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A major LGBTQ rights group is putting money behind efforts to turn out voters in swing districts and key battleground states in 2026 as Democrats feel bolder about their chances of retaking the House and possibly even the Senate.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced a $15m investment on Tuesday, split across eight key battleground House districts as well as several states with major Senate races and hotly contested ballot initiatives. The aim of the investment, HRC officials said, is to boost the number of LGBTQ members on Capitol Hill, defeating ballot initiatives aimed at scaling back LGBTQ rights, and backing pro-equality candidates in other races.
The eight districts central to HRC’s effort include Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s district in Pennsylvania and Rep. Mike Lawler’s district in New York; the two have been named some of the DCCC’s top targets for the cycle as well.
An official familiar with the HRC campaign told The Independent that the eight House races targeted by the effort “were collectively decided by just 157,000 votes in 2024, compared to the nearly 1.5M Equality Voters in those districts that we believe can provide the winning margin.”
But Democrats are looking far beyond just those districts as the party sits on the precipice of a potential wave year that could see Republicans take historic losses in the lower chamber.
With Republicans only currently holding a four-seat majority in the House (thanks to Tuesday’s news of Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation), the party can scarcely afford losses in November if Donald Trump is to have any hope of finding funding for his agenda in the upcoming Congress. But polls show Trump’s approval rating dropping to as low as 37 percent, while the Democratic lead on the generic ballot question is growing.
“November is coming, and voters are ready to get free from hate, free from discrimination, free from the chaos holding this country back,” said HRC’s president Kelley Robinson.
Also targeted by HRC’s investment is the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio currently held by Republican Sen. Jon Husted. Democrats have a strong contender for the seat in former Sen. Sherrod Brown, and view Ohio as crucial to their path to picking up four seats (and thereby winning a majority) in the fall. Apart from Ohio, the HRC investment will also go towards defending seats held by retiring Democrats in three states and helping Sen. Jon Ossoff fend off Republicans in Georgia.
Figures detailing how the HRC investment will be divied up were not immediately available.
“[F]lipping the House is HRC’s top electoral priority and the organization will dedicate its resources appropriately to deliver on that goal,” an HRC official added to The Independent about that division.
“LGBTQ+ voters are more motivated than they’ve ever been to make their voices heard at the ballot box, and HRC’s electoral plan will ensure that the 74 million Equality Voters across the country will deliver the winning margins in competitive races across the country. The time is now for us to mobilize, organize, and turn our grassroots energy into a voting force that cannot be denied,” said Robinson.
Despite Donald Trump pointing to his favored use of The Village People’s hit “YMCA” at his rallies as evidence of his outreach to and support from gay and lesbian Americans, the president’s second term has almost been entirely defined on the subject of the LGBTQ community by the president’s retribution against transgender Americans.
In various tirades against the Democratic Party, Trump has claimed that his opponents want “transgender for everybody”, a derisive reference to Democrats’ support for transgender Americans, including children and teens, having access to specialized resources for trans individuals, including hormone treatments and gender-affirming care.
Republicans in Congress, like Trump’s onetime ally Nancy Mace, have even stooped to interpersonal bullying of the Hill’s only transgender representative, Rep. Sarah McBride.
During a staged White House event last week, Trump received a DoorDash delivery of McDonald’s from a deliveryperson whom he then questioned, in front of the cameras, about her views on transgender students’ participation in sports. The woman evaded his question.
