Connecticut Is Fielding Six Openly Gay Republican Candidates In A Different Kind Of ‘Rainbow Wave’

Evie Fordham

Connecticut is fielding six openly gay Republican candidates for state General Assembly in a “rainbow wave” that contrasts with the LGBT candidates running as Democrats across the country.

The six General Assembly candidates are focusing on economic issues and say that they do not see the Trump administration as a threat to same-sex marriage, reported the Hartford Courant.

“I think that says a lot about Connecticut Republicans and how we’re different,” openly gay Republican candidate John Scott told the Hartford Courant. “Democrats like to paint the Republicans into a corner that we’re anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-everything and that’s just not true.”

Other candidates who make up the nationwide “rainbow wave” include progressives like Sharice Davids, the Democratic nominee for Kansas governor, and Christine Hallquist, the first openly transgender major party nominee for governor who is running as a Democrat in Vermont. More than 425 LGBT candidates are “seeking office this year at all levels of government,” according to the Hartford Courant.

Connecticut’s openly gay Republican candidates include financial services senior executive Mary Fay, health care director Shaun Mastroianni and Scott, a former state representative who lost his seat in 2016, reported the Hartford Courant.

“I think there’s a general assumption that if you are part of a disenfranchised group, the Democratic Party is going to be more helpful and supportive,” Fay told the Hartford Courant. “Republican values are still freedom, independence and success for everybody, but we value equality, too.”

The potency of Democrat identity politics is undercut by the diversity of Connecticut’s Republican General Assembly ticket, Republican consultant Liz Kurantowicz, who is working on the race, told the Hartford Courant.

“Connecticut Democrats can’t win on ideas,’” she said. “Voters have rejected their failed tax-and-spend policies. The only thing left in [their] playbook is identity politics, and we’re taking that off the table for them too.”

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