Over 80 LGBTQ candidates win in Tuesday's election

If you don't believe in the power of voting, maybe Tuesday's election results will change your mind.

Over 80 LGBTQ candidates were elected into office, according to LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to increase the number of openly LGBTQ people in office.

Queer candidates won at least 73 local elections, five state legislative seats, four mayoral races, and one opening for a judge on Tuesday, according to the organization's live tracker (which was last updated on Wednesday at 12:36 pm).

In total, there were 200 LGBTQ candidates on ballots across the country, the Victory Fund wrote in an email. Of those candidates, it endorsed 111 people.

Notably, Danica Roem was re-elected to Virginia's House of Delegates, making her the first openly transgender politician to be re-elected to a state legislature.

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“By knocking on doors and speaking to the issues most pressing in their communities, LGBTQ candidates are winning elections in numbers and in parts of the country thought unthinkable a decade or two ago,” Annise Parker, Victory Fund's president and CEO, wrote in an email. “LGBTQ people are in every community — we are people of color, women, immigrants, and people with disabilities — and we come from families both liberal and conservative."

In 2018, the Victory Fund reported that 244 LGBTQ people won elections, 162 of whom were endorsed by the organization. In 2017, eight transgender candidates won elections, reported the now defunct ThinkProgress.

While there's still more work to be done to ensure increased diversity in all levels of government, here's hoping the rainbow wave continues into 2020.