President Joe BidenThe party’s reelection campaign is launching an effort to shore up support among LGBTQ voters at the start of National Pride Month.
The campaign plans to have a presence at more than 200 Pride events in 23 states this month, including all battleground states, and launch a paid media blitz aimed at mobilizing LGBTQ voters, two campaign officials said in details first published shared with NBC News. . The campaign concludes the month of outreach with a fundraiser in New York City on June 28.
Some Biden allies worry about declining support among LGBTQ voters.
Last weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off Pride Month with a salute to more than 150 LGBTQ leaders and allies in Los Angeles, and first lady Jill Biden made an unannounced stop at the Pittsburgh Pride festival.
“This community is under attack,” the first lady told the crowd, referring to state laws she said target the LGBTQ community.
“Donald Trump is a bully to the LGBTQ community, to our families, to our country,” she continued. “We can’t let him win.”
A poll conducted in January by the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD found that Joe Biden has overwhelming support from LGBTQ registered voters overall and in battleground states, 68% and 72%, compared to 15% for Trump in both categories.
Still, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, recently pledged to spend $15 million in six battleground states to help Biden win in November, citing concerns about declining support from LGBTQ voters. HRC estimates that this year, a third of the 75 million “equality voters” — who vote based on support for LGBTQ rights — may not be guaranteed Biden voters.
“Our primary role with these voters is to help drive home the stakes of the election,” said Brandon Wolf, HRC’s national press secretary. “The contrast between the two candidates could not be clearer, and that is especially true when we talk about issues of equality.”
The Biden campaign is aware of the statistic and plans to pour money into a digital and print media campaign nationally and in battleground states, promoting Biden as “the most pro-equality president in American history” while Trump is depicted as determined to curb equality for LGBTQ people. communities.
“Winning campaigns invest early and often in the Biden-Harris campaign’s support coalition,” said Sam Alleman, national LGBTQ+ engagement director for the Biden-Harris campaign. “This Pride month reflects real action to mobilize and activate LGBTQ+ voters well before November.”
Any softening of support among LGBTQ voters is a source of frustration for Biden allies, who argue he has delivered on their priorities, including supporting same-sex marriage as vice president in 2012, ahead of President Barack Obama’s plans to to publicly endorse the issue. As president, Biden has signed legislation protecting marriage rights for same-sex couples, ended the ban on transgender Americans from serving in the military and issued executive orders protecting the civil rights of LGBTQ people.
On Friday, he issued a proclamation declaring June as National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Pride Month, saying that “advancing equality for the LGBTQI+ community is a top priority for my administration.”
The Biden campaign argues that Trump would take away LGBTQ rights if voters elect him to a second term. As president, Trump has banned transgender people from serving in the military, and as a candidate he has said he opposes gender-affirming care for children.
Yet former first lady Melania Trump recently led a fundraiser for the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates for LGBTQ inclusion in the Republican Party. The former president’s allies have also recently tried to ensure that the position on same-sex marriage laid out in the official Republican National Committee this election cycle is not too far-right.
The efforts appear aimed at not alienating voters in a close general election who are not as conservative on LGBTQ rights as the Republican base.
NBC News exit polls in the 2020 election showed Biden winning 64% of the LGBTQ vote, compared to Trump at 27%.
Wolf asserted that Biden has a better record and vision for delivering equality to voters than Trump, citing the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022 and the creation of rules to protect community members in schools and health care to protect.
“The Biden-Harris administration has appointed more than 200 openly LGBTQ people to serve in a variety of roles. That is really important,” said Wolf.
But even as Wolf fully embraces the Biden-Harris strategy, he recognizes that Biden has work to do in the queer community and will have to continue showing up.
“The Biden-Harris campaign has an incredible opportunity to go into communities and talk not only about the things they’ve been able to accomplish,” he said, “but also about their vision of what’s possible if we send them back to the White House.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
