Today we endorsed Mondaire Jones in his 2020 race for New York’s 17th Congressional district! As an openly LGBTQ Black man, Jones can make history in 2020. No openly LGBTQ black person has ever been elected to the U.S. Congress and only two openly LGBTQ people of color have served. His race for the open seat is key to efforts to increase the number of LGBTQ people elected to Congress in 2020.
Jones raised over $218 thousand in the third quarter – his first quarter since announcing his candidacy in August – and last week received seven key endorsements from local progressive activists and leaders. One of his primary opponents, New York state Senator David Carlucci, spent eight years caucusing with Senate Republicans at a time when the Republican majority was blocking legislation to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination and to ban “conversion therapy.”
“While Mondaire is talking about the progressive issues most important to his constituents – healthcare access, universal childcare and climate change – he is also running a historic race that will be watched closely by LGBTQ people across the country,” said Mayor Annise Parker, our President & CEO. “Mondaire will become the first openly LGBTQ Black member of Congress when elected, becoming a crucial voice in a Congress with too few LGBTQ people and people of color. Our country needs more LGBTQ leaders like Mondaire who can positively influence the direction of the next U.S. Congress – benefiting not just his district but all Americans.”
Jones is Victory Fund’s fifth federal endorsement for the 2020 election cycle, having endorsed Mayor Pete Buttigieg for President of the United States and Ritchie Torres, Gina Ortiz Jones and Jon Hoadley for U.S. House. Torres, if elected, would be the first Afro-Latinx member of Congress
See all of our endorsed candidates at victoryfund.org/ourcandidates.
