In this week’s Rainbow Votes 2020, Xtra’s U.S. political correspondent Nico Lang explores the latest Trump polls, the ongoing attacks against LGBTQ2 candidates running for public office and how one group of teenagers are encouraging queer kids to vote this election.
Here’s what’s in store for this week’s Rainbow Votes 2020. (And remember: The Brief is just your sneak peek into our new U.S. election newsletter. Subscribe now to get the full version, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis and Q&As.)
Who’s supporting Donald Trump?
In the aftermath of Trump’s win in 2016, white women were infamously noted for having been among the president’s greatest supporters at the ballot box. Now, a Fox News poll claims that support for Trump has only grown among white women—leading 19 points ahead of Democrat Joe Biden.
‘The next-generation fight for LGBTQ2 equality’
Two Democratic candidates for Congress in Massachusetts—Alex Morse and Robbie Goldstein—were the subjects of homophobic smear campaigns this past week, efforts to keep LGBTQ2 candidates out of office. And as Sean Meloy, a senior political director at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, puts it, “It’s pretty difficult to say that this won’t happen again.” Lang looks at the uphill battle queer and trans candidates will face as they begin to vie for political power more and more.
Getting queer kids to the polls
Ace Auker wants to make voting cool. The 18-year-old from Florida is among several LGBTQ2 teens lending their voices to the LGBTQ2 organization Human Rights Campaign’s new effort to head to the ballot box this November. Lang explores the social media initiative—and why queer and trans kids’ votes matter so much.
ICYMI
The past two weeks have been among the most chaotic in modern American history, to say the least. Facing a global pandemic that has claimed nearly 200,000 lives in the U.S., an economic crisis that has cost an estimated 22 million jobs, and two hurricanes wreaking havoc on Gulf Coast communities, Donald Trump found time to defend a white nationalist murderer. When asked about Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old Trump supporter who killed two people during the police brutality protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the president asserted that Rittenhouse was “trying to get away from them.” Victim-blaming the dead, Trump said the protesters “violently attacked” the shooter.
The moment
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Ben Crump (@attorneycrump) on
After being shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 29-year-old Jacob Blake sent a message from his hospital bed this week. While both Joe Biden and his vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris visited Blake, Donald Trump declined, noting he’d prefer not to visit where “lawyers were involved”—a routine practice during visits with politicians.
For more U.S. politics delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to Rainbow Votes 2020 today! Enter your email address below:
You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our newsletters. Our emails may contain promotional messages, please see our Privacy Policy.
Why you can trust Xtra
