LPAC Executive Director Lisa Turner featured in NBC News
For LGBTQ women, running for office ranges from 'difficult' to threatening
…while women across the gender identity and sexuality spectrum lack proportionate political representation in the U.S., LGBTQ women are particularly underrepresented. While women hold about a fourth of the seats in the House and the Senate, according to RepresentWomen, there are just four out lesbian and bisexual women in Congress out of 535 members (there has never been an openly transgender member of Congress). And out of 7,383 seats in state legislatures across the country, just 98 lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are known to be serving, or 1.3 percent, according to LPAC, an organization that promotes the election of LGBTQ women.
The money required to run a competitive campaign discouraged many of the survey's respondents, who said they worried about their ability to raise money and get access to donor networks.
Nearly half of former and current candidates and 60 percent of potential candidates said they hesitated to run because of fundraising concerns.
"With the evolution of campaigns, they are getting bigger, more expensive, more crowded — and a lot of LGBTQ women run in primaries," LPAC Executive Director Lisa Turner said.
Read the full story from NBC News here.
Original Posting by:
NBC News,
April 15, 2021