Washington, DC – Today LGBTQ Victory Fund, the only national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, endorsed New York City Councilmember Ritchie Torres in his 2020 race for New York’s 15th Congressional district. In the primary, Torres will face one of the most anti-LGBTQ Democrats in the entire nation – fellow Councilmember Ruben Diaz, Sr. – and the primary winner will almost certainly win the general election in this heavily Democratic district. Torres will become the first openly LGBTQ Afro-Latinx person ever elected to Congress if he is victorious in November 2020.
In the second quarter, Torres raised $522,000 compared to Diaz’s $80,766, making Torres the clear frontrunner in the race.
“This is among the most important Democratic Congressional primaries of 2020, with voters choosing between one of the most homophobic Democrats in the nation and an openly gay man who champions equality,” said Mayor Annise Parker, President & CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund. “Ritchie will become the first openly LGBTQ Afro-Latinx person ever elected to Congress when he wins in 2020 – adding a crucial voice to a Congress where people of color and LGBTQ people are severely underrepresented. The South Bronx deserves a leader who uses their position to champion the urban poor and other underserved communities, not a man who uses his platform to denigrate his own constituents because they are women or LGBTQ.”
“This primary presents a stark choice: between a progressive new guard and a reactionary old guard; between an LGBTQ trailblazer and a vicious homophobe; between a new generation of leadership and more of the same,” said Torres. “This endorsement makes clear that this race is of utmost importance to the LGBTQ community and will have a profound impact on the types of policies that are pushed in Washington DC to impact LGBTQ people. I’m proud to have the endorsement of Victory Fund.”
Torres is Victory Fund’s fifth federal endorsement for the 2020 election cycle, having endorsed Mayor Pete Buttigieg for President of the United States, Dan Baer for U.S. Senate, and Gina Ortiz Jones and Jon Hoadley for U.S. House. In 2018, Victory Fund endorsed a historic number of LGBTQ candidates for Congress. Eight U.S. House candidates and two U.S. Senate candidates won their elections – the most ever.
More information about the candidates is available at victoryfund.org/ourcandidates. Since 1991, Victory Fund has helped thousands of openly LGBTQ candidates win local, state and federal elections.
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LGBTQ Victory Fund
LGBTQ Victory Fund works to change the face and voice of America’s politics and achieve equality for LGBTQ Americans by increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government.
