There are three openly gay candidates running for Congress and one for Governor in the general election in Texas, which is a first, according to Equality Texas.
Lorie Burch is a candidate for the 3rd Congressional District.
“It is an exciting time, I think. For me it is not critical to who I am, or what I am about in the sense of a candidate, but it’s part of a representation,” said Burch.
Burch joins Gina Ortiz Jones, who is running in San Antonio, and Eric Holgiun, the Democratic nominee in Corpus Christi.
“I think you see a lot of people who don't feel like they actually have a seat at the table. And so, for the LGBTQ community this is huge to have people that are not only advocating for them, but actually at the table who understand what it is like to walk in their shoes,” Burch added.
Steve Atkinson, board member of Equality Texas, thinks these candidates will work for issues important to Equality Texas.
“If they are elected, you know each of them will have an opportunity to help us really advance all the causes that we care about for LGBT equality, and other causes quite frankly, that we’re all concerned about,” said Atkinson.
But it is a tough road ahead for some of the candidates.
Ortiz is running in a swing district, and Burch's seat is in red Collin County.
She is up against Senator Van Taylor, who has already represented the district in the state legislature.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Atkinson is confident there will be some success.
“I think it is going to happen. I think with this election cycle, we have possible victories coming and I think we will keep having openly gay and lesbian candidates running for office in the future. And no doubt, some of them are going to win,” he added.
