Ohio’s 2020 Primary Election Provides Victories for LGBTQ Community

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Candice Keller, Ohio State Representative known for blaming drag queens, gays, and President Obama for Dayton, Ohio 2019 shooting (Photo credit: Candice Keller’s state representative page)

Ohio’s 2020 Primary Election was supposed to be on March 27th but due to the coronavirus, it had to be postponed.  This prompted Ohio’s electoral process to go to an almost exclusively vote-by-mail system.  Ohio voters requested a ballot to be mailed to them to fill out and return by April 28th.  The results from Ohio’s primary election showed some promising progress for the Ohio LGBTQ community. 

Charmaine McGuffey, who was fired from her position in the Hamilton County Sherriff’s Office in 2017 because she was a lesbian and spoke out against excessive force used by officers, defeated Democratic incumbent Jim Neil, the man who fired her. McGuffey will face Bruce Hoffbauer, the Republican candidate for Hamilton County Sheriff, in November.  If elected, McGuffey will not only be the first woman to be sheriff in Hamilton County but also first LGBT individual elected to the county position.

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Charmaine McGuffey, first openly gay woman to run for Ohio’s Hamilton County Sheriff (Photo Credit: Charmaine McGuffey’s Twitter Page)

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Candice Keller, the Ohio State representative who was in the news last August for blaming same-sex marriage and drag queens as well as a few other things for the mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio that claimed the lives 10 people, lost in the GOP primary for Ohio State Senate District 4 to her colleague in the Ohio House, George Lang.

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The infamous tweet from Keller where she blames drag queens as well as others for the Dayton shooting in 2019. (Photo courtesy of screenshot from Equality Ohio)

Daniel Kilgore, openly gay candidate for Ohio’s 15th District in the United States House of Representatives, lost in the primary to opponent Joel Newby.

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In an analysis for Equality Ohio, Dominic Detwiler explains:

LGBTQ equality is a winning position in Ohio, with 71% support for nondiscrimination protections among Ohioans and majorities of every demographic group and subgroup.

Detwiler also detailed that all the incumbent candidates in the Ohio House who co-sponsored the Ohio Fairness Act won their primary.

More from Equality Ohio’s analysis can be found at https://www.equalityohio.org/2020-ohio-primary-analysis/.

Source: FOX19, Cleveland Scene, Equality Ohio, PRRI

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