Race/Ethnicity of LGBTQ Candidates: 2018 – 2021

LGBTQ candidates of color represent 36 percent of all LGBTQ candidates who ran or are running in 2021 — the highest percentage since Victory Fund first reported this data in 2018. LGBTQ candidates are significantly more racially and ethnically diverse than candidates overall. In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, candidates of color were just 10 percent of all candidates who ran (heterosexual, cisgender and LGBTQ).

Women of color, however, are severely underrepresented among LGBTQ candidates. Just 10 percent of LGBTQ candidates in 2021 were women of color, despite representing 20 percent of the U.S. population. Men of color represented 22 percent of LGBTQ candidates and are 19 percent of the U.S. population.

* The “total candidate” data from Reflective Democracy Campaign only breaks gender down by “man” and “woman.” In this graph, transgender women are included in the “women” category and transgender men in the “men” category. Genderqueer, gender non-conforming, non-binary and intersex candidates are included as a third category. You can see a full breakdown of LGBTQ candidates by gender identity here.

Of the 410 LGBTQ candidates identified in 2021, Victory Fund was able to determine the exact race and/or ethnicity for 408 of them. In 2020, it was 780 of 1006; in 2019, 341 of 382; and in 2018, 588 of 716. All graphs and percentages are based on candidates for whom this information was known. Some categories of gender and race/ethnicity are not the same as the totals because of either missing gender and/or race/ethnicity data.