This November, a growing and highly engaged LGBTQ voting bloc will play a pivotal role in the presidential, Senate and other down ballot races, writes the HRC’s Brandon Lorenz.
LGBTQ voters were a crucial piece of the puzzle for President Obama’s victory: in the last election, President Obama received 76 percent of all LGB votes, according to national exit polls. In total, roughly 6 million LGB voters cast a ballot in 2012 — an election President Obama won by just under 5 million votes.
LGBTQ voters are being motivated by having in Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine allies who are committed to building on the progress of the last eight years, and crucially, sign the Equality Act into law. Hillary Clinton has laid out the most robust plan for advancing LGBTQ equality of any presidential candidate ever — from championing the Equality Act, to wiping out HIV, to addressing hate violence and more.
Even today, in a majority of states LGBTQ people are still at risk for being hired, fired, evicted or denied services because of who they are. The Equality Act, a top priority for LGBTQ voters, would rectify that by adding these protections for LGBTQ people into our longstanding civil rights laws. In addition to support from Clinton and Kaine, the Equality Act has bipartisan backing in Congress and the support of more than 80 leading companies. The nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found this year that 71 percent of Americans favor such a bill.
This year, there are an estimated 9.4 million LGBTQ voters in the United States. In key battleground states like Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, the number of potential LGBTQ voters exceeds the state’s margin of victory in the 2012 national election.
