LGBTQ - Election 2020

LGBTQ individuals illicit a progressive vanguard in recent polls

Shayla Bannert

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans owned the highest number of votes in their states’ Democratic primaries this year than ever before (Fitzsimons, 2020). Along with this increase in votes, the results skewed younger and more liberal than non-LGBTQ Democratic primary voters, according the NBC News Exit Poll that was conducted in 18 out of the states that have voted thus far. The NBC poll covers Alabama, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Caroline, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington – Iowa and Nevada caucuses were not included in this exit poll.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is the common pick amongst LGBTQ Democratic primary voters when compared to Vice President Joe Biden. According to the polls, 41% of the LGBTQ Democratic individuals voted for Sanders, while 21% voted for Biden. The remaining 48% was split between candidates who have withdrawn from the race (Fitzsimons, 2020).

When asked to choose their ideal candidate based on “qualities”, the results were very similar and respectable. According to the voters, 36% of individuals said they wanted someone who “can bring change”, 27% said someone who “can unite the country”, 26$ said someone who “care about people like me” and 8% said “a fighter”. It is remarkable that many of these characteristics’ LGBTQ individuals admire are characteristics they possess themselves or have contributed to over the course of their lifetime.

“Even as society moves toward more legal recognition, more acceptance, more tolerance and therefore more assimilation of the LGBT population, it’s interesting — and these data certainly back it up — to see that they remain such a distinctively progressive group,” said Patrick Egan, an NYU political science professor who also serves as an elections analyst for the NBC News Exit Poll.

The results of the poll are extremely progressive and have rarely been seen before in such a “minority” group. Two-thirds of the LGBTQ Democratic voters were 44 or younger, when compared to their non-LGBTQ counterparts; while 79% of the LGBTQ Democratic voters identified as “liberal”, while just 21% say that are “moderate: or “conservative” (Fitzsimons, 2020).72% of the LGBTQ Democratic voters were in favor of “Medicare for All”, which shows support for replacing private insurance groups with government insurance. In every state, the percentage of the electorate that was LGBTQ individuals was more than double the state’s estimated LGBTQ population; in some cases, like Maine and Missouri, it was nearly triple.

The polls also showed that LGBTQ Democratic voters were unhappy and not in favor with current President Trump. Results stated that 83% of these individuals described their feelings as “angry and dissatisfied”, when they were asked about their thoughts of the current president. Referring back to the 2016 election, 78% of LGBTQ voters chose Clinton, while 14% chose Trump (Fitzsimons, 2020). In Arizona and Florida, LGBTQ individuals make up around 4.5-4.6% of the populations. These millions of individuals have the ability to make a large impact in favor of Democratic candidates in a close election as the states that pushed Trump to an electoral college victory in 2016 were far less than each state’s estimated LGBTQ population.

Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT group, called these results a “historically high turnout” for gender and sexual minorities (Fitzsimons, 2020), which prove that LGBTQ voters’ opinions are recognized and have the ability to make an extremely large impact on the outcome of future elections.

Currently, 9% of the entire Democratic primary electorate so far has consisted of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals – let’s see how the remainder of this election plays out.

Until next time,

Shayla Bannert, MPH(c)

 Resource: 

Fitzsimons, T. (2020, March 11). 'Progressive vanguard': 9% of Democratic primary voters so far are LGBT. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/progressive-vanguard-9-democratic-primary-voters-so-far-are-lgbt-n1156031