LGBTQ candidates competed in primary races for Congress and State Senate across New York on August 23, yielding victories for many of the established queer elected officials heading into the general election in November. And while newcomers largely struggled to break through, one Congressional district concluded the night with gay candidates on both sides of the aisle, setting up a general election battle between two out competitors.
There were more than a dozen out candidates on ballots in New York, but much of the attention was on the hotly contested race for New York’s 10th Congressional District, where out gay Congressmember Mondaire Jones sought a second term on Capitol Hill in a new district and another out LGBTQ candidate, Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, aimed to make the jump from Albany to Washington.
