Today, the Human Rights Campaign announced the endorsement of former state Supreme Court Justice Pat Timmons-Goodson in her bid for Congress in North Carolina’s Eighth Congressional District.

In 2019, the U.S. House made history by passing the Equality Act -- crucial federal legislation that would finally guarantee explicit protections for LGBTQ people under our nation's existing civil rights laws -- for the first time. However, despite the support for the bill from over 70% of Americans, incumbent Rep. Richard Hudson voted “no” and Sen. Mitch McConnell has refused to bring the bill up for a vote. We must protect and expand the House’s pro-equality majority to ensure that when we break the Senate’s logjam, we have a House ready and able to move forward and make the Equality Act the law of the land.

“Justice Pat Timmons-Goodson will not just be an ally to our community but a true advocate,” said Alphonso David, HRC President. “In 29 states across the country, including North Carolina, LGBTQ people are at risk for discrimination in many areas of life. This patchwork of protections is completely untenable. Justice Pat Timmons-Goodson not only understands that, but has committed to making the change we need by passing the Equality Act. The Human Rights Campaign is proud to endorse Justice Timmons-Goodson and will work in the coming months to help mobilize the 1.5 million Equality Voters across the state of North Carolina to elect her and other pro-equality leaders up and down the ballot.”

“Throughout my tenure as a judge and member of the US Commission on Civil Rights, I worked to protect the rights of everyone living in our country,” said Justice Pat Timmons-Goodson. “At a time when so many rights are yet denied based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or zip code, I am proud to join the Human Rights Campaign in fighting for progress. I appreciate their endorsement of our campaign.”

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, including North Carolina. 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.