LAS VEGAS -- Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization announced the endorsement of champions of equality running for the Nevada State Legislature and local office.

Decades of advocacy and hard work by LGBTQ advocates and elected leaders have made Nevada a national leader on LGBTQ equality. Today’s endorsement of 39 candidates for the Nevada State Legislature mark the next step of our efforts to support continued progress and elect as many pro-equality allies as possible to ensure all LGBTQ Nevadans have full legal equality.

“Nevada has been a leading state on LGBTQ rights thanks to the leadership of LGBTQ legislators and the advocacy of local organizations,” said HRC Nevada State Director Briana Escamilla. “With LGBTQ protections under threat by the Trump administration and in state houses across the country, now is not the time to let up. We need to ensure that the Nevada State Legislature remains a friend to the LGBTQ community and a national leader in advancing equality. Between now and November, we are laser focused on mobilizing the more than 127,000 LGBTQ Nevadans and 654,000 Equality Voters throughout the state to ensure these and other pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot are elected.”

HRC Endorsed Candidates include:

• Patricia Spearman (SD-1)
• Chris Brooks (SD-3)
• Dina Neal (SD-4)
• Kristee Watson (SD-5)
• Nicole Cannizzaro (SD-6)
• Roberta Lange (SD-7)
• Dallas Harris (SD-11)
• Wendy Jauregui-Jackins (SD-15)
• Elizabeth Becker (SD-18)
• Daniele Monroe Moreno (AD-1)
• Radhika Kunnel (AD-2)
• Selena TorresNV (AD-3)
• Connie Munk (AD-4)
• Brittney Miller (AD-5)
• Shondra Summers-Armstrong (AD-6)
• Cameron Miller (AD-7)
• Jason Frierson (AD-8)
• Steve Yeager (AD-9)
• Rochelle Nguyen (AD-10)
• Beatrice Duran (AD-11)
• Susan Martinez (AD-12)
• Maggie Carlton (AD-14)
• Howard Watts III (AD-15)
• Cecelia González (AD-16)
• Clara Thomas (AD-17)
• Venicia Considine (AD-18)
• David Orentlicher (AD-20)
• Elaine Marzola (AD-21)
• Sarah Peters (AD-24)
• Teresa Benitez Thompson (AD-27)
• Edgar Flores (AD-28)
• Lesley E. Cohen (AD-29)
• Natha Anderson (AD-30)
• Skip Daly (AD-31)
• Shannon Bilbray Axelrod (AD-34)
• Michelle Gorelow (AD-35)
• Shea Backus (AD-37)
• Sandra Jauregui (AD-85)
• Alexander Assefa (AD-42)
• Devon Reese (Reno City Council)
• Wendy Stolyarov (Sparks City Council)

In the 2018 midterms, HRC mobilized our grassroots army of 3.2 million members, supporters, and volunteers to work on behalf of pro-equality candidates and engage pro-equality voters primarily in six key states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This unprecedented grassroots mobilization worked to recruit and train volunteers, register and mobilize voters and grow the organization's political organizing efforts in order to pull the emergency brake on the hateful anti-LGBTQ agenda of the Trump-Pence administration and elect a Congress that would hold them accountable.

In 2020, our engagement and mobilization efforts have only deepened. In addition to our expansive volunteer network, HRC will have at least 51 full-time staff in seven priority states (Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin) and an additional 26 staff focused on a second tier of states. While in person organizing has been limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, HRC has embraced digital organizing, launching a new tool called TEAM allowing our broad network of volunteers and steering committees to engage their networks personally and hundreds of virtual phone banks and text banks to engage pro-equality voters even without the ability to interact in person.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.