Colorado State elects first openly gay governor in US
Dead Republican brothel owner wins election in Nevada
LOS ANGELES: Democratic Congressman Jared Polis has won the governor’s race in Colorado, networks projected on Tuesday, making him the first openly gay person to be elected as a US governor. The five-term congressman, 43, who defeated Republican Walker Stapleton, was open about his sexual orientation during the campaign, often referring to it in his criticism of President Donald Trump.
Kate Brown became the first bisexual governor when she was elected in Oregon in 2015, while another governor, Jim McGreevey of New Jersey, came out as gay before resigning in 2004. But Polis is the first openly gay candidate to be elected governor. He will succeed Democrat John Hickenlooper, who has been in office since 2011. A self-made millionaire and tech entrepreneur, Polis was admitted to Princeton University at age 16. And he has said that he set his sights on becoming governor when he was in college. Polis, who is Jewish, switched his name from Jared Schultz to Jared Polis at age 25 to honor his grandmother, he has said.
He was one of hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates in the midterm elections, including 21 for Congress and four for governor. “LGBTQ candidates are running for office in unprecedented numbers and in every state in the nation - and it is already inspiring more LGBTQ people to run in the near future,” Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a nonpartisan group, said ahead of the elections. “This rainbow wave of candidates is certainly concentrated in blue states and districts, but LGBTQ leaders in conservative parts of the nation are standing up and determined to become
public servants while remaining true to who they are.
Dead brothel owner wins Meanwhile, a brothel-owning, evangelical Christian-backed Republican candidate who died last month won his race for the Nevada state legislature late on Tuesday, according to state election officials. Dennis Hof, 72, defeated Democratic candidate and educator Lesia Romanov in the race for Nevada’s 36th Assembly District, earning about 68 percent of the vote. County officials said they would appoint a replacement candidate from the same party for his seat.
A representative for Romanov did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hof, who presented himself as an American pimp, was a stripclub owner who ran multiple brothels. He had nicknamed himself the “Trump from Pahrump,” after the town where he lived in Nevada. In a June interview with Reuters at Moonlite BunnyRanch, his brothel near his home in Pahrump, Nevada, Hof said his political fortunes had parallels with those of US President Donald Trump. “This really is the Trump movement,” Hof said. “People will set aside for a moment their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs, to get somebody that is honest in office.”
VP brother in Congress
The US midterm elections on Tuesday will bring a range of fresh faces to Washington, from the vice president’s brother to the youngest-ever woman in Congress. Here is a look at some of the most prominent of the new legislators:
Young left-wing star
At 29, staunch left-winger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and one of the youngest members ever. Until recently making ends meet as a bartender, Ocasio-Cortez scored an upset in a Democratic primary in New York City to defeat 10-term member Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful members of the party. She easily won Tuesday against a Republican in the heavily Democratic and ethnically diverse district straddling Queens and The Bronx. A supporter of leftist Senator Bernie Sanderswho won his own re-election bid Tuesday-OcasioCortez has quickly become a national voice with her calls for a universal health care system, tuition-free public universities and the abolition of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has executed President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport undocumented immigrants. —Agencies