2024 to be record year for CA LGBTQ legislative candidates

by Matthew S. Bajko

The 2024 legislative races are shaping up to be a record year for LGBTQ candidates in California, with at least 24 out contenders already pulling papers to seek Assembly or Senate seats in the Statehouse. It is one more than the 23 LGBTQ legislative candidates known by the Bay Area Reporter to have run in 2020.

As the B.A.R. has been reporting, next year could finally see the first transgender and queer members be elected to the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. The affinity group for out legislators in Sacramento currently stands at a historic 12 members following the results of the 2022 election cycle, four of whom are lesbian, seven are gay men, and one is bisexual. Six are running for reelection next year and one is seeking election to a different chamber.

A seventh could depart next year if they end up running for Congress instead of reelection to their legislative seat, while two of the caucus’ lesbian members will be termed out at the end of 2024. Both Senators Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) and Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), the current senate president pro tempore, are in their last legislative terms.

Thus, depending on the outcomes of next year’s races, there is the possibility of seeing the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus nearly double in size during the 2025 legislative session. With two pairs of out candidates running for the same seat next year, and one a Republican with little chance of winning, the affinity group could number 23 members should there be a rainbow sweep in all but one of the 2024 legislative races with out candidates.

Since 2008, when a then-record nine known out candidates sought legislative office in the state, the B.A.R. has been keeping track of LGBTQ contenders for the Statehouse in the Golden State. The nine out female candidates who are already seeking to join the Legislature next year is just shy of the record 11 women from the LGBTQ community who ran in 2020.

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