FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Angela Hale, Equality Texas, 512.289.2995 angela@redmediagroup.com

ELECTION RECAP: EQUALITY IS A WINNING MESSAGE

Author of the Bathroom Bill in Texas House Goes Down in Defeat

Austin, TX (November 7, 2018) – Equality Texas, the largest statewide organization solely dedicated to securing full equality for LGBT Texans, today is celebrating election results from the 2018 mid-term elections.  Pro-equality candidates won up and down the ballot in Texas and many of the most extreme anti-LGBT candidates lost their seats in the Texas House and Senate.  The political landscape is shifting in Texas and these results show we are closer than ever before to our goal of ensuring that every LGBTQ Texan has full legal and lived equality.

“Make no mistake, the political map changed in Texas last night.  Candidates up and down the ballot who ran on pro-equality messages had unprecedented success, and openly LGBTQ candidates across the state made history.  The author of the bathroom bill in Texas, Rep. Ron Simmons went down in defeat, as did several of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ members of the Texas Senate,” said Chuck Smith, CEO of Equality Texas.

Equality Texas invested in get-out-the-vote work in key races and proved that equality is a winning message:

• We elected four new pro-equality members of the Texas congressional delegation, including the first Latinas ever to represent Texas in Congress!

• Don Huffines and Konni Burton, two of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ members of the Texas State Senate, will be replaced by Nathan Johnson and Beverly Powell, senators who will support equality for everyone.

• Eight of the eleven Texas State House candidates we endorsed won, shifting the balance in that chamber toward equality as well.

• And openly LGBTQ candidates blazed new paths all over the Lone Star State, running in more than thirty competitive races and winning thirteen key legislative and judicial races. There are now five openly LGBTQ women in the Texas House: incumbents Mary Gonzalez and Celia Israel, and newcomers Jessica Gonzalez, Julie Johnson and Erin Zwiener.

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Equality Texas is the largest statewide organization working to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration.