Two Losses Mean We Won't Get More LGBT Senators

Jim Gray had a consistent case to Kentucky voters when running for U.S. Senate. He promised to put state voters first and never get distracted by presidential aspirations. It was an overt jab at his opponent, incumbent Republican Rand Paul, who failed to win the Republican presidential nomination.

If by chance Gray had won and gotten distracted like Paul, it would’ve been historic, because we’ve never had a gay president of the United States.

But it also turns out the country will go another election cycle without an out gay man in the U.S. Senate. Gray lost his Senate bid Tuesday, with the AP calling the race at 6:59 p.m. ET. That was followed later in the night by the AP calling the Utah Senate race with a loss for Misty Snow, the transgender woman challenging Mike Lee there. Then the Associated Press projected the Republican Party had won enough races to keep control of the U.S. Senate.

Both Gray and Snow were long-shot bids from the outset, but Gray had the better chances. He is the well liked mayor of Lexington and a successful construction-business owner able to help fund his campaign. Those were points in his favor. The real odds that stacked against him were those Paul political connections, both within Kentucky and nationally. An outside super PAC actually ran attack ads against Gray at one point, calling him a weak supporter of the coal industry.

It wasn’t Gray’s sexual orientation in that attack ad, and it was rarely mentioned in articles written about the campaign in Kentucky. When interviewed by The Advocate after Gray won the Democratic primary, he recounted how he’d been confronted on rare occasions by voters about being gay.

These people were “aggressively advocating their point of view, which was not an inclusive point of view, I’ll put it that way,” Gray said.

Gray would touch on an important point then, that he is a pioneer no matter what happens on Election Night.

“When these feelings come from a deeply religious background, I am unlikely to change them. But I do know that I’m a role model and that I’m breaking new ground with this statewide election.”

Neither Snow or Gray were able to win the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign, which would’ve meant a campaign donation. Gray was endorsed by the Victory Fund; Snow was not.

Meanwhile, the Senate already has its first and only out member in history, Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, who was elected during the last presidential election cycle.