Nearly an hour into a fundraiser in a tidy gated community just outside Palm Springs in late May, a soft-spoken Lisa Middleton — who could become California’s first openly transgender state lawmaker if elected in November — acknowledged her historic bid for public office in a matter-of-fact, low-key way.
It wasn’t until she was talking about pedestrian safety, public transit, college access and climate change over deviled eggs and sweaty glasses of lemonade in the desert city where she once served as mayor that she brought up her gender identity.
The approach is deliberate: A campaign ad released last week omits the Democratic candidate’s potentially groundbreaking election and instead emphasizes her ability to work with Republicans on issues like building better roads and creating jobs.
“I will never take away from who I am, but what I’ve consistently tried to do is make it clear that it’s just part of my identity — it’s not everything,” Middleton told The Times. “And it’s not why I ran for office.”
However, identity politics are inevitable in the competitive race to represent California’s 19th Senate District, as LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and top Democrats push for Middleton to capture the long-held Republican seat currently held by incumbent Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Redlands), who is also running as a “first.”
Since being elected to the state Legislature in 2020, Ochoa Bogh, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, has made being the first Latina Republican in the California Senate a key part of her platform. She calls it an overlooked demographic that values “family, faith and work ethic.” According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 16% of likely Latino voters in the state are registered Republicans.
“I haven’t heard my voice as a conservative Latina,” she said. “People think Republicans only represent rich people or white people.”
Ochoa Bogh, 52, is a former teacher, real estate agent and school board member from Yucaipa. She serves on the Senate Education and Housing Committees and is the author of bills signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that support mental health providers and provide free access to scholarships for military personnel.
Middleton, 72, is a longtime member of the Palm Springs City Council and previously oversaw fraud investigations for California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund. Her campaign principles include creating more affordable housing and demanding accountability for state spending on issues such as homelessness.
Both candidates have endorsements from law enforcement and promise to crack down on crime in a district plagued by fentanyl overdoses and human trafficking. Both see themselves as pragmatists, saying they’re more interested in unsexy local government issues and meeting with everyday voters than in political theater.
And both are campaigning to give California’s underrepresented residents a voice in the Capitol.
But that’s where the similarities seem to end.
Middleton is endorsing Kamala Harris for president in November, and Ochoa Bogh is endorsing Donald Trump. While Middleton has made protecting abortion rights a central plank of her campaign, Ochoa Bogh received a 0% rating from Planned Parenthood for her legislative reporting last year and authored a bill that would have required schools to teach about anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. The bill never reached the governor’s desk.
For Middleton, who transitioned from male to female 30 years ago and married her wife in 2013, Ocha Bogh’s voting record in the Senate is a personal matter.
The Republican has opposed bills that would strengthen gender-affirming health care services and protect transgender children and their families from criminalization for seeking treatment in California. She has abstained from voting on bills that would affirm same-sex marriage rights in the state constitution and recognize LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
One of Ochoa Bogh’s most impassioned speeches on the Senate floor this year came when she stood up to oppose a bill that would ban schools from requiring teachers to inform parents about students’ gender identity changes. While Democrats warned that conservative school board rules could exclude transgender children who might not be accepted at home, Ochoa Bogh called it “bad policy” and said that “the default assumption should always be that parents are acting in the best interests of their children.”
Campaigning in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in a race fueled by a recently redrawn district where thousands of registered Democrats filed, Middleton pulled out a big one from Ocho Bogh.
“The lies that are being talked about — and they are lies — are lies that I fundamentally know because I’ve lived this life,” Middleton said.
Middleton called coming out as transgender “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do” and said she feels fortunate to have been able to maintain a relationship with her children and a successful career while others have struggled to find the same acceptance.
“I fought that for a long, long time,” she said. “Anyone who’s ever been in the closet knows what it’s like to try to pretend to be someone you’re not.”
Ochoa Bogh was moved to tears as she spoke about transgender suicide rates, saying she has “a lot of compassion and empathy” for the community.
She said her voting record doesn’t make her anti-LGBTQ+, but she had nuanced reasons for opposing each bill. For example, she voted against the same-sex marriage measure because it didn’t include an exception that would ensure churches wouldn’t be forced to perform ceremonies they don’t support, she said, and she has concerns about medical treatment when it comes to transgender minors.
“We have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness, whatever that may look like, as long as it doesn’t infringe on someone else’s ability to do the same,” Ochoa Bogh said last month from the California GOP headquarters in Sacramento. “I would never do anything that would be disrespectful to anyone’s life or choices. We all have family members of that nature.”
The race for the Senate is expected to be one of the tightest legislative contests of this election.
In the March primary, Ochoa Bogh received 54% of the vote to Middleton’s 46%.
The newly redrawn district combines Republican strongholds of San Bernardino County, including parts of the Inland Empire and the high desert, with liberal areas of Riverside County, such as Palm Springs, and is home to more than half a million voters.
The district, once right-leaning, is now nearly even when it comes to party preference — with 35% of voters Republican and 36% Democrat, with the remaining percentage having no party preference or other parties. Trump narrowly won the district over President Biden in 2020.
Nearly half of the district’s voters are now new to Ochoa Bogh, a process she calls “demoralizing,” but it has motivated her to hold about 50 meetings.
“I’m very involved because I believe it’s important to be accountable and as transparent as possible with your constituents,” she said.
Each candidate tries to distinguish themselves from the other, but at the same time wants to avoid their groundbreaking role becoming a distraction.
Pei-Te Lien, a professor at UC Santa Barbara who specializes in identity politics, says it can be difficult for politicians to navigate this.
She pointed to Harris’ presidential campaign, which could make her the first woman and the first person of Asian descent to become president. According to Lien, Harris has not exaggerated that fact strategically.
“Voters are getting more and more used to it,” Lien said. “The idea that we can embrace people’s different identities and backgrounds and still see them as equally capable of representing us and speaking for us and understanding our concerns, that’s definitely a development — a good development — in terms of politics.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
