On November 5, 2025, voters across the United States delivered a powerful message at the ballot box: divisive campaigns targeting transgender and LGBTQ Americans are not only out of step with the electorate, but also a losing strategy. In a night of historic firsts and sweeping Democratic victories, candidates who championed LGBTQ rights and inclusion triumphed over opponents who had banked heavily on anti-transgender rhetoric. The election results, as reported by GLAAD and corroborated by outlets like MSNBC and Philadelphia Gay News, mark a turning point in the nation’s political landscape—one where conviction and inclusivity outpaced fearmongering and scapegoating.
Virginia, often considered a bellwether for national trends, set the tone early in the evening. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat and former U.S. House member, was elected as the Commonwealth’s first woman governor, defeating Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by a decisive 13-point margin. According to MSNBC, Earle-Sears and her allies spent a staggering 57% of their campaign’s advertising budget on anti-transgender messaging, making it the single biggest focus of their media strategy. Yet, only 3% of Virginia voters cited support for transgender students as a top issue in their choice of governor, a fact that underscores just how little traction the topic had outside of political echo chambers.
Spanberger’s victory was not an isolated event. Democrats swept statewide offices in Virginia, with State Senator Ghazala Hashmi becoming the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the United States as Lt. Governor. Jason Jones made history as Virginia’s first Black Attorney General, flipping the seat from an incumbent known for misgendering transgender people and advocating for the denial of best-practice health care to transgender youth. All eight out LGBTQ candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates won their races, further cementing the state’s shift toward pro-equality governance.
The victories extended down the ballot and across the state. In Loudoun County, a national flashpoint for debates over transgender student rights, voters rejected anti-trans candidate Santos O. Muñoz Melendez. Instead, they elected April Moore Chandler and Ross C. Svenson, both vocal supporters of transgender rights. Svenson, who had previously represented trans students in legal battles, is now poised to shape education policy from within the school board. In neighboring Arlington County, Monique A. “Moe” Bryant, another pro-trans candidate, won her race in a landslide.
New Jersey echoed Virginia’s repudiation of anti-trans politics. Democrat Mikie Sherrill was elected governor, handily defeating Jack Ciattarelli, whose campaign centered on the forced outing of transgender students and opposition to gender-affirming care for youth. Like in Virginia, Ciattarelli’s team flooded the airwaves with ads warning of supposed dangers from LGBTQ+ visibility, but the tactic backfired. By the end of the night, Sherrill led by 13 points, an outcome that Garden State Equality and GLAAD called a clear rejection of divisive campaigning. Notably, only 2.4% of New Jersey voters said transgender rights were the top issue influencing their vote.
But perhaps the most symbolic victory came in New York City, where Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor. Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, first person of South Asian descent, and the youngest to hold the office in over a century, ran on an unapologetically pro-LGBTQ platform. His campaign included a $65 million investment pledge to support transgender health care, public support for Pride events, and a promise to declare New York an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city. In his rousing victory speech, Mamdani declared, “In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours too.”
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, herself a New York City native, responded to the night’s results by stating, “Today’s election results make one thing clear: Americans are rejecting divisive politics that target LGBTQ people and instead demanding leadership that focuses on the issues that matter for all Americans including affordability, family, and freedom.”
These victories were not limited to the East Coast. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court maintained its 5-2 majority, with each retained justice having a record of protecting LGBTQ+ rights, as reported by the Philadelphia Gay News. In California, the passage of Proposition 50 is poised to result in several anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans losing their seats, further shifting the state’s political landscape. Meanwhile, in Omaha, Nebraska, John Ewing, Jr., who campaigned with and for LGBTQ people, defeated the incumbent mayor and became the city’s first Black mayor—another rebuke to anti-trans tactics that had failed there as well.
Nationally, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund tracked a record 171 out LGBTQ candidates running in the 2025 General Election across dozens of states, the highest number ever for a non-federal election year. All eight out LGBTQ candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates won their races, and pro-trans candidates scored key victories in local school board and county elections. The pattern was unmistakable: when voters were presented with a choice between candidates who advocated for inclusion and those who leaned into fear-based messaging, inclusion prevailed.
Anti-trans campaign groups, most notably the American Principles Project, poured millions into races in Virginia and New Jersey, hoping to turn the tide with inflammatory ads. Yet, as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes observed, “She [Earle-Sears] thought this was a motivating issue and it did not work for her. And I do think it’s worth everyone kind of sitting with that a little bit, particularly because we’ve heard so much about how this is a wedge issue the Democrats are on the wrong side of… I think it’s pretty striking how central those ads and that message was to that campaign and how much that seems to have been thoroughly rebuked by voters.”
Trans writer Erin Reed summed up the mood among many advocates and voters: “Today is an absolute rebuke of anti-transgender politics, and a real sign that the anti-trans panic is fading.” For the first time in years, transgender Americans and their allies saw clear evidence that conviction on LGBTQ+ rights is not a liability but a winning proposition at the polls.
As the dust settles from Election Night 2025, one thing is certain: Americans across the political spectrum are increasingly unwilling to let fear and division dictate their choices, opting instead for leaders who promise fairness, dignity, and progress for all.
