legislation. Prop 134 requires student athletes to play on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. It is too close to call but appears on track to win. Prop 135 aims to “prohibit surgeries on minors that alter their biological sex characteristics as a treatment in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender, with certain exceptions” and prohibit insurance, state or federal funds from covering those procedures.
Both of these measures do appear to be on their way towards passing. 61% of the votes in Colorado have gone to its Democratic Senator and Governor, but just 47%, so far, have been cast against Proposition 134 and 135.
On the upside, Amendment 3 in Missouri was defeated. Furious over 51% of Missourians voting to legalize abortion in 2024, Republicans put it back on the ballot along with a trans healthcare ban they hoped would get their ban over the finish line. Grassroots advocates campaigned hard and Missouri voted against it. This effectively keeps a ban on trans youth care out of the constitution, where it would become harder to overturn — but unfortunately it doesn’t repeal restrictions already in place in the state, like the 2023 statutory ban on surgeries. The ban on puberty blockers and hormones, however, will expire in August 2027.
Virginia kindly passed a marriage equality amendment, removing the 2006 ban on same-sex marriage passed by voters, replacing it with an affirmative right to marry. Which is very nice of them.
And Vermont went ahead and added an equal protection clause to the Vermont Constitution.
Lesbian, Gay and Trans Candidates Won Big at the 2026 Midterm Elections
At press time, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund is reporting 369 LGBTQ+ candidates have won their elections. Let’s go through some of the big ones.In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas will become the first out gay man elected to the senate. In a 2025 Advocate interview, he said the government shouldn’t limit trans people’s health care. (He did, however, vote for the 2024 defense bill that included a ban on Tricare covering gender-affirming care , saying he opposed that provision but favored the bill’s planned investments in the Portsmouth Naval Shipward.)
In Indiana, JD Ford flipped a seat to become Indiana’s first out gay member of congress.
In Michigan’s 11th district, Jeremy Moss will become Michigan’s first out LGBTQ+ member of Congress, succeeding absolute clownshow Haley Stevens.
Bisexual civil rights attorney Marni von Wilpert flipped her California house seat.
Queer candidate JoAnna Mendoza flipped a seat in Arizona’s 6th district, which covers southeastern Arizona. She’s a veteran who served under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Some re-elected lesbians and queer women: Gay Governors: Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Tina Kotek of Oregon, Ho-Chunk Nation citizen Sharice Davids (U.S. House, Kansas), trans congresswoman Sarah McBride (U.S. House, Delaware), first LGBTQ+ Latina in Congress Emily Randall (U.S. House, Washington) and first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress Becca Balint (U.S. House, Vermont)
Notable wins for trans candidates in state legislatures include:
Bentley Hudgins, who will become Georgia’s first out trans and nonbinary state lawmaker.
Allison Montgomery beat a Republican running for re-election in the suburbs of Huntsville, Alabama, becoming Alabama’s first transgender legislator.
Jaelynn Scott is the first out Black trans woman elected to a state legislature, securing a position in a legislative district that encompasses south Seattle, Washington.
Joanna Whaley is the first trans woman elected to the Michigan Legislature, representing District 2, and will join nonbinary Rep. Emily Dievendorf there.
Quinnie Pérez is the first out trans woman elected to public office in Florida, winning a seat on the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District board.
Today, Trump spoke to reporters from the construction site of his new ballroom, his first public appearance since an election that will most certainly undermine at least a few of his plans to destroy everyone’s lives. He spoke at length about the quality of the new ballroom’s marble and noted how well restaurants in Washington DC have been doing since he took office. After ten minutes, Fox News cut away from his speech. Trump took a several minute pause to watch a beam being lifted to the ceiling. “Envision chandeliers,” he said, then, to nobody at all.
