Chance to Elect Gay Friendly Candidates In November Is High, Expert Says

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

While it’s been a fact through the entire history of the United States that less people vote in years that there is no presidential election, those who work on politics every day say that voters are more engaged this year than in the past.
“The LGBT electorate is a lot like the broader electorate, everyone is paying attention in this cycle,” said Equality Florida Field Director Joe Saunders. “We saw a strong increase in many communities due to our efforts.”
Saunders worked very closely on the Florida House of Representatives District-92 Democratic primary race which saw incumbent Gwyndolen ‘Gwyn’ Clarke-Reed beat openly-gay Wilton Manors Vice Mayor Justin Flippen by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin. Clarke-Reed captured 3,871 votes while Flippen had 3,018.
“In Florida, something like 98 percent of incumbents retained their seats,” Saunders said. “Justin came the closest to unseating an incumbent in any election throughout the state.”
Saunders believes that the LGBT community was heavily involved in the
Flippen campaign, because historically it would have been the first ever openly- gay man elected to serve in the Florida House.
“If we talk to our community and inform them about the issues, they are more likely to come out,” Saunders said.
Statewide, 87 percent of candidates that Equality Florida endorsed with their voters’ guide won during the primary, the highest rate for EQFL since they started creating a voters guide. Equality Florida only endorses candidates it feels will help push the fight for LGBT equality.
In Palm Beach County, nearly all the candidates that the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council endorsed proved to be victorious in the primary election on August 24.
“Once again, Palm Beach County’s GLBT community came out in great numbers to vote in the August 24 primary election, but that is to be expect- ed,” said Palm Beach County Human Rights Council President Rand Hoch. “As a result of our efforts, we have created thousands and thousands of GLBT‘supervoters’ in Palm Beach County. [‘Supervoters’ is a term for meaning voters who consistently turn out in every election, including municipal elections.]”
Hoch said his group creates palm cards with their endorsements, which where sent out in a series of six emails prior to the election.
“At every election, poll workers at our targeted precincts would let us know that a lot of people coming in to vote were using the palm cards as they voted,” Hoch said. “When we checked our targeted precincts after last week’s election, the voter turnout was significantly higher than in other precincts — excluding the well-organized condo communities such as Century Village. And our endorsed candidates garnered significantly higher margins of sup- port in the targeted precincts than in most others.”
In Miami-Dade, the candidates that Save Dade endorsed were victorious 50 percent of the time. The two openly gay and lesbian candidates, Scott Galvin running for U.S. House of Representatives, District 17 only picked up four percent of the vote in a crowded field.    Miriam “Mimi” Planas, an openly lesbian woman ran for county com- missioner in District 10 but she came up short, only garnering 23 percent of the vote.
Statewide, those who do politics for a living think that there is still a really good chance to get LGBT-friendly allies elected in November.
“I don’t see any voter apathy in Palm Beach County’s GLBT community,” Hoch said. “We have used the same tag line for our elections for decades. ‘Only by electing supportive officials can we change laws and policies which affect our lives.’ The Palm Beach County GLBT community understands this, since we have so many strong ordinances and policies — not to mention two openly gay mayors.”
Saunders agrees. “If we all come together as a voting block and a political voice, we can all make a meaningful difference,” Saunders said.