In a rematch for the Democratic nomination to represent an area of Northeast Philadelphia in the state House, Jared Solomon edged out incumbent Mark Cohen for victory with about 1,200 more votes. Solomon first challenged Cohen in 2014.
Cohen’s sister is a lesbian and he has been a strong supporter of LGBT rights. Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club and Equality Pennsylvania have both endorsed him. Solomon, as a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, has advised on policy for a number of things including LGBT rights, according to his LinkedIn page.
Besides this upset, the rest of the election went as expected.
Hillary Clinton bested Bernie Sanders by nearly 198,000 votes in Pennsylvania on the Democratic side for president. Her margin of victory was even wider in Philadelphia. Clinton has been endorsed by all the major LGBT-rights groups locally and nationally. Sanders is also a strong LGBT supporter.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump took Pennsylvania with almost 57 percent of the vote and looks likely to earn his party’s nomination for president. Despite saying he thinks marriage is between a man and a woman, he took a more tempered approach to transgender issues, saying at a town hall this month that transgender people should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate.”
Katie McGinty earned the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate with about 150,000 more votes than Joe Sestak, a former Congressman from Delaware County who was considered her biggest competition. Liberty City spent the most time at its endorsement meeting in March deciding between these two contenders, ultimately deciding on McGinty because she had stronger ideas on transgender issues. McGinty will face incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey in November.
Brian Sims, the first elected openly gay state lawmaker, retained his hold on representing Center City, including the Gayborhood, in the state House. The race was close among four Democrats, but Sims held 700 votes over his closest challenger, Ben Waxman. Lou Lanni, another openly gay contender, got the least votes. Sims is the presumptive winner in the November general election; no Republicans filed for the primary.
Dwight Evans won the Democratic nomination to represent parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties in Congress. He had a comfortable lead of more than 13,000 votes over Chaka Fattah, who was indicted over the summer on charges of racketeering and related crimes. When Evans unsuccessfully ran for Philadelphia mayor in 2007, he came out in support of the LGBT community and said he would encourage openly gay and transgender candidates to run for city offices. Evans will face Republican James Jones, who ran unopposed in the primary, in the November election for Congress.
Josh Shapiro, the chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and a strong supporter of LGBT rights, took the Democratic nomination for attorney general, beating Stephen Zappala, his closest competitor, by nearly 157,000 votes. Shapiro will face Republican John C. Rafferty Jr., a Montgomery County state senator, in the November election. Rafferty easily beat Joseph C. Peters in the primary with almost 350,000 more votes.