Out Pennsylvania House of Representatives candidate Brian Sims got the backing this week of a national LGBT political group.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund endorsed Sims in his bid to represent Pennsylvania’s 182nd District.
If elected, Sims would be Pennsylvania’s first openly LGBT state lawmaker.
Victory Fund endorses LGBT candidates for local, state and federal office across the nation. In order to qualify for the endorsement, candidates must demonstrate “community support and a realistic plan to win,” and back LGBT civil-rights efforts, as well as privacy and reproductive-freedom issues.
Sims said the application for the endorsement was an arduous one.
“It’s really quite a process,” he said. “It starts with a detailed campaign plan and a budget and, if you make it through the first round, you then submit a series of questionnaires and secondary detailed campaign plans.”
If the application meets the Fund’s criteria, it comes before the organization’s board for a vote.
Sims said the tough endorsement process makes the final seal of approval even more appreciated.
“Part of the reason Victory Fund is so important is because they don’t give candidates a pass-through,” he said. “Anyone who’s applied for this or received it knows that the process itself is a litmus test for the professionalism and complexity of the campaign you’re running. You don’t get the endorsement just for being LGBT; you have to go through so many processes and really be a person who genuinely knows politics and knows a campaign.”
The endorsement will come with a campaign contribution from Victory Fund in 2012, but Sims has not been informed yet of the amount. He said the organization ranks candidates and allocates the level of contribution based on a number of factors, including national interest and their ability to set a precedent in their state, and he said he is considered a “top tier” candidate.
Sims previously served on the Victory Fund campaign board and said the endorsement is especially rewarding given his knowledge of the organization’s work.
“I’m really excited about this,” he said. “Victory Fund has been around for 20 years. It’s because of Victory Fund that I have been able to meet and talk with all four LG members of Congress. I have an insane amount of respect for Victory Fund and it’s very humbling to be endorsed by a group of people I know to be very competent and very, very professional.”
