Renowned LGBTQ+ advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has recently announced a $15 million effort to help incumbent Joe Biden win re-election in this fall’s presidential race. The spending will be divvied up across six key battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, which are said to be the states that will ultimately decide November’s presidential election. The HRC campaign will include paid ads, staff hires, field campaigns, and events across the battleground states.
The decision to invest follows HRC estimates that this year will render around 75 million “equality voters” who will vote based on support for LGBTQ rights, a number which has increased from 62 million in 2020 and 52 million in 2016, according to NBC.
However, the HRC is also aware that hundreds of thousands of potential voters in these swing states are considering steering clear of voting altogether. There is also rising concern for voters who will likely vote for a third party. HRC President Kelley Robinson spoke about her fear that these voters may hurt Biden’s chances at re-election.
“This group of votes, when you break them down by state, can actually make the difference. In a state like Arizona, where President Biden won it by about 10,000 votes, you got 1.4 million equality voters,” she said.
“We’re going to be knocking on doors, making phone calls, engaging every member that we’ve got to make sure that our people turn out.”
As conservative legislation has targeted the LGBTQ+ community in recent years, the stakes of this election are high for LGBTQ people. Many fear that without Biden, hateful legislation could continue to rear its ugly head at not just a state, but a federal level.
In the past, the HRC has stood behind Democratic candidates like Barack Obama, and they endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. They continue to push for a more accepting, inclusive country for LGBTQ+ Americans.
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